Any regulated bank providing mortgage programs or other financial services must regularly secure, manage and maintain client and transaction-related information. But there are challenges around processes and capabilities that are common for organizations in this sector. In this article, we cover...
- a few common information management challenges banks can face, and
- how implementing the right solution can solve these challenges.
Our customer, Haventree Bank, experienced and solved some of these these challenges with Collabspace. We've got their customer success story available for free download, below!
Common Financial Industry Challenges
1. Different Approaches with Different Systems
Many financial institutions are still using physical storage, file shares, and manual processes. Using different systems can lead to more IT support being required. Disparate solutions in place can create a ‘band-aid’ patching effect that can result in disjointed and sometimes tedious processes between various departments and does not allow for consistent control or streamlined support.
2. Manual Processes Vulnerable to Human Error
When records management processes are manual and require several people to be involved in each step, there is typically a high chance of error. This approach not only risks error but costs time, including the time needed to review content items one by one.
3. Lack of Adequate Search & Discovery
With the multiple systems used, there are often search gaps, making content discoverability a challenge in employees’ day-to-day.
Lacking accurate search capabilities of Email, OneDrive, SharePoint and other common source systems limits team members in their ability to quickly find, collaborate and process this type of content.
How to Address These Challenges
1. Transition to Unified and Consistent Records Management and Compliance Programs.
Implementing to a data lake cloud solution, such as Collabspace, streams content from your go-to sources (including email, files shares and physical records) to provide the RM team with content retention, automated workflows, discoverability, and more functionality to streamline their processes. This is also a faster approach if you have multiple systems on the go, as in many cases, because you can leave the content where it is and rely on 2-way syncing to employ automated retention actions in the background.
In addition, Collabspace was built with compliance in mind, ensuring that financial institutions can remain compliant with stringent industry standards, such as SEC 17a-4.
2. Use Automated Features for Increased Employee Agency
With previous manual processes, there could be constant follow-up between teams during reviews, approvals and audits. But with the right solution, employees get automation, more features, and guidelines to swiftly comply with audits regarding content retention. For example, the right solution will automatically categorize and classify a content type (such as contracts or HR/employee files) so they can be appropriately recalled in a search (instead of having to add manual metadata).
Using the right tool allows teams to evolve and modernize their internal processes by empowering departments to complete procedures themselves for necessary access, agency, and accountability. Appropriate access permissions can be delegated so teams will no longer have to circle back to the RM or IT departments for approval or to find a document, freeing up time on both sides.
3. Access Advanced Search Capabilities Across all Content
Collabspace allows staff of financial institutions, such as Haventree Bank, to search across their go-to platforms from one place for unified results. Thanks to automatic indexing and text extraction of OCR and audio/video transcriptions, employees can easily search content specific to relevant users, whether emails, documents, PDFs, images, meeting recordings, or any other data type.
Conclusion
While banks and other financial institutions may face common challenges around manual and siloed processes, inconsistency and lack of advanced search, implementing a data lake cloud solution can provide them with a holistic, centralized platform that archives both structured and unstructured content from their primary data sources. The right one even streamlines your physical records management.
All of this ensures compliance with both records management and financial industry standards and a smoother, more streamlined day-to-day for teams so they can maintain their focus on providing their clientele with the best financial solutions.
Our client, Haventree, tackled and conquered their RM and IT challenges with Collabspace! To read their customer success report, download the free case study below. Also, feel free to read our other educative articles for finance (such as about SEC17a-4), and contact us with your questions.
