The world is full of sensors collecting information on things; more and more of these sensors are connected to the internet making this information available in real-time: The Internet of Things. IoT has made big waves in businesses with complex supply chains, 使用物联网提高效率的时机成熟吗. DHL claim to have improved overall efficiency by 10% through IoT. Financial Services, on the other hand, hasn’t seen such dramatic returns.
为什么金融服务在采用物联网方面进展缓慢?
The clue’s in the name: FS is a services industry that doesn’t have the same supply chain challenges that IoT has been so successful in over-coming. The focus thus far has been more on customer service and pricing improvements that can be driven by these craftly little sensors connected to the web.
We’re continually assessing how new technologies like IoT can be applied to our clients in the Financial Services industry in a way that can generate a real ROI. It’s just as much about understanding the constraints and limitations for banks adopting IoT as it is about how IoT 可以 帮助.
It’s my view that Banks should focus on applying IoT in places where it can bring value to the customer, 暂时忘掉潜在的效率提升吧, as they are far harder to achieve through a single project.
With that in mind, here are my top three IoT applications for Banking for 2019.
1. 更准确的产品定价
IoT isn’t a new phenomenon in the world of car insurance – for several years now newly qualified drivers have benefited from lower premiums by placing a black box in their car, which monitors aspects of the driver’s actual behavior to set the price. One 可以 envisage a scenario where data on a crash is instantly sent to the insurer, to automate the claims process and ensure fair value for all parties.
进一步, as wearables have become more prevalent this trend is starting to influence health insurance schemes as well. Vitality in the UK offers deals and rewards based on customer activity, 通过智能手表和专用应用程序进行追踪. As the wearables begin to monitor even more data points – irregular heartbeats, as announced in the latest iWatch update – health insurance premiums will become much more accurate and fact based, 对银行和客户都有利.
2. 产品的灵活性
物联网的有效应用——传感器的联姻, real-time data and analysis – 可以 allow banks to provide more flexible products to customers. 例如, the rate and size of a business loan 可以 be determined by real-time information that highlights the health of a business. 通过监测制造公司的库存水平, banks 可以 create products that allow the company to pay back more when business is good, 生意不好的时候会减少. 可在需要时提供信贷, at a rate that provides value to the customer and greater protection of default to the bank.
3. 增强客户体验
In comparison to other industries which have driven operational efficiencies through IoT, Financial Services firms can really focus on enhancing the customer experience. 实体支付旅程就是一个很好的例子, where sensors 可以 be used to streamline the shopping experience, 就像Amazon Go的试用一样. It also presents a great opportunity to interact with a customer in a new way – providing financial information as and when it is needed by the customer. 这可能是基于位置的预算信息(例如. a reminder of your grocery budget when you enter a supermarket) or voice-activated bank transfers in the home – the “Jetsons” home is here and it presents a great opportunity for banks to interact with their customers.
银行还有更重要的事要做吗?
作为一名消费者，我觉得这些例子令人兴奋. There are other examples that we can get excited about, but perhaps we shouldn’t. A major obstacle facing banks’ adoption of IoT solutions is how many external participants they depend on. Whereas a logistic company can implement IoT end-to-end, a streamlined physical payment journey requires collaboration from the retailer, 以及支付商家. Banks would be wise to concentrate efforts on the flexible product IoT projects, given these are not so dependent on multi-party collaboration.
当面对数据隐私的其他挑战时, 不受欢迎的入侵, 安全性和实现传感器的成本, banks need to be very careful in ensuring the ROI is there before ploughing into an IoT project just because others are reaping benefits, 或者是商家强行推销. Banks have no shortage of tech projects to invest in and from what we’re seeing, banks can potentially achieve a greater ROI with an AI-ML project. Not to say that there are not IoT projects out there with great promise worth embarking on now. 但前提是最终目标明确. IoT, like most new tech, is rife with pitfalls and potentially empty promises.
