FSIs urged to exploit tablets
By Digital News Asia May 16, 2012
- FSI sector yet to realize tablet benefits
- Tablet support increasing in corporate banking
THOSE working in the financial services industries (FSIs), especially in the corporate banking and wealth management sectors, should look into the possibility of using tablet computing as a way of differentiating themselves from the competition, according to Ovum.
The analyst firm noted that the FSI sector as a whole has yet to realize the potential for easy and enjoyable content consumption represented by tablets, as their slick, gesture-driven user interface and shareable screen are ideal features for helping customer meetings run more smoothly and effectively.
Ovum senior analyst Rik Turner said the financial sector as a whole has come out of the global crisis with an urgent need to rebuild its credibility with a disillusioned public.
“In certain sub-verticals such as wealth management more ‘face-time’ with the customer can help this rebuilding process,” Turner said in a statement.
A new report released by Ovum noted that support for tablet devices was increasing in corporate banking, to accommodate treasurers' needs when they are out of the office, and in wealth management, as an aid to customer interaction in face-to-face meetings.
Turner pointed out that most in the FSI most divide their assets up to be managed by different wealth management providers, and as such, a well-executed meeting carried out with the aid of a tablet may attract further business away from a competitor.
He also noted that currently, many independent software vendors (ISVs) that address these financial market segments currently prefer the downloadable to the browser-based app, but added that this trend is changing, due to improvements taking place in browser technologies.
“HTML5 is becoming more robust and will gain momentum through 2012,” said Turner. “Features such as the ability to work offline, access on-device contact lists and so on, are in development.
“And although there is still a significant drawback to be addressed in the form of code security, this too may not be an insurmountable obstacle,” he added.
Turner further noted that with these improvements combined with the downloadable apps’ immense shortcoming – a different version must be written for each operating system the developer wants them to run on – Ovum expects to see more companies looking at browser-based functionality a year from now.