Digital Process Automation: The Superpower Modernizing Financial Services

Many financial institutions suffer from repetitive-information complex. Customers wonder: how many times do they need to enter the same information to open an account or get customer support?

Tech leaders find it just as vexing. Gathering data can feel like it’s 1999 — so many silos and disconnected systems, many still paper-based. It’s astounding that the everyday enterprise uses 1,295 cloud services, on average, to break down information silos, according to a 2019 report. Getting to integrated systems is a difficult, and time-consuming challenge. But well worth the effort.

Growth-minded industry leaders know consumers expect seamless transactions, regardless of the channel they’re using. Whether you are in wealth management, retail banking, or insurance, financial institutions need seamless access to the right data in context — and the ability to act on that data. Simply put, you need workflow orchestration right in your CRM (customer relationship management platform). That’s the secret to ending the swivel chair whiplash — abrupt jumping from screen-to-screen and system-to-system to deliver services intelligently.

Digital process automation (DPA) takes your business to the next level; it’s the next step in business process automation and fills the gaps in the road to meeting the digital imperative with a no-code/low-code solution. For customers, it means better experiences that cure repetitive-information complex.

Case studies in digital process automation and workflow orchestration

Let’s take a look at some of the top ways digital process automation can simplify and speed up transactions while eliminating app clutter through reusable, rules-based automation.

Opening a bank account

If there were still Victorians living in this day and age, they might pull out the fainting couch for the typical bank account onboarding. In the modern age, people don’t like it very much either. Digital process automation helps streamline the process, within regulatory bounds, by enabling a guided conversation to help bankers get to know customers more efficiently. Who doesn’t want to be understood? It’s the basis for every relationship and the data processing engine helps bankers gain insights into the best recommendations and next steps for customers.

Disputing a transaction on a debit or credit card

Customers who call with a problem are often anxious. Bumping worried callers from support person to support person (who may repeat the same questions) isn’t reassuring and makes everyone feel dissatisfied with the interactions. With the help of digital process automation, financial firms can eliminate the repetition and offer solutions in real-time. They can even generate documents to confirm what happened and calculate refunds and credits. One call, one person, one activity stream. That’s possible only because service reps see information from multiple sources in one actionable component, making for more empathetic conversations that produce fast results.

Integrating credit checks without customer coding

How often do you need to grab a credit score as part of a customer transaction? Until now, IT or a Salesforce Administrator would need to encode rules related to the credit check for each process needing a credit check. With digital process automation, you can set up a decision table with a simple “if this, then that” function. And you can do it via declarative statements with clicks, not code, to configure all the rules involving credit checks.

Increasing speed to market and meeting reuse priorities

Canada Life says its move to the DPA low-code/no-code solution reduced their need for hard-to-find talent and is helping them move faster than ever. Seventy percent of the solutions the company used in its recent digital transformation across its group benefits, life, and retirement savings were out-of-the-box. OmniStudio, a key component in DPA, was instrumental, Susan Michalik, Canada Life vice president of digital operations and planning, explained at the Dreamforce+ session on innovation. “OmniStudio has been a catalyst for our technology modernization strategy, speed to market, and reuse priorities.”

The connective tissue: Digital process automation and Financial Services Cloud

DPA in conjunction with Financial Services Cloud makes your Customer 360 view more powerful by orchestrating end-to-end workflows, including document generation. You’ll discover four key benefits:

1. True customer-centricity

Unify lines of business around a 360-degree view of each household and business to understand each relationship in-depth. Discover new connections and personalize every interaction. You won’t be able to meet the expectations of Netflix subscribers and the TikTok generation without it. So, that’s first.

2. Declarative, low code, end-to-end workflow tools

Get the power to remember rules as part of work orchestration. Omnistudio Data Mapper and OmniStudio Integration Procedures streamline processes for low volume actions in context — whether it’s a credit check or fraud detection.

3. Data in the context of the digital experience

No more hopping from screen to screen and system to system. OmniStudio helps you see all the information you need from multiple sources in one place.

4. An improved experience layer

Get a simple branded user interface (UI) that takes just a click to configure and deploy using Flexcards. Build it once so the experience is good enough for both employees and customers. 

Digital process automation is the missing link in workflow orchestration

DPA is the missing piece that brings workflow orchestration to your CRM. The result? A more cohesive customer experience, customer retention, and better customer insights. We’re looking forward to making the lives of our financial services clients of every size easier and easier. Next on our road map: templates that incorporate DPA for the most commonly faced service needs in the discovery process with clients.

It’s what customers have been waiting for. Financial service leaders surveyed in the Salesforce 2020 Trends in Financial Services study ranked automating processes #4 among the top priorities for the next two years. Learn more about the benefits of DPA.