Banks investing in cloud and digital

The finance sector has always been one of the most advanced when it comes to IT investments and the vertical is facing a number of pressures, ranging from increased competition to GDPR, that are keeping the IT spending flowing.

The rise of digital only banks has posed one of the largest challenges to existing players and has fuelled changing consumer behaviours.

The reaction from the finance sector has included job cuts and branch closures as well as a determination to protect market position.

That has included spending on IT and shifting towards the cloud and that trend is continuing according to research from Pearlfinders, which quizzes IT budget holders to get a clear idea of the buying decisions.

The firm's insight into the financial market found that hosted solutions are going to take large chunks of the IT budget. The money put towards digital and software development is also set to increase.

There is also growing pressure on banks and finance firms to make sure that the customer data they hold is secure and protected. Pearlfinders found that investments in cyber security and disaster recovery were also set to increase.

The rest of the budget is carved up with making sure that hardware, networking infrastrucure and comms are up to scratch.

“With so much upheaval in the finance sector, smart, highly-targeted outreach by resellers is essential. As previously in-demand technology like cloud finally reaches maturity - and saturation point in certain cases – sales and account management teams should contemplate pivoting towards genuinely disruptive in-demand solutions relating to cybersecurity, automation and next-generation UC," said Mike Thorne, Pearlfinders deputy managing director.

The advice for the channel was to make sure that any sales pitch hit the right themes and issues being faced by those operating in the financial sector.

“The volume of sales outreach received by CIOs has never been higher, but naturally so much of this is irrelevant white noise. With GDPR coming in next month, tailoring your communications to each prospect’s underlying business requirements - and clearly articulating the relevance of the solutions you’re offering - is absolutely critical," he added.