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The Rise of Data in the C Suite Data is on the C Suite agenda – enabling

customer intimacy and competitive advantage

Competition is fierce and unpredictable. Today’s leaders focus on the customer, innovate and partner to thrive.

AIIA Financial Services Thought Leadership Paper: Rise of Data in the C Suite

A white-‐paper prepared for the AIIA Financial Services Innovation Group

by IBM Australia 18 March 2016

Authored By

Mark Ebeling IBM Australia

Editorial Contributors Bruce Wren Swipe

Christian Bieck Institute for Business Value

Ahmed Fatah

IBM Australia

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The AIIA wishes to thank their Financial Services Thought Leadership partners, Bartier Perry. Bartier Perry is a commercial law firm that assists clients in the Information and Communications Technology sector on a wide range of commercial transactions

Download the AIIA Financial Services White Papers www.aiia.com.au

AIIA Head Office: 39 Torrens Street, Braddon, 2612 ACT p: 02 6281 9444 e: [email protected] w: www.aiia.com.au

White paper Rise of Data in the C Suite

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About AIIA

The Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) is the nation’s peak industry body for the technology sector. AIIA sets the strategic direction of the industry, influences public policy and provides members with productivity tools, advisory services and market intelligence to accelerate their business growth.

AIIA member companies employ 100,000 Australians, generate combined annual revenues of more than $40 billion and export more than $2 billion in goods and services each year. With member companies right across the country, from every sector of the industry and representing every size of company, AIIA is truly the ICT industry's association of choice.

About AIIA's Financial Services Network

AIIA established the Financial Services Business Network for executives interested in technology-‐led innovation in the financial services industry. Join us to:

• Understand the innovation opportunities in financial services • Facilitate networking between the innovators in financial services and the suppliers of technology

solutions • Discuss and create technology-‐led business opportunities in financial services and facilitate deal making.

Join our LinkedIn Group

Thought Leadership Papers

In partnership with specialist companies from across the ICT industry, AIIA releases regular Thought Leadership pieces in the financial services arena.

This thought leadership piece is downloadable from the AIIA web-‐site at:

http://www.aiia.com.au/?page=fs_thought_leaders


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Table of Contents Authored By .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 0 Editorial Contributors ............................................................................................................................................................................... 0

About AIIA ....................................................................................................................................................................... 1

About AIIA's Financial Services Network ....................................................................................................................... 1

Thought Leadership Papers ............................................................................................................................................ 1

Introduction -‐ the rise of data in the C-‐suite ................................................................................................................... 3

Customers are tough ....................................................................................................................................................... 3

Competition is fierce -‐ the threat of ‘Uberisation’ is real ................................................................................................ 5

Responding to challenges – focus on the customer, innovate and partner .................................................................... 5

Focus on the customer -‐ enabled by analytics ................................................................................................................ 6

Innovation -‐ transform and drive cultural change (innovate like a start up) ................................................................... 9

New partnerships -‐ fintech investment ......................................................................................................................... 10

Inhibitors -‐ skills gaps ..................................................................................................................................................... 11

Essentials -‐ culture, governance, security and regulation ............................................................................................. 12

Future -‐ cognitive and advanced analytics .................................................................................................................... 13

Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................................................... 14

About AIIA ................................................................................................................................................................... 15


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INTRODUCTION -‐ THE RISE OF DATA IN THE C-‐SUITE

Data and analytics are firmly on the C-Suite agenda. Leaders of successful organisations have raised the profile of data as a critical resource in the battle to be relevant to their customers, to meet competitive threats and to respond to changing regulatory responsibilities. This paper will examine the three leading motivations for the attention data and analytics receives by the executive team.

• Customers are tough, discerning and their loyalty must be earned. Data is delivering deeper customer relationships with insight from analytics.

• Competition is fierce and increasingly leaders are unable to predict its emergence. Data is fuelling innovation and is becoming the engine room for growth.

• Finance Industry regulation is on the rise and there is no sign that the regulatory oversight will diminish in the future. In this climate sophisticated organisations have moved beyond dealing with data volume alone, they are pragmatically managing data governance and data security concerns.

The Australian Finance Industry response to these competitive pressures should follow these three dimensions:

1. Renewed focus on customer centricity, enabled by data and analytics

2. Drive internal transformation and cultural change programs required to innovate like a start up. Data and analytics are central to enabling and responding to the innovation culture

3. New partnerships, in a world of emergent competition, forming new partnerships including Fintech investment, is an important part of the strategy. Leveraging data in the context of new partnerships brings its own challenges.

What is the place of new technologies enabling business response to customers and competition? Is cognitive computing and machine learning still science fiction or ready for business?

CUSTOMERS ARE TOUGH

“I don’t see the difference between my bank and all the others.”1

Most readers will be very familiar with these kind of observations from both millennials and generation z consumers. It’s a tough market, compared with the finance industries traditional base where consumer loyalty was almost a certainty and switching products and brands was almost unheard of. For these new generations - the question of relevance is fundamental.

1 http://www.millennialdisruptionindex.com/wp-‐content/uploads/2014/02/MDI_Final.pdf

33%

71%

of millennials believe they don’t need a bank at all 1

of millennials would rather go to the dentist than listen to what banks are saying 1


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This global phenomenon has caused leading organisations to re-examine their client interactions, products and approach to this market. Business leaders must deliver differentiated client experience through all channels. It is critically important to deliver on this aspiration.

According to a 2015 IBV survey data, 81% of business leaders will rely on digital channels and 68% will seek to interact with their customers as individuals rather than a broad demographic, see Figure 1 below.

Figure 1 Growth in digital interaction and customers as individuals 2

The desire to create an individualised and tailored experience is a tenant for leading businesses. Mike Frueh from the VA Home Loan Program3 calls this out.

We’re investing in mobile technologies specifically to create individualised, tailored experiences based on each customer’s situation

or anticipated needs.” Mike Frueh, Director of VA Home Loan Program3

Mike’s observation only represents half of the story. Of course, the focus is on the interaction with the customer. This interaction is only made meaningful if there is data and analytics providing insight.

2 IBV Study Redefining Boundaries ibm.com/iibv 3 IBV study The Customer-‐activated Enterprise ibm.com/iibv

68%

Redraw the rules of engagement Still, these reservations haven’t blunted recognition that different tactics are required to thrive in the new competitive environment. The members of the C-suite know greater efficiency, alone, isn’t enough to deal with amorphous opponents capable of altering direction almost overnight. Fending off such assailants requires a much bolder approach.

Most CxOs anticipate changing the way their organizations engage with customers. They’re especially interested in creating more digital, individualized experiences (see Figure 5). As the CEO of a British utility noted, “We now have the tools to understand 90 percent of our customers, but we need to get to segment-of-one understanding.”

Figure 5

Personal touch: CxOs anticipate more digital and individual engagement with customers by 2020

81%8%

2013 68%20%

2015

66%21% 2015

no change

19%

increase

2013 54%33%

22%

More focus on customers as individuals

More focus on customers as segments

More face-to-face interaction

More digital/virtual

interaction

increase

no change

“The app concept – that there are millions of developers who can convert mobile and wearable devices into completely new and innovative tools – will transform big business.”

Asher Yaqub Khan, Chief Commercial Officer, Ufone, Pakistan

8

of millennials say the way they transact money will be totally different

1


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COMPETITION IS FIERCE -‐ THE THREAT OF ‘UBERISATION’ IS REAL

Three to five years ago business leaders could see the competition coming. The biggest risk was the arrival of a new competitor with a better or cheaper product or service. In this domain, it was ‘good enough’ to deliver incremental improvements to the existing products, or to be a fast follower.

Now competitive threats come from left field - Uber is held up as the exemplar for the new world – the global taxi industry was unprepared for this marriage of a “sharing economy” and clever IT to universally bypass local regulations and threaten a 60+ year old taxi industry. The threat of “Uberisation” – deepens the need for better client intelligence and reach – for some organisations it could be a matter of survival.

“Millennials - believe innovation will come from outside the industry4, as do more than half of the IBV study respondents surveyed.

These new challengers come in two forms – new permutations of old industries and digital invaders.

New permutations of old industries include examples like the marriage of consumer electronics and healthcare with digital exercise tracker Fitbit. Others are more obtuse such as - Agrochemical giant Monsanto which is mutating into an IT firm to deliver real-time tools for farmers to maximize crop yields.

Todays leaders are concerned about outsiders invading their patch.

“We used to look at The Four Seasons as a competitor,” the CMO of a hotel business in the United Arab Emirates, noted. “Now we look at

disruptors like Airbnb.”5

It is the ‘digital invaders’ that bring the greatest concern for established business. These companies focus on a key part of the value chain and execute well targeted, innovative and light weight capabilities which disintermediate incumbent providers. The size and scale of these companies can vary dramatically as can their impact on finance sector bottom lines.

RESPONDING TO CHALLENGES – FOCUS ON THE CUSTOMER, INNOVATE AND PARTNER

The Australian finance industry response to these challenges should follow three dimensions:

1. Focus on the customer - enabled by analytics

2. Innovation - transform and drive cultural change (innovate like a start up)

3. New partnerships - fintech investment

Each of these responses brings particular challenges for the data and analytics domain.

4 www.millennialdisruptionindex.com/wp-‐content/uploads/2014/02/MDI_Final.pdf 5 IBV Study Redefining Boundaries ibm.com/iibv

52% of banking and financial markets CXOs expect more competition from other/new industries


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FOCUS ON THE CUSTOMER -‐ ENABLED BY ANALYTICS

Customer Experience Management is one of the top priorities of the finance industry. In this year’s IBV survey we see analytics investment is focused primarily on customer centricity. Over half of the survey respondents report the customer as the primary reason for the use of analytics.

Driving operational improvements (22% in Australia and New Zealand) and Finance/Risk (27% in Australia and New Zealand) management make up the remainder. It’s worth noting that the percentage of respondents who cited financial / risk management as their primary objective for analytics grew significantly over the previous results (from a low base of 7%). This aligns well with observations on increasing regulatory pressure covered later in this paper.

Figure 2 Primary objectives for the use of analytics as reported by IBV survey respondents 6

The industry is moving forward with big data and analytics, they are transitioning from experimentation, to driving value with an integrated approach. In one sense Big Data is not so BIG any more – “its just how we do data“.

It could be argued that 2014 was the year Big Data became pervasive in the finance industry. The KPMG study referenced below describes 4 characteristics of big data - Volume, Velocity, Variety and Validity. These themes echoed across the industry through the year with other industry leaders such as IBM using different V’s-Volume, Variety ,Velocity and Veracity (Veracity meaning trust worthiness and integrity of the data). The core message was the same – enormous volumes of data which are both at our disposal and under our stewardship.

Figure 3 Big Data's four V's 7

6 Analytics: The upside of disruption. IBM Institute for Business Value 2015 Analytics research study. ibm.biz/2015analytics


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The same KPMG article8 went on to suggest - “Almost 70% of all C-level executives say that data and analytics will be important to revenue growth going forward and 55% say they have already changed their business strategy to meet the challenges of big data.”

The importance of analytics is further highlighted in the 2015 survey data below which shows that analytics is being used to get ahead or keep up with competition in both the global survey results on the left of the charts and the ANZ market results on the right of the figure below.

This 2015 IBV research shows 93% of Australian and New Zealand respondents report that data and analytics keeps their organisation ‘on par with’ or ‘ahead of their local or global competitors’.

Only 7% of cross-industry respondents report data and analytics has no impact on their organisational competitiveness.

Mature organisations have responded to this challenge by introducing the Chief Data Officer role which instantiates the data domain in the executive ranks.

The CDO has historically been focused on operational maturity, treating data as an organisations asset. Mature CDOs are evolving the role to directly pursue new markets and bring competitive advantage for their organisation.

The finance industry has done an outstanding job bringing the data from a variety of sources to one place in some form of ‘Data Lake’ or a ‘Data Harbour’ as one leading Sydney Bank has named it. In the last twelve to eighteen months big data has moved from a base of experimentation to a resource which is bringing mainstream value to their organisations. This is illustrated in Figure 5 by the growth in the number of respondents in the Execute or Engage phases below.

7 KPMG Frontiers in Finance – June 2015 Publication number: 132368-G, www.kpmg.com/frontiersinfinan 8 KPMG Frontiers in Finance – June 2015 Publication number: 132368-G, www.kpmg.com/frontiersinfinan

Figure 4 Competitive Impact of Analytics as reported by respondents 1


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Martin Spratt, ClearCDO speaking at the CDO forum in Sydney in February made the observation that the themes of big data: ‘may have been over hyped’ and that ‘we will in the future, just talk about data, its just how we do data’.9

The industry experience suggests that Big Data can be managed from a volume viewpoint. The industry has grappled with the complexity of managing diverse data sources as input to our data lakes. There are still development opportunities to deliver real value broadly to all parts of the organisation.

This is particularly true for those who are close to the customer.

“Companies are getting really good at collecting data, but they are having big problems connecting it. Analyzing a single source of data will

never drive real value; it takes multiple streams of data to get real insight,” states Nova Spivack, CEO of bottlenose observed in a recent

KPMG study.10

To date this opportunity has been missed - the actionable insights and decision support possibilities are not yet being effectively leveraged across finance organisations. This missed opportunity is borne out by an August 2015, TNS survey of marketing professionals. The survey found respondents are finding it difficult to develop insight and value from the data they have available because of the multiple sources involved. The end users need better ‘systems’ to support the discovery of insights.

“the volume and variety of data is obscuring valuable insights and making it harder for businesses to use it to their advantage.

9 http://www.chiefdataofficersydney.com/ Interview 10 KPMG Frontiers in Finance – June 2015 Publication number: 132368-G, www.kpmg.com/frontiersinfinan

Figure 5 Big data adoption over time as reported by IBV study respondents. 6


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.. 70% are unable to integrate multiple data sources – such as social media, blogs, website traffic and search data -‐ leaving them unsure

what action to take..

… almost three quarters (70%) of marketers admit that they find it difficult to integrate data from different sources. With so much data

available, marketers know they should be able to make decisions in real-‐time, but many are struggling to integrate traditional and digital

measurements.” 11 The implication for the data domain is that the delivery of insight needs to be integrated, as well as fast. The speed of innovation must accelerate and agile methods like those employed successfully at Suncorp, will be required to deliver return on investment incrementally. This will be even more true if the goal of delivering a ‘sense and respond capability’ tailored for each customer interaction is to be realised.

“..it comes down to a focus on the customer -‐ better understanding of the customer better understanding of their needs and the ability to predict how the organisation can fulfill those needs in a proactive sense… in a broad sense its like a sense and respond capability. 12

-‐ Adrian McKnight, CDO, Suncorp

Anticipating and adapting to changes in customer expectations will become a success factor as customers ratchet up their view of the world, reset by each new experience - ‘my last best experience, is now the standard I expect’.

INNOVATION -‐ TRANSFORM AND DRIVE CULTURAL CHANGE (INNOVATE LIKE A START UP)

All major Australian banks and the leading insurers have embarked on programs to adopt agile methodologies and embrace a culture of innovation using techniques like ‘design thinking ‘. Many of the leading organisations (CBA, NAB, ANZ for example) have set up purpose built “LABs” to drive and instil a new way of thinking and operating. This kind of cultural change is difficult but essential to meet the new market forces.

It requires sustained focus at all levels of the organisation to succeed. The CIO of a large Australian bank once described “the immune system” within his bank . The “immune system” worked against any change – incredible force of will and teamwork is required to overcome these powerful forces.

Speaking at the CDO forum in February 2016, Adrian McKnight, Chief Data Officer (CDO), Suncorp, identified the importance of agile processes,

11 http://www.tnsglobal.com/press-‐release/marketing-‐monitor-‐press-‐release 12 http://www.chiefdataofficersydney.com/


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“ Both people and process are important in the data and analytics strategy…we are driving an agile culture and practices around our data

and analytics strategy…its about creating the right environment for people to perform at their best and achieve their full potential.”

The extent to which finance industry organisations are able to sustain cultural change will impact their profitability and perhaps long-term survival.

NEW PARTNERSHIPS -‐ FINTECH INVESTMENT

In March 2015 the Financial Times reported that “Investment in financial technology companies trebled last year, providing a hint of the scale of digital disruption banks face..” The article also noted “The total amount invested in the global Fintech sector rose from just over $4bn in 2013 to more than $12bn in 2014, as record amounts were poured into companies developing technologies that promise to turn the financial sector on its head” 13

Australia is part of this wave – Fintech hubs like Stone and Chalk in Sydney have been established to “foster and accelerate the development of world-leading Fintech start-ups” with strong engagement from AMP, ANZ, iag, American Express and Westpac to name a few of the leading sponsors.

Fintech investment is a component of the competitive strategy for the finance industry. Speaking at the FintechMelbourne event, Shayne Elliott, ANZ Banks CEO highlighted the ‘importance of Australia’s financial services industry to the country’s economy, and the role that startups play in “keeping banks on their toes”. When it comes to innovation that improves the customer experience, he continued:

“ANZ is no longer just competing with rival banks but with companies like Uber and Airbnb that are now defining what a good customer

experience looks like,” Shayne Elliott, CEO ANZ Banks14

Capital One, a large US bank provides another example as they recently surprised the market with the acquisition of Adaptive Path, a San Francisco-based design and user experience (UX) consultancy. Capital One like other banks is looking to improve the way they interact online with their customers. UX is a key concern and a hot topic in website design as it concentrates on optimising the customer’s online experience.

New partnerships will continue to play a part in the strategy of leading organisations. For the data domain this brings new challenges. Access to institutional data must be provided in an agile manner to enable and support the partnership and the innovation it brings. At the same time access must be governed to ensure regulatory responsibilities are not compromised through these interactions.

13 http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1245ce84-‐d314-‐11e4-‐a792-‐00144feab7de.html#ixzz42jea55KB 14 http://www.fintechmelbourne.org/four-‐things-‐we-‐learnt-‐about-‐fintech-‐from-‐the-‐new-‐anz-‐ceos-‐first-‐public-‐qa-‐startupsmart-‐2


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INHIBITORS -‐ SKILLS GAPS

While skills gaps are not the only inhibitor to success, accessing the right resources in an expanding market can be an impediment. A recent IBV survey has identified significant big data and analytic skill gaps in both the global market (left side of the chart below) and the Australian and New Zealand market (right side of the chart).

The skills explored here cover a full spectrum of the data and analytics domain. They include those who would build and administer the systems through to the Analyst and Data Scientist who will mine and explore the data to deliver insight to the business consumers.

Figure 6 Most significant big data and analytics skills gaps identified by IBV survey respondents15

This represents an opportunity for reskilling the workforce and provides an incentive to leverage new cognitive patterns to support experts within our organisations. Cognitive, machine learning and advanced analytics patterns will support thought workers in the analytics field and those who are currently served by the analytics.

15 Analytics: The upside of disruption. IBM Institute for Business Value 2015 Analytics research study. © 2015 IBM Institute for Business Value. ibm.biz/2015analytics


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“Australian organisations will increase their focus on advanced analytics this year, as they aspire to do more with what they are already doing in analytics. It isn’t just an advanced form of current analytics, however –

it is new technologies, new capabilities and new skills that are increasingly driving business innovation and experimentation, while also

creating competitive advantage. Gartner predicts that by 2018, over half of large organisations globally will compete using advanced

analytics and proprietary algorithms, causing the disruption of entire industries”

Gartner Sydney Jan 28, 2016 Ian Bertram

In the short term, Gartner’s prediction will keep the pressure on key analytics human resources, as the activity in the analytics domain will grow, propelled by business appetite for innovation and competitive advantage.

ESSENTIALS -‐ CULTURE, GOVERNANCE, SECURITY AND REGULATION

The Global regulatory index shows consistent pressure since 2012 and there is no sign that the level of oversight and regulation will diminish any time soon. The pressure on organisations to meet regulatory obligations, manage and govern data throughout its lifecycle has been increasing.

Global regulatory pressure index

Figure 7 Global regulatory pressure index16

The Chief Data Officer (CDO) role had its heritage as the custodian and curator of data for the enterprise. This heritage saw the role concerned with defining processes, policies and procedures to manage the full lifecycle of data as it is created and incorporated into an organisations ecosystem and retained or when appropriate, disposed of. CDO concerns also ranged to cover architecture, data quality, risk management of the data assets under their stewardship.

16 http://www.kpmg.com/Global/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/evolving-‐banking-‐regulation/Documents/evolving-‐banking-‐regulation-‐ema-‐2014-‐v3-‐fs.pdf


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Data leaders Ram Kumar and Michelle Pinheiro from iag speaking at the CDO forum17 covered some the main challenges developing a data driven culture. They highlighted establishing ‘data is a strategic asset and that it has value’ with ‘accountability from the top of the organisation’ as keys to successfully delivering on the core responsibilities of Data Leaders. Giving lip service to cultural change is not sufficient, it must become an operational imperative.

Adrian McKnight, CDO, Suncorp talked about the evolving role of the CDO. CDO role will be a primary role, driving new business models, innovation

and thinking about how the business needs to develop.18

As CDOs have mastered the core responsibilities, mature CDOs are now focusing on value creation. This is a critical opportunity as data leaders capitalise on missed opportunities – advanced analytics and cognitive strategies must be leveraged to engage in a sustainable model.

FUTURE -‐ COGNITIVE AND ADVANCED ANALYTICS

“Machines are taking on more human characteristics to develop a more personalized relationship with human beings…All in all, the trends indicate a near-‐term future in which machines and humans are co-‐

workers and, possibly, even codependents.”19 Daryl Plummer, Vice President and Gartner Fellow

Our future will include some combination of Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Computing and advanced analytics. This domain is no longer science fiction, large organisations are embracing these capabilities to deliver commercial value.

Last week KPMG announced, “The cognitive era has arrived,20”

“KPMG’s use of IBM Watson technology will help advance our team’s ability to analyze and act on the core financial and operational data so

central to the health of organisations and the capital markets. In addition to the unprecedented possibilities for enhancing quality, the potential for cognitive and related technologies to help us pursue new

business offerings is extraordinary.” Lynne Doughtie, KPMG LLP Chairman and CEO.

17 http://www.slideshare.net/Chief_Data_Officer_Forum/iag-‐presentation-‐at-‐the-‐chief-‐data-‐officer-‐forum-‐sydney 18 http://www.chiefdataofficersydney.com/ 19 Gartner Symposium/ITxpo. http://www.gartner.com/technology/symposium/?nicam=vsymww 20 https://home.kpmg.com/xx/en/home/media/press-‐releases/2016/03/the-‐cognitive-‐era-‐has-‐arrived.html


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Actionable insights and decision support possibilities are not yet being effectively leveraged across our organisations. Skills shortages across all dimensions of the analytics workspace will be a constraint on growth. Both can find relief by using both advanced analytics and cognitive technologies.

Cognitive technology enables greater collaboration between humans and systems. It provides the ability to communicate in natural language and analyse massive amounts of data to deliver insights more quickly and it understands consumers from a historical viewpoint to enrich each interaction with context using evidence-based reasoning.

A cognitive system learns and builds knowledge from various structured and unstructured sources of information. It captures expertise of top performers and accelerates the development of expertise in other professionals to help improve decision making and elevates the quality and consistency of decision making across an organization.

Incorporating self learning and pattern recognition with natural language support, are the capabilities that enable adoption by staff not familiar with data processing and analytics. Watson for example, integrates machine learning and Natural Language Processing into a system that can be accessed directly or through existing applications.

CONCLUSION

The Australian finance industry, like its peers in other parts of the world is responding to the new millennial customers and preparing for as-yet-unheard-of competitors using data and analytics to differentiate. It is clear customers are tough and competition is fierce in the Australian financial services market.

‘The customer’ is the focus for all leading organisations in the finance industry. Strategies are in place or evolving to make every interaction personal, contextual and relevant. This is critical to grow loyalty and to capture the customer value in every interaction. In a world where “my last best experience” sets the new standard for each client interaction – agility and innovation are essential characteristics for finance industry survival. Data and analytics enable organisations to explore new capabilities and must be part of the solution for their enterprise.

Leaders have invested heavily in data and analytics platforms, while value has been realised, many are at the start of the journey. Significant focus has been on integrating multiple sources of information and establishing discipline around ‘data as an asset”. This action has been led by the Chief Data Officer.

Actionable insights and decision support possibilities are not consistently leveraged effectively across organisations. This represents a missed opportunity. It’s particularly true for those staff and systems who are close to the customer. The implication for the data domain is, the delivery of insight needs to be well integrated and agile.

Today delivering actionable insights requires data scientists and analytics expertise. Increasingly Cognitive “systems” will lower the reliance on these skills by learning from and interacting directly with users and customers. These will be essential tools to keep up with competition and to scale to meet future business needs.


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About AIIA The Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) is the nation’s peak industry body for the technology sector. AIIA sets the strategic direction of the industry, influences public policy and provides members with productivity tools, advisory services and market intelligence to accelerate their business growth. AIIA member companies employ 100,000 Australians, generate combined annual revenues of more than $40 billion and export more than $2 billion in goods and services each year. With member companies right across the country, from every sector of the industry and representing every size of company, AIIA is truly the ICT industry’s association of choice.

About AIIA’s Financial Services Network AIIA established the Financial Services Business Network for executives interested in technology-‐led innovation in the financial services industry. Join us to: • Understand the innovation opportunities in financial

services • Facilitate networking between the innovators in financial

services and the suppliers of technology solutions • Discuss and create technology-‐led business opportunities in

financial services and facilitate deal making. In partnership with specialist companies from across the ICT industry, AIIA releases regular Thought Leadership pieces in the financial services arena.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mark Ebeling is the Chief Technology Advisor, Financial Services Industry, IBM Australia and New Zealand. Mark is responsible for delivering technical strategy and innovation to the finance industry. In recent years Mark has engaged and collaborated with industry clients to embrace a business focused approach to information technology. Mark is a technology leader, architect practitioner and mentor. Mark has established a track record delivering new technology in the finance industry for more than 28 years. Mark is insightful and outcome focused. Mark's broad experience has enabled the pragmatic application of technology to address business challenges in his client around the globe.