by Art Gillis

In the past couple of years, I have noticed that the bank tech business is looking more like the shape of three points. After I thought about it, I realized it’s been a triangle for a long time, it’s just that it hadn’t appeared that way in my binary, one-on-one world until recently.

Here’s some evidence of a Triangle World:

• Bankers think they run their business for their customers and stockholders, but they really run it as agents for the regulators. New regulations will burden the good guys, while the bad guys will still do the crimes. And Congressmen will be reelected because they appear to be doing good deeds for the public. One loss (banks), two wins (Congressmen and crooks).
• Tech vendors supply solutions to banks, but sometimes delivery goes by way of Bangalore. One loss (banks still pay full price), two wins (IT vendors and Indian companies).
• Employees work for companies, and they get honorable mention in every annual report, but in fact, employees work for the “czar of the P&L” whose “business commandments” include - If someone can do it cheaper than you (where cheaper is $15K vs. $80K per year), you’re gone. One loss (U.S. employees), two wins (companies and Indian employees).
• An AOL customer from the Bronx calls 1-800 to resolve a glitch, but the customer service rep is wondering why her company hadn’t taught her this strange language that not only isn’t Hindi, but it isn’t the American version of English. Yo baby, whassup? Three losses.
• More fingers have been pointed since technology was invented than ever before. A banker files a complaint about terminal response time, and the prime IT vendor points to the telecom provider. Glitches are the other guy’s problem, like the best-of-breed third party that the bank chose over the IT vendor’s offering. Or the bank’s employee who was accumulating vendor releases to do one major update to save time. Or the bank’s purchasing agent who bought refurbished PCs from the Internet rather than guaranteed factory-fresh Dells that give the IT vendor a handsome commission. Or the reader/sorter vendor in Boston who tells his customer the spare part is at their West Coast supply depot, while the vendor in Los Angeles tells his customer the spare part is at the East Coast supply depot. Three losses.
• An online consumer complains to her bank that account balances are out of sync with her book balances. The first question the bank’s customer service rep asks after 18 prompts, “Who is your Internet Service Provider?” Three losses.

It appears that the Triangle World has one common characteristic - money. How much more can we make. How much more can we keep. And how much more can we flaunt in the faces of our evaluators. Third-parties do have a value, but they add a lot more complexity which will cause reduced productivity and finally - less money. Whatever the shape of the world, it seems we’re still losing something.

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