November 8, 2010

Financial Services Firms Again Seek To Renew Their Application Landscape

by Jost Hoppermann for Application Development & Delivery Professionals

Making Leaders Successful Every Day

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

Financial Services Firms Again Seek To Renew Their Application Landscape

Findings From our Q3 2010 Global Financial Services Architecture online Survey
by Jost Hoppermann with Kyle mcNabb, mike Gilpin, and Sander Rose

November 8, 2010

ExEcuT i v E S u m mA Ry
During the summer of 2010, Forrester surveyed 80 IT decision-makers in financial services (FS) firms in Europe, North America, and, for example, Australia, Japan, and South Africa. Our findings show that an overwhelming majority of firms have both budgets and plans to renew their application landscape and core banking platforms. While each region shares a similar interest in core banking, differences in how to serve various channels exist between North America and Europe. Huge budgets, many exceeding 100 million, present no obstacle for a banks or an insurance firms renewal plans. With the renewal train reaccelerating, financial services firms need to get their tickets soon to defend their competitive situation.

TAbL E o F co NTE NTS

2 If You Have No Plans To Renew Your Application Landscape, You Are Alone 5 Key Drivers Accelerate The End Of Baroque Castles Firms Seek Specific capabilities To Support Their Drivers Funding Doesnt Present An obstacle 12 Off-The-Shelf Apps Maturity Alleviates The Need For Custom Development
WHAT iT mEANS

N oT E S & RE S o u RcE S
Forrester conducted the Q3 2010 Global Financial Services Architecture online Survey, a survey of iT decision-makers at 80 financial services companies in 23 countries, to get their take regarding their current situation and future plans for applications, application infrastructure, and iT infrastructure as well as their most urgent business pains.

13 Firms Need To Review Their Starting Point To Avoid New Baroque Castles 14 Supplemental Material

Related Research Documents Global banking Platform Deals 2009 may 28, 2010
The banking Platform of The Future December 8, 2009 The Future Shape of banking Architecture in 2023 November 14, 2008

2010, Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited. Information is based on best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. Forrester, Technographics, Forrester Wave, RoleView, TechRadar, and Total Economic Impact are trademarks of Forrester Research, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies. To purchase reprints of this document, please email clientsupport@forrester.com. For additional information, go to www.forrester.com.

Financial Services Firms Again Seek To Renew Their Application Landscape

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

IF YOu HAvE NO PLANS TO RENEw YOuR APPLICATION LANDSCAPE, YOu ARE ALONE Survey participants in a total of 15 European countries, Canada, and the US as well as, for example, Australia, Colombia, India, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa revealed their application landscape renewal plans (see Figure 1).1 Approximately 60% of firms have finished their renewal plans, are currently executing on them, or are planning to start them before the end of 2010; therefore, if you do not have plans ready before the end of 2010, your firm is in the minority (see Figure 2).2 Laggards, be aware that your application landscape more likely resembles an ancient edifice a baroque castle that has been repurposed over a long timeline than it does a purpose-built modern building. If you do not accept the renewal imperative, you may be putting your firm at a competitive disadvantage or facing a quick-and-dirty renewal approach that can lead to failure or both.3
Figure 1 Participating Firms Represent The Financial Services industry
1-1 Where is your office located? Austria 1% Belgium 3% Canada 9%

Other 11%

Denmark 1% Finland 1% France 1% Germany 10% Greece 1% Ireland 1% Norway 3% Netherlands 1%

USA 34%

United Kingdom 11%

Portugal Poland 1% Sweden 1% 4% Switzerland 5%

Base: 80 IT decision-makers within nancial services organizations (percentages do not total 100 because of rounding) Source: Q3 2010 Global Financial Services Architecture Online Survey
57039 Source: Forrester Research, Inc.

November 8, 2010

2010, Forrester Research, inc. Reproduction Prohibited

Financial Services Firms Again Seek To Renew Their Application Landscape

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

Figure 1 Participating Firms Represent The Financial Services industry (cont.)

1-2 What is approximately the total amount of assets of your company as reported on the latest balance sheet? All Dont know 11% More than 400 billion 18% More than 100 billion and up to 400 billion 21% Europe Dont know 11% More than 400 billion 19% More than 10 billion and up to 100 billion 36% N = 80 North America Up to 10 billion 3% Dont know 9% More than 400 billion 20% More than 100 billion and up to 400 billion 18% Up to 10 billion 14%

Up to 10 billion 21%

More than 100 billion and up to 400 billion 27%

More than 10 billion and up to 100 billion 22% N = 37

More than 10 billion and up to 100 billion 50% N=34

(Rate of 1 = $1.238) Base: IT decision-makers within nancial services organizations Source: Q3 2010 Global Financial Services Architecture Online Survey
57039 Source: Forrester Research, Inc.

2010, Forrester Research, inc. Reproduction Prohibited

November 8, 2010

Financial Services Firms Again Seek To Renew Their Application Landscape

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

Figure 1 Participating Firms Represent The Financial Services industry (cont.)

1-3 In what area does your nancial services institution MAINLY operate? Mortgage banking/ Other 5% lending 3% Private banking 6% Insurance industry 7% Investment management 7% Investment banking/ capital markets 8% Corporate banking/ wholesale banking 9%

Retail banking 39%

Universal banking 16%

Base: 80 IT decision-makers within nancial services organizations Source: Q3 2010 Global Financial Services Architecture Online Survey
57039 Source: Forrester Research, Inc.

November 8, 2010

2010, Forrester Research, inc. Reproduction Prohibited

Financial Services Firms Again Seek To Renew Their Application Landscape

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

Figure 2 A majority of Firms Have begun or Have Plans To Renew Their Application Landscape
When do you think your company will start a major renewal initiative regarding its nancial services platform (e.g., banking platform)? 1% Already 3% nished 0% Currently executing Planning, start in 2010 Planning, start in 2011 to 2012 Planning, start in 2013 to 2014 0% Planning, start in 2015 to 2016 0% 0% No known plans 5% 13% 18% 8% 8% 6% 19% 19% 21% 19% 19% 21% 41% 35%

46%

All, N = 80 Europe, N = 37 North America, N = 34

Base: IT decision-makers within nancial services organizations (percentages may not total 100 because of rounding) Source: Q3 2010 Global Financial Services Architecture Online Survey
57039 Source: Forrester Research, Inc.

KEY DRIvERS ACCELERATE THE END OF BAROquE CASTLES Before the crisis, many financial services companies gradually moved away from their individual baroque-castle application platforms, and fewer firms today have efforts underway than before the crisis.4 Yet nearly three-quarters of survey respondents told Forrester that they personally consider a major application renewal necessary to ensure that their firm can cope with current and future business and technology needs (see Figure 3).5 The key drivers, both technology and business oriented, of participating firms highlight the challenges existing application architectures have coping with the usual flood of business demands (see Figure 4). The old-fashioned, in some cases decades-old, banking applications cannot stand up

2010, Forrester Research, inc. Reproduction Prohibited

November 8, 2010

Financial Services Firms Again Seek To Renew Their Application Landscape

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

to a modern financial services firms daily life scenarios. Tomorrows platforms need to help firms quickly add a new channel or class of mobile devices, establish true cross-channel capability, and support new target geographies on short notice. Future platforms must also help firms change a financial services product or support an entirely new class of products while also supporting endof-day processing in real time and coping with the latest set of new regulatory requirements. Our survey data highlights that:

New platforms must step up to major business change. Most surveyed firms must cope

with large-scale business change often on a continuous basis. European financial services firms focus more on supporting business agility and flexibility. North American firms target managing changing markets, increasing market share, entering new markets, and better supporting competitive differentiation. Regardless, business flexibility and the related ability to cope with market change must be integral elements of any decision in favor of or against a given architecture or off-the-shelf banking platform.

New platforms need to manage cost, support flexibility, and reduce time-to-market.

Both North American and European regions show a strong focus on efficiency and cost management.6 Firms also want forward-looking technology and architecture as a tool for flexibility to improve business process automation, help cope with regulatory changes, and provide real-time views into information. Application delivery teams will need platforms to help streamline product cycle times to help address time-to-market and time-to-money drivers and help their firm get the right products to the right customers at the earliest possible moment.

European and North American firms have different drivers for application renewal.

European firms express a higher priority for customer experience needs. North American firms identify the risk of aged technology and applications as well as the risk of the retiring workforce and shrinking talent pool.7 This last, exotic business driver offers reasons to move away from the existing application landscape. However, even the latest application landscape in any firm cannot deal with these challenges entirely on its own; the retiring workforce challenge makes accompanying measures mandatory to avoid facing exactly the same problem when firms sunset future platforms.

November 8, 2010

2010, Forrester Research, inc. Reproduction Prohibited

Financial Services Firms Again Seek To Renew Their Application Landscape

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

Figure 3 Nearly Three-Quarters of Respondents believe Their Firm Needs A major Renewal
Do you think your rm needs a major application renewal (AKA a transformation of its application landscape) to cope with current and future business needs? Dont know 5%

No 24%

Yes 71%

Base: 80 IT decision-makers within nancial services organizations Source: Q3 2010 Global Financial Services Architecture Online Survey
57039 Source: Forrester Research, Inc.

Figure 4 The Top Five Drivers For The Renewal of The Application Landscape
What are the three to five top business requirements driving your companys renewal initiative? (Percentages refer to the number of respondents who rated this requirement in their top ve) Europe Business agility/exibility/new business capabilities Cost efciency/cost reduction Forward-looking technology and architecture Improved customer experience/ service/needs Time-to-market/time-to-money 48% 52% 30% 33% 44% N = 37 North America Changing markets, more di erentiation, market share increase Cost efciency/cost reduction Forward-looking technology and architecture Risk of aged technology and applications (including workforce aspects) Time-to-market/time-to-money 67% 52% 30% 56% 33% N = 34

Base: IT decision-makers within nancial services organizations Source: Q3 2010 Global Financial Services Architecture Online Survey
57039 Source: Forrester Research, Inc.

2010, Forrester Research, inc. Reproduction Prohibited

November 8, 2010

Financial Services Firms Again Seek To Renew Their Application Landscape

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

Firms Seek Specific Capabilities To Support Their Drivers Key focus areas for many enterprisewide initiatives include running transactions more efficiently, getting an enterprise view on customers and other business parties, capturing better information about customers, and serving customers more effectively across more channels. More specifically:

Core applications remain the primary area of renewal. Most respondents recognize core

banking as the initial focus area for application landscape renewal; core insurance applications topped the list of initial focal points for renewal for all six participating insurance firms (see Figure 5). The baroque state of many core applications justifies many firms making this the priority. Modern core apps can more easily support business flexibility, control costs, improve time-to-market, and help firms avoid the risk of aged technology. When core banking includes front-end support, even the customer experience and related aspects will see improvement.

Architecture and infrastructure preparation take center stage for many. Forty-three

percent of survey participants place high priority on building the architecture and application infrastructure to support their application landscape renewal. Drivers such as increasing business flexibility, coping with market change, speeding time-to-market, and incorporating clearly forward-looking technology and architecture all contribute to firms need for an architectural foundation that can provide the glue between the different bits and pieces of a multiyear transformation.

Renewal efforts also focus on customer-oriented applications. Between 25% and 38% of

all survey respondents identify customer-oriented applications as a focal point for renewal: Respondents identify branch advisory and sales, analytics, central customer/party data management, customer relationship management, and Internet banking as focus areas for renewal to better serve customers. Overall, these focus areas support most drivers, including the need for forward-looking technology.

Mobile banking, multichannel enablement, and regulatory compliance vary by region.

European respondents show a stronger interest in multichannel enablement and, one hopes, in cross-channel capability than their North American counterparts.8 North American firms place greater focus on the mobile channel, while Europe shows a slower uptake of mobile. Regulation has a stronger impact on North America than Europe today.

November 8, 2010

2010, Forrester Research, inc. Reproduction Prohibited

Financial Services Firms Again Seek To Renew Their Application Landscape

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

Figure 5 The Focal Points And capabilities Firms Are Seeking To Support Their Drivers
Which will be the initial focal points of your nancial services platform? Analytics Branch (advisory, sales) Branch (tellers) Building the architecture/application infrastructure supporting application Central customer/party data management Core banking applications Core insurance applications Customer relationship management Fraud detection/anti-money laundering Internet banking Lending Mobile banking Multichannel enablement Payments Regulatory compliance Remote advisory services Risk management Self-service/kiosks Strategic enterprise management Trade nance Trading platforms (retail) Trading platforms (capital markets) Trading platforms (FX trading) Treasury Wealth management Other Dont know 0 10% 20% 25% 30% 40% 50% 60% All, N = 80 Europe, N = 37 North America, N = 34

Base: IT decision-makers within nancial services organizations (multiple responses accepted) Source: Q3 2010 Global Financial Services Architecture Online Survey
57039 Source: Forrester Research, Inc.

2010, Forrester Research, inc. Reproduction Prohibited

November 8, 2010

10

Financial Services Firms Again Seek To Renew Their Application Landscape

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

Funding Doesnt Present An Obstacle With the crisis in mind, it comes somewhat as a surprise that many of the surveyed financial services firms have accepted the renewal mandate in spite of large, and in some cases even enormous, budget estimates. Still, budget projections Forrester made back in 2005 show that some firms may be underestimating their budgets.9 Today, firms may prefer not to spend large budgets, but they have accepted the fact that enduring competitiveness demands an application landscape renewal:

About half of the financial services companies expect a budget of 100 million or less.

Most of the firms in this group have total assets of 100 billion and less.10 North American companies in this group hope for smaller budgets, while European firms expect greater spending (see Figure 6).

Less than a quarter of the financial services firms expect three-digit million-euro budgets.

Overall, global financial services heavyweights with total assets of more than 400 billion represent the majority within this group. While most members of this group believe their renewal budgets will be in the range of 100 to 150 million, a few firms do have renewal budgets exceeding 350 million. On average, North American firms expect larger budgets than their European peers in this group.

Many do not yet have a complete view on budgets and costs. About a third of survey

participants could not offer a budget estimate. This could either mean that these respondents have not yet been involved in budget estimates or that a budget estimate for the entire renewal initiative is not yet available. However, European banks participating in the survey are slightly more advanced on the renewal timeline than North American banks, and considerably more respondents from North American banks do not know yet.

More European firms have budget estimates available, and many expect large renewal budgets. European firms have slightly lower budget estimates this year than in Forresters 2007 survey.11 Thus, many if not most financial services firms will likely have to adjust their renewal budgets upward during the different stages of their application landscape renewal.12 Business executives would be well advised not to expect IT organizations to fully deliver these large-scale projects without any increase of the IT budget or with a shrinking one.

November 8, 2010

2010, Forrester Research, inc. Reproduction Prohibited

Financial Services Firms Again Seek To Renew Their Application Landscape

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

11

Figure 6 budget Estimates Exceed 350 million

What is approximately the budget approach for your renewal initiative (software, services and internal work e ort)? More than 350 million 4% 3% 3%

0% More than 250 million and up to 350 million 0% 0% 5% 5% 3% All, N = 80 Europe, N = 37 North America, N = 34

More than 200 million and up to 250 million

3% More than 150 million and up to 200 million 0% 6% 10% 14% 9% 13% 9%

More than 100 million and up to 150 million

More than 50 million and up to 100 million

19%

More than 10 million and up to 50 million

18% 12% 18% 14% 18%

24%

Up to 10 million

Dont know (rate of 1 = $1.238)

22%

31% 41%

Base: IT decision-makers within nancial services organizations (percentages may not total 100 because of rounding) Source: Q3 2010 Global Financial Services Architecture Online Survey
57039 Source: Forrester Research, Inc.

2010, Forrester Research, inc. Reproduction Prohibited

November 8, 2010

12

Financial Services Firms Again Seek To Renew Their Application Landscape

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

OFF-THE-SHELF APPS MATuRITY ALLEvIATES THE NEED FOR CuSTOM DEvELOPMENT In spite of the large and sometimes enormous budget estimates, firms seek to invest in ways that help them free up resources to support differentiating business areas without increasing their headcount. Just five years ago, most firms had to build applications from scratch, citing that offthe-shelf analytics were not as powerful as necessary, core banking did not scale up as far as needed or was not sufficiently flexible, risk management could not cope with local regulation needs, and central party data management was a dream for many banks.13 Today, off-the-shelf applications and complete integrated banking platforms can cope with much of a firms functional requirements. These software packages can even deliver cost-effective solutions if a firm is willing to accept 80% or 90% alignment of business requirements with a chosen solution.14 Survey responses show that FS firms have now broadly accepted the improved capabilities of off-the-shelf functionality, as:

Pure in-house development lost relevance. Only 14% of survey participants say that their

firm focuses on in-house development, using only a low share of off-the-shelf applications (see Figure 7). In Europe, more firms continue to move away from pure in-house development: The percentage of respondents who report that their firm focuses on in-house development dropped from 36% and 27% in 2005 and 2007, respectively.15

Complete and integrated application suites win. Close to a quarter of survey participants,

independent of the region, prefer a best-of-suite approach.16 These firms seek potential benefits associated with integrated functionality and data models, defined application architecture, and integration and customization frameworks. In addition, banking platforms can potentially act as a more business-oriented banking backbone that integrates with all kinds of satellite and peripheral applications if and when necessary.

North American firms have a stronger preference for best-of-breed. Almost a third of

surveyed North American firms indicate that they prefer an approach based on integration of best-in-class applications while only about 14% of European respondents are in favor of this approach.17 We have spoken with many banks that support this type of approach with strong enterprisewide application architecture practices. Firms placing a higher priority on architecture and infrastructure renewal also indicate that they prefer this approach.18

About a third of the surveyed firms seek a balance of in-house and off-the-shelf apps. This

balanced approach can provide the ideal playground for what Forrester calls componentization which at its very core supports effective and differentiating apps in a most productive way.19

November 8, 2010

2010, Forrester Research, inc. Reproduction Prohibited

Financial Services Firms Again Seek To Renew Their Application Landscape

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

13

Figure 7 in-House Development is Not The major Source of Functionality Anymore

What is the main IT strategic objective of your financial services institution regarding your financial services platform (e.g., banking platforms)? Use mainly in-house developed applications with a low share of o -the-shelf applications Use mainly best-in-class applications o the shelf and integrate All, N = 80 Use mainly a complete suite of integrated applications (e.g., integrated banking platform) that provides on average best overall functionality (best-of-suite) Use in-house and o -the-shelf applications equally and integrate Dont know

14%

24%

25%

36%

1%

Europe, N = 37

22%

24%

14%

41%

North America, N = 34

6%

24%

32%

35%

3%

Base: IT decision-makers within nancial services organizations (percentages may not total 100 because of rounding) Source: Q3 2010 Global Financial Services Architecture Online Survey
57039 Source: Forrester Research, Inc.

W H AT i T m E A N S

FIRMS NEED TO REvIEw THEIR STARTINg POINT TO AvOID NEw BAROquE CASTLES
For the majority of financial services firms, and in particular banks, the move away from vintage application landscapes is mandatory for them to again become or to remain competitive. However, at least some of their approaches seem to directly point to more tactical as opposed to strategic, enterprisewide planning that can lead to the creation of the same baroque castles, this time built on modern technology. Avoiding this scenario requires that firms reconsider how to plan their platform transformation initiatives.20 What does this mean for app dev and delivery teams?

Application landscape renewals will fail unless they are backed by sound planning.
Firms that try to shortcut months- if not year-long planning phases and to work without broad coordination and governance too often pay with years of delay. Planners need to start with a strategic business perspective, mapping business functionality hot spots to off-theshelf solutions, future custom-built apps, and existing solutions capabilities.21 continuous consideration of technology that comes into existence during the initiative also helps firms avoid creating a future application landscape built on technology that becomes obsolete as soon as the initiative is complete.

2010, Forrester Research, inc. Reproduction Prohibited

November 8, 2010

14

Financial Services Firms Again Seek To Renew Their Application Landscape

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

Migration plans need continuous adjustment. Such plans need to define the individual
migration steps, including the sequence of application retirements. Further, identification of functional hot spots helps ensure early delivery of high-value functionality and cuts through the Gordian knot of the application landscape to help identify migration steps.22 business change and an initiatives multiyear character also make continuous adjustments mandatory. used in the right way, this approach ensures manageable complexity and risk.

Application delivery in FS will see more off-the-shelf applications than in the past.
Application development will focus on the most-differentiating business areas.23 Selecting off-the-shelf business functionality, integrating apps, and composing new differentiating functionality out of custom-built and off-the shelf functional building blocks (components) will represent a large share of the agenda. industrialization of financial services and componentization will become more and more important.24 App dev and delivery teams in financial services need to prepare for these scenarios, which will likely start to emerge during the migration and delivery phase of their renewal initiative.

SuPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL Methodology In particular during the planning and review phases of larger initiatives for the transformation or the renewal of a financial services firms application landscape, application development and delivery teams often ask Forrester about the plans and directions of comparable firms regarding banking platform renewal, the speed of renewal, project sizes, key application infrastructure building blocks, and related topics. The key question is What are my peers doing? To help these app delivery teams, Forrester fielded its Q3 2010 Global Financial Services Architecture Online Survey to IT decisionmakers at 80 financial services companies in 23 countries to get their take regarding their current situation and future plans for applications, application infrastructure, and IT infrastructure as well as their most urgent business pains. Survey responses represent a broad set of financial services firms around the globe; many decision-makers in the FS platform and in particular the banking platform space will find themselves well represented. Respondent incentives included a copy of the finalized report. ENDNOTES
1

In 2004, Forrester predicted that many banks needed to transform their custom-built and off-the-shelf banking platforms to renew their application landscape. The reasons were manifold and included insufficient ability to cope with cost and quality issues, urgent business requirements such as mergers and acquisitions, a continuously shortening time-to-market for new products, and the resulting strategic need for more-flexible business process support. The financial crisis caused a slowdown of renewal plans; the start of many initiatives got delayed, and business with off-the-shelf banking platforms slowed down globally. See the May 28, 2010, Global Banking Platform Deals 2009 report, and see the August 19, 2010, Global Banking Platform Deals 2009: Regions And Functionality report.

November 8, 2010

2010, Forrester Research, inc. Reproduction Prohibited

Financial Services Firms Again Seek To Renew Their Application Landscape

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

15

Financial services firms that are neither already renewing nor planning to do so need to recognize that there is no way around application renewal. See the July 8, 2005, Application Renewal Goes Mainstream report. The ancient constructs of baroque castles are not up to the quality, cost, and time-to-delivery requirements of modern banks. Consequently, an increasing number of banks and other financial services firms are heading toward the renewal of their application landscape. See the April 30, 2007, Topic Overview: Banking Platforms report. For example, comparing 2007 and 2010 data shows that in 2010 fewer European firms are working on renewing their application landscape and more are in different stages of planning. See the November 13, 2007, European Financial Services Apps Show New Focus And Pace report. The majority of those who do not see this as a necessity are located in Europe. However, even within this more skeptical group, the vast majority of respondents are already executing their renewal initiative or planning to do so. It is important to note that while cost reduction was a key business driver, cost reduction was not the key business driver to which all other business drivers were subordinated. The survey data shows that cost reduction was not even a key business driver for all surveyed firms. This topic is a top 10 topic in Europe but without any workface ingredients. Given the lack of strong interest in multichannel enablement, North American banks need to avoid creating channel islands: isolated channels without any cross-channel capability. In addition, the strong customer relationship management (CRM) focus could indicate the existence of a CRM dilemma insufficient separation of CRM business functionality and potentially existing CRM multichannel capabilities. Confusing these two elements will activate the few-channel trap of some CRM solutions that have never been designed to act as a complete multichannel solution and thus cannot provide cross-channel capability. Typical budgets for smaller banks are in the 20 million range; global tier one banks showed budgets of up to 250 million. See the October 11, 2005, Banking Platform Renewal: Sizing The Market report. Survey responses offered euro as well as USD responses (where applicable), using an exchange rate of 1 to $1.238. However, for the sake of clarity as well as to ensure comparability with previous financial services surveys, this report translated all responses into euros. Application renewal budgets are tremendous. See the November 13, 2007, European Financial Services Apps Show New Focus And Pace report. During the development, implementation, and migration phase, costs will probably increase rather than decrease. See the July 8, 2005, Application Renewal Goes Mainstream report. Build or buy decisions are based on a variety of factors. See the November 29, 2004, End Of The Line For Vintage Banking Platforms report. Requirements can be mandatory or nice to have. See the March 8, 2005, Large-Scale Banking Platform Renewal Case Study: Drivers report.

7 8

10

11

12

13

14

2010, Forrester Research, inc. Reproduction Prohibited

November 8, 2010

16

Financial Services Firms Again Seek To Renew Their Application Landscape

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

15

Significant numbers of financial services form focus mainly or purely on in-house development, while only a minority of FS firms focus on complete suites of integrated financial services applications. This stands in stark contrast to previous surveys in which only 13% of the European participants expressed interest in this approach. Regional differences are huge: Compared with European survey responses, more than twice as many North American survey responses belong into this group, while Europe has shown a 13% to 15% share during the course of the past two surveys. Lasting renewal success requires planning methodology, architecture, and application infrastructure that support renewal and migration. See the December 14, 2005, European Financial Services: Top Five Areas For Renewal And Why They Make Sense report. Once the functionality has been componentized, banking platform vendors and banking software specialists will offer it as flexible bundles of services. See the December 8, 2009, The Banking Platform Of The Future report. New systems do not offer long-term advantage without radical change in methodology and technology. See the November 14, 2008, The Future Shape Of Banking Architecture In 2023 report. A business capability map will provide a sound foundation for this kind of activity. See the February 16, 2010, Bank EAs: Start Working With A Customized Business Capability Map report. A dedicated migration architecture will help firms avoid some pitfalls. A company in a Forrester case study was able to identify those function cuts and resulting migration steps that minimized the impact of retiring applications and substituted them with new functionality with regard to functional and data interdependencies. See the March 15, 2005, Large-Scale Banking Platform Renewal Case Study: Target And Migration report. This represents a huge difference from the past, when even apps supporting routine activities tended to be homegrown systems in financial services. Componentization is the availability of manageable bundles of off-the-shelf and custom-built services with a fit-to-purpose functional footprint. See the December 8, 2009, The Banking Platform Of The Future report.

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

November 8, 2010

2010, Forrester Research, inc. Reproduction Prohibited

making Leaders Successful Every Day

Headquarters Forrester Research, Inc. 400 Technology Square Cambridge, MA 02139 USA Tel: +1 617.613.6000 Fax: +1 617.613.5000 Email: forrester@forrester.com Nasdaq symbol: FORR www.forrester.com For a complete list of worldwide locations visit www.forrester.com/about. Research and Sales Offices Forrester has research centers and sales offices in more than 27 cities internationally, including Amsterdam; Cambridge, Mass.; Dallas; Dubai; Foster City, Calif.; Frankfurt; London; Madrid; Sydney; Tel Aviv; and Toronto.

For information on hard-copy or electronic reprints, please contact Client Support at +1 866.367.7378, +1 617.613.5730, or clientsupport@forrester.com. We offer quantity discounts and special pricing for academic and nonprofit institutions.

Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR) is an independent research company that provides pragmatic and forwardthinking advice to global leaders in business and technology. Forrester works with professionals in 19 key roles at major companies providing proprietary research, customer insight, consulting, events, and peer-to-peer executive programs. For more than 27 years, Forrester has been making IT, marketing, and technology industry leaders successful every day. For more information, visit www.forrester.com.

57039