In-depth

Opening the vaults: how banks could lead the way with big data

CapGemini suggests financial services firms could be among the big beneficiaries of big data. If they learn to use it

24 Apr 2014

Missed opportunity

This might be a missed opportunity for the banks, but it offers lessons for wider business too especially, in the reasons banks are not making the best of their data.

Banks, too, face problems in extracting data from legacy systems, and moving it to their analytics platforms. The sheer volume of information supposedly, an advantage of big data is a barrier too. It takes too long to process.

CapGemini's research found that the biggest stumbling block to using data more effectively was the way that banks operated in silos, with each part of the organisation keeping a tight hold of its data. This, in turn, makes it harder to form that much-sought "360 degree" view of the customer.

Financial institutions also lack the skills to process and analyse these new, larger and broader data sets: 40 per cent of banks said skills were an issue.

To make better use of their data, CapGemini advices banks to move away from seeing "data as an IT asset to a key asset for decision making" and that they invest now in building up analytics skills. The result should be smarter and more customer-friendly banking and it is advice that applies outside the financial services sector too.

Stephen Pritchard is a contributing editor at IT Pro.