Financial services and property sector: how to achieve operational excellence

Most companies in the financial services and property sector consider operations to be crucial to the company's success. This applies in particular to process efficiency, the digital customer experience and reducing the workload of employees, asour study "Operational Excellence as the key to successful digital transformation", which we conducted together with the market research and consulting firm Lünendonk, shows.

The management of one hundred companies from the banking, insurance, asset management and real estate sectors were surveyed.

One of the remarkable results is that only half of those surveyed stated that they have already fully integrated operations into the value chain and that it is therefore not delivering the desired value contribution.

This includes the fact that many are also not fully achieving or even missing their digitalisation targets in terms of operational excellence. In fact, every third company surveyed feels threatened by competitors that are further along in their digital transformation and therefore also better positioned in their processes.

One of the main hurdles is often a lack of data interoperability: there is a lack of processes and technologies that allow different systems, applications and organisations to seamlessly exchange and use data. Another challenge is the often still strong functional separation of individual operational units. Only a third of respondents state that they have already dissolved hierarchical structures and manage operational units through cross-functional teams.

One thing is clear: in the financial services and property sector, there is a tension between expectations regarding the digital maturity of operational functions and the status quo.

To counteract this, the companies concerned are planning numerous measures, as our study shows. Many want to place a stronger focus on customer and employee needs as well as user-centred and digital processes in the future. In addition, process governance and digital data management are to be improved.

However, this can only be achieved on the basis of effective communication and collaboration. It is therefore also important to strengthen the necessary employee skills and to optimise the use of technology and systems for automation and artificial intelligence.