At the pinnacle of motorsport, the difference between success and failure can often be measured in just tenths of a second. Top-level racing teams will invest considerable amounts of time, effort and resources to make the necessary gains to improve performance and beat the competition. Such is the competitive and fast-paced nature of motorsport, it’s said that the cost of gaining just a tenth of a second could be as much as $2 million.
So it's not hard to see why teams talk about two races running at once; the race to innovate and develop, and the race to the chequered flag. Having recently joined Target Group - which is part of the Tech Mahindra family, I was thrilled to be able to visit the HQ of its exciting Formula E team, Mahindra Racing and learn more about these principals.
While there, the team spoke about the need to scale at speed – to find those opportunities and competitive advantages at pace to transform performance and stay ahead of its rivals. There’s many parallels for financial services, with so many lenders, building societies and banks in the market trying to push ahead in the development race to expand their offering, increase intelligence and ultimately, improve their service to clients.
Managing risks
The challenge has long been though that businesses have needed to choose between scale or speed. After all, scaling rapidly does present its fair share of risks and challenges, whether is operational risks such as straining existing processes, recruiting and training new employees or the prospect of building and/or implementing new technologies. Not only does all this have a financial implication, it has the potential to distract the business from its core functions and can have a detrimental impact on customer service.
Firms that are already looking beyond their core functions and services may certainly sympathise. But while there are many risks, there are also a wealth of opportunities available to those firms that can scale at speed. A real defining moment for many of these successful businesses is realising that this isn’t always possible by going it alone. It requires the right partners and providers that understand the market, share the same vision and critically, can provide the necessary skills and expertise to bridge those gaps and fuel this potential growth.
Outsourcing
It’s often referred to as Business Process Outsourcing – or BPO – where a firm will contract or outsource specific processes to a third-party. It is increasing in popularity as it enables firms to streamline their operations and focus on their core functions and services, all while reducing costs and freeing up resources.
In fact, we see this among lenders, building societies and major banks where they will choose to outsource their mortgage and loan servicing and originations, as well as other key responsibilities to external providers. When paired with a provider that has the right expertise and technology to execute these tasks correctly and efficiently, firms are free from the distractions and have the necessary resources and bandwidth to scale quickly and effectively.
Having that external expertise on tap is hugely beneficial to the business too, not just from an ops perspective, but in terms of compliance, customer care and service.
The right technology is absolutely fundamental to all of this and for Target, a key focus for us has been the development of our new, state-of-the-art originations platform, Mortgage Hub. Not only has been built to be customer-centric rather than purely product-centric, every part of the mortgage chain has been involved in its development to ensure it’s a solution that solves those common frustrations.
Being a cloud-based platform too means it can be very modular, bringing together multiple different tools, assets and data sources in one platform. Lenders can either adopt the full platform for an end-to-end experience or alternatively, identify the pressure points in their operation and utilise Mortgage Hub where best suited.
One of the great reassurances to borrowers in the UK is the wealth of lenders, building societies and banks that are out there trying to innovate and support their home buying aspirations. As a technology provider to the mortgage market and wider financial services, we have a duty to not just give lenders the necessary tools and intelligence to do what they do best, but to be that proven partner that can support their growth ambitions.
With the right technology and the right partner, it certainly is possible to scale at speed.
