According to a recent report from Gartner, the explosive growth of apps is causing “significant challenges” for the banking industry.
But, fortunately, there is a mobile solution for some of them.
Banking CIOs, CMOs and line of business (LOB) heads face two key challenges, the Gartner report summary explains.
The first is that the visibility of customer banking apps in public stores is decreasing due to the total number of apps available. The second is that visibility of apps on bank websites is decreasing as the number of apps a bank deploys increases.
“Left unaddressed, these two challenges and others could really have a negative impact on banking revenues and customer experience,” said Kristen Moyer, research vice president at Gartner. “Banks can use banking app stores to improve app discovery but only if the added cost and complexity are warranted.”
In light of these challenges and opportunities, Gartner advises CIOs, CMOs and LOB heads to focus on a number of actions. The first is to evaluate the potential need for “a banking app store.”
“The two most important variables in evaluating the need for a banking app store are the total number of apps and the presence (or lack) of an application programming interface (API) platform,” Gartner explains. “The more apps a bank has deployed, the more challenging it becomes for users to discover the right app for them. Public Web APIs deployed to third-party developers, customers, partners, employees and others will serve as a multiplier to the number of apps deployed by the bank itself.”
By 2016, Gartner expects to see about 25 percent of large banks deploy banking app stores to improve app discovery, user experience and collaboration. As more banks deploy app stores, it will put competitive pressure on those that do not.
