Capgemini’s Financial Services TechnoVision 2021 framework is more than meets the eye

As enterprises emerge from the COVID-19 shock, they have started working on their technology strategies to thrive in the post-pandemic era. In our increasingly complex world, businesses must adjust their strategy fluently to the disturbances, challenges, and opportunities they encounter. They must operate seamlessly to transform both businesses and technologies in an unending flow. Given the relevance of these imperatives for financial services firms, Capgemini has released its Financial Services TechnoVision framework externally for the first time. The company has been using this broader framework for 13 years – releasing it annually to help set the course for technology trends and applied adoption. Capgemini took its TechnoVision a step further with its financial services edition to address specific implications for enterprises in this sector, given how contextual technology adoption and broader digital transformation are. We thought it was just a trends report. Upon further inspection, we learned it is a deep data-driven approach supported by Capgemini’s TechRadar to help best understand what’s coming and how it can most effectively be leveraged based on client maturity.

This year’s major themes

TechnoVision 2021 categorizes technology drivers into six containers covering the ‘what’ of technology business trends and one container of overarching design principles – the ‘how’ of creating a balanced technology business (Exhibit 1). These are:

• Invisible infostructure: Evolving the IT Infrastructure into the simple, pluggable utility it was always supposed to be.
• Applications Unleashed: Building applications that address the gamut of functions relevant to the new age business requirements.
• Thriving on Data: Leveraging data towards becoming a fully portable, continuously flowing, and well-balanced technology business.
• A process on the Fly: Orchestrating processes to achieve a well-balanced technology business.
• You Experience: Creating seamless, individualized user experiences.
• We Collaborate: to tap into the power of social connectivity.
• Balance by Design: Overarching design principles (the ‘how’) should be kept as part of a mindset.

Exhibit 1: Capgemini’s TechnoVision 2021 technology business trends

Source: Capgemini, 2021

TechnoVision’s relevance to the financial services industry can be understood by applying the container lens to go one level deeper. For example, customer data privacy and regulatory compliance can be looked through the “Invisible Infostructure” container. By doing so, the variation of the financial service of the TechnoVision framework can be developed, which can be positioned in the BFSI market with an appropriate narrative. Each year Capgemini invests in enablement off the back of the TechnoVision report. This year it is training a large pool of enterprise architects aligned to the themes and applying them to strategic imperatives relevant to the financial services industry.

TechnoVision in action

The point of TechnoVision is to help Capgemini align its capabilities to the areas of greatest need from its customers. To this end, TechnoVision is more than a trends report. It’s a data-driven approach developed by Capgemini to track and apply emerging technologies based on their maturity levels by each industry. The baseline is Capgemini’s Tech Radar. A Tech Radar is developed for each in-scope technology domain. Capgemini gathers more than 1500 data points across ten technology domains, recording movements and changes in technologies, approaches, vendors, and use cases. The collected data is validated by Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), including its internal network of domain Chief Technology and Innovation Officers (CTIOs). In addition, each technology domain publishes an internal update monthly. This Tech Radar approach informs the TechnoVision framework and reinforces its applicability throughout the year, helping to contextualize client needs by domain and industry. Exhibit 2 provides a sample view of the Tech Radar approach aligned to the theme of decentralized futures.

Exhibit 2: Tech Radar helps enterprises anticipate technology changes and decide technology strategies

Source: Capgemini, 2021

Aligning TechnoVision based on the client’s level of maturity in using technologies is the key aspect. Therefore, when presenting to clients, they align the trends and findings accordingly, reflecting some of their specificity and circumstances.

In the financial services TechnoVision report, they present each of the major themes from Exhibit 1 with the implications, major trends, contextual case studies, and a cross-industry example so you can assess the same trend in another context. In addition, the Tech Radar approach helps Capgemini customize these trends for the specific client needs when engaging with clients.

The Bottom Line: Capgemini’s data-driven TechnoVision’s success can be ascertained based on the number of takers in the financial services industry

Financial services firms are at the cusp of embracing new-age technologies as they strive to serve the evolving customer needs through digital channels. While doing so, they need to further their digital initiatives and bend the cost curve and manage the complexities effectively. Data-driven technology decisions will play a critical role in the growth of these financial services firms. Capgemini’s TechnoVision is a framework that is developed based on data-driven technology trends analysis. It needs to be seen how best the TechnoVision can help the financial services firms’ leaders define crystal clear technology strategies and implement them.