The Forgotten Power of Expense Management

Financial institutions across the spectrum, whether it be banks, credit unions, or wealth management firms, are beginning to face a challenge that threatens their very survival.  

Various headlines paint a sobering picture: 

Moody’s Cut’s Ratings of 10 US banks and puts some big names on downgrade watch 
Credit card delinquencies surged in 2023, indicating ‘financial stress’ 
High interest rates are getting more challenging for even the biggest bank

In this environment of uncertainty and volatility, the financial services industry is face-to-face with a host of pressing questions like: 

How can we boost profit margins amidst shrinking returns and rising costs? 
What inefficiencies lurk within our operations, hindering our ability to adapt and thrive? 
In our pursuit of cost-cutting measures, how do we strike a balance between efficiency gains and maintaining exceptional customer experience? 
Are our automation solutions truly optimized for efficiency and scalability, or are they adding complexity to our processes? 
Above all, how do we ensure a seamless and satisfying customer experience while implementing cost-saving initiatives? 

As institutions begin to grapple with these questions, the imperative to tighten belts and optimize operations becomes increasingly urgent. With labor costs skyrocketing, profits dwindling, and losses mounting, the need for transformative solutions becomes undeniable. 

Navigating the Challenges: Meeting the Imperative for Change 

Our experts stand at the forefront of innovation, offering bespoke expense management solutions tailored to fit the unique needs of any financial institution.  

Our approach is grounded in the belief that significant efficiency gains can be achieved through process automation and digitization, particularly in the middle- and back– offices where manual processes often hinder operational agility and where banks often under-invest. 

Uncovering Inefficiencies: A Comprehensive Approach 

Your journey toward operational excellence begins with a comprehensive business assessment, delving deep into the intricacies of the institution’s operations to unearth hidden inefficiencies and pinpoint opportunities for improvement. Through this rigorous process, we prioritize initiatives that promise the greatest return on investment, ensuring that every effort is strategically aligned with the institution’s overarching goals. 

Streamlining Processes: Optimizing Operations for Success 

Central to our approach is the optimization of headcount through the streamlining of labor-intensive tasks and the elimination of redundant steps. By harnessing the power of automation technologies and advanced analytics, we empower businesses to reallocate resources towards high-value activities, driving efficiency gains and cost savings across the board. 

Harnessing Technology: Accelerating Transformation 

Leveraging state-of-the-art automated process analysis tools and AI, we accelerate time-to-value and streamline operational reporting, enabling financial institutions to make data-driven decisions with confidence. Our solutions not only enhance operations but also elevate the overall customer experience, ensuring that cost-saving measures do not come at the expense of client satisfaction. 

Proven Success: Transforming Operations, One Institution at a Time 

Our track record speaks volumes, with numerous clients, from global banks to community credit unions, voicing their success.

Whether it’s revolutionizing workflows or optimizing processes, our expense management solutions have consistently delivered tangible results, driving efficiency, profitability, and customer satisfaction. We have saved our clients millions of dollars through smart automation, supply chain gap elimination, system consolidation, and reduced manual work. 

Enhancing Workflows through a Strategic Expense Management

Our client needed to improve the efficiency of its workflow as it relied on multiple, manual back-end systems. We knew it needed a modern, enterprise-wide automation solution. Our team of experts leveraged an IBM tool to update and migrate legacy workflows to a unified enterprise workflow automation platform that supported 15 diverse business processes at once.   

As a result of our work, the client’s accounts per employee grew by 5% annually, U.S.-based institutional and retail account openings were expedited, and processing time was reduced by 50% and 30%.  Their customers experienced shorter wait times and it benefited from enhanced processes. 

Automation Strategies Lead to a Market Advantage 

A client came to us wanting to infuse automation and AI into its back-office operations to reduce costs and manual effort across the business.  We recognized the actions that needed to take place so that this effort could be accelerated. Our team developed a roadmap and automation center of excellence and built a solution using RPA, NLP, ML, and BPM to drive end-to-end back-office processing automation. 

Through our partnership, the client experienced a 92% reduction in loan processing time, saving customers headaches and giving it a strategic market advantage it didn’t have previously. 

Charting a Course Toward a Brighter Future 

As the financial industry continues to evolve, the need for innovative solutions has never been greater. At Perficient, we are committed to helping financial institutions thrive in the face of adversity, empowering them to navigate the challenges of today and build a brighter future for tomorrow. 

Contact us today to embark on a journey toward greater efficiency, profitability, and customer satisfaction.  

Together, let’s harness the transformative power of optimizing processes and leaning out expenses to ensure that your company delivers the customer experience and profit margins needed in both good times and challenging ones. 

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