How finance leaders can future-proof their business

Cyberattacks and data breaches are on the rise, and online shoppers are increasingly valuing trust, especially when buying goods from overseas, research shows.

This makes it essential for businesses to reassure consumers they are in safe hands, recognising that security is not just a technical challenge to be tackled behind the scenes, and that visible trust is key to acquiring the customers of today and tomorrow.

It’s a perception challenge, and one way of solving this is reducing “vendor sprawl” and system complexity in favour of a consolidated AI road map with a technology partner, experts say.

Trust has a significant business impact, with 91 per cent of global shoppers saying that visible trust badges and security certificates at an online checkout influence their decision to buy from international merchants, according to Airwallex’s Cross-border Payments survey.

The Business Impact of Digital Trust

This has a major impact on the bottom line, as businesses with strong digital trust frameworks are more likely to see annual revenue growth of 10 per cent or more, according to McKinsey research.

When customers feel safe, they buy more, return more often and recommend the brand to others. When they don’t feel safe, they walk away.

BDO national digital leader Nick Kervin says the growing complexity of digital ecosystems is exposing organisations to unnecessary and avoidable vulnerabilities.

“Every additional vendor you have increases your third-party risk which is quickly being recognised as a key focus area for hackers to try and exploit,” Kervin says.

“Minimising your vendor sprawl will reduce your potential exposure.

“Another benefit from reducing sprawl will be minimising the fragmentation of your organisation’s data which may significantly impact an effective implementation of AI.”

Finance leaders looking to establish this kind of trust, in order to future-proof their business, should start by tackling the complexity of vendor sprawl, says Elliot Colquhoun, vice president of IT and Security with global financial technology provider Airwallex.

There was a time when businesses were chasing the hottest individual player in every niche fintech space, but industry’s view of finance vendor sprawl and consolidation has changed significantly over the last five years, Colquhoun says.

“The pendulum has swung the other way, particularly in the banking space, where it’s been recognised that a consolidated platform delivers better outcomes, improved continuity and enhanced security,” he says.

“Consolidating on established and trusted fintech partners is also important for finance leaders when it comes to determining an integrated AI strategy which looks two to three years down the road.”

A Unified View for Global Growth and AI

One of the challenges created by vendor sprawl, which occurs when an organisation relies on an unmanageable number of different applications and vendors, is data fragmentation.

This not only increases a business’s attack surface (potential entry points or vulnerabilities that can be attacked) but also hampers efforts to grant AI tools a holistic view in order to uncover more in-depth insights.

When it comes to banking, finance leaders looking to future-proof their business benefit from unified financial tools which allow them to manage multiple banks, currencies and jurisdictions within a single interface.

This approach makes it much easier for businesses to expand into new markets, while avoiding the complexity that comes from integrating with different banks.

“As businesses grow, managing different bank accounts across regions, and the flow of funds between them, becomes a major pain point unless they have the ability to manage it all from within a single interface,” Colquhoun says.

“As we look into the future, AI can leverage that unified view to streamline operations, better understand how the business’s finances operate and provide actionable insights to give the business a competitive edge.”