Independent Banker - July 2022 - 59

THE 2022 ICBA THINKTECH ACCELERATOR spotlighted some of the hottest, most
innovative fintech providers. We asked each of this year's cohort to weigh in on
how community banks can harness some of today's most exciting technologies
and solutions to bolster business and enhance their customers' experiences.
BY KATIE KUEHNER-HEBERT
TIP #1: Assess your legacy systems
According to Don Shafer, co-founder and chief evangelist
of Quilo, by Qoosh Technology in Staten Island, N.Y.,
one major pain point for community banks is relying too
heavily on core providers to build new technologies into
decades-old legacy systems, which can delay launches for
community banks-to their detriment.
" These legacy systems were not designed to be nimble
and quick to adapt-which is why community banks
are nearly always late to the dance with providing the
innovation they need to have a competitive advantage, "
Shafer says. " Therefore, you see more progressive
community bankers partnering directly with fintechs. "
Such partnerships are greatly facilitated by open banking
and the use of APIs, which gives banks more flexibility to
pick the best of breed across each technology, says Ryan
Canin, CEO of DocFox Inc., in Boston, Mass. That way, he
notes, they're not " controlled by their vendor's strategy,
but rather they can pick technologies to support the
bank's strategy. "
Multicloud SaaS platform adoption to leverage the latest
technologies at an optimum cost while ensuring robust
cybersecurity infrastructure is a must, says Anand Naik,
co-founder and CEO of Sequretek in Little Rock, Ark.
Customers would thus " feel confident and secure " while
adopting next-generation banking and financial services.
Community banks using multiple loan origination
systems and account opening solutions for different
types of customers and products introduce challenges in
regard to getting a 360-degree view of relationships-and
opportunities to cross-sell, says Chris Sommers, chief
product officer of Accrue by Core10 in Franklin, Tenn.
Community banks should seek platforms and systems that
can handle multiple banking functions, plus single-sign-on
solutions to ensure a " pain-free experience " of managing
access for both customers and bank employees.
Then there's the legacy core itself.
" I think every bank needs to go through a cloud
migration process, " says John Mizzi, co-founder and
CEO of Vero Technologies in Brooklyn, N.Y. " That's the
only way they're going to continue to evolve and scale, by
then adopting conduits to take advantage of cloud-based
banking technologies on an integrated basis. "
TIP #2: It's all about the data
Another major pain point is the inability of community
banks to efficiently access their data because the data lives
in multiple systems, says Kim Snyder, founder and CEO of
KlariVis in Roanoke, Va.
" There's tremendous value in the data that banks have
about their customers, but they haven't been able to
efficiently take advantage of that. Even when systems are
owned by the same vendor, they don't talk to each other, "
Snyder says. " Solutions are now available to solve that
challenge for banks so they can better understand specific
customers' needs and demands. "
Saroop Bharwani, founder and CEO of Senso in Toronto,
Canada, agrees. For community banks to be more agile and
competitive against bigger players, they must invest in a
consolidated view of their data to better " predict, identify
and engage. "
TIP #3: Keep up with consumer digital demands
Twenty years ago, investment accounts were all paper
based, but now that wealth management services can be
handled digitally, community banks can offer more of the
products and services customers demand by incorporating
more app features, says Andrew Glaze, founder and CEO of
WealthStack in Austin, Texas.
" There's a new wave of product development around
consumer choice, and community banks can tap into that
by providing a seamless and easy platform, " he says.
There's also been a substantial shift in consumer
behavior to invest in alternative assets, including cryptoand
blockchain-supported products, and fractional
investing in farmland, fine wine, sports memorabilia and
other collectibles, says Ben Soppitt, co-founder and CEO
of UnifiMoney in San Francisco, Calif. Community banks
involved in the digital wealth management space need to
adapt to the environment " to survive and thrive. "
TIP #4: Use internal tracking for all things digital
To optimize the digital experience for customers,
community banks need to make sure their staff is well
versed in the technologies offered and that they have the
tools to help customers adopt them " as seamlessly and
painlessly as possible, " says John Findlay, CEO of
independentbanker.org Q 59
http://www.independentbanker.org
Independent Banker - July 2022

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