As businesses strive for innovation, efficiency, and scalability, the path to digitization is fraught with challenges. It’s a journey that requires addressing outdated processes, adopting new technologies, and most important, gaining buy-in from leadership and colleagues.

In a recent PaymentsJournal podcast, Reetika Grewal, Executive Vice President and Head of Digital Transformation at Wells Fargo, and Albert Bodine, Director of Commercial and Enterprise Payments at Javelin Strategy & Research, delved into how Wells Fargo is helping its clients with digitization and optimizing digital experiences for customers, as well as what makes fintech partnerships successful.

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Key Focuses for 2024

Businesses face many challenges in running their operations smoothly. Prioritizing efficiency and productivity is crucial, and can be achieved through the automation of manual tasks, streamlined workflows, and enhanced accuracy in record-keeping. Leveraging advanced software for data analytics empowers businesses to make informed decisions and gain valuable insights.

“At a very simplistic level, companies need great software to help run their business,” Grewal said. “That is one of our core missions, and that’s what we rolled out last year with Wells Fargo Vantage.

“It’s a singular place where a company can go and find that dashboard of the activity on their accounts, determining what things need their attention.” It also gives them opportunities to  manage their users, tailor their online experience, and manage anything new with their company.

Access to data is a significant competitive advantage, enabling businesses to tailor solutions to customers’ needs effectively. Without proper integration, however, this valuable data remains inaccessible, undermining competitiveness and impeding growth prospects.

“Something that midsize companies struggle with is not having partners that have the comprehensive set of tools to integrate those other systems as the business grows,” Bodine said.

Exploring the Digitalization Journey

Wells Fargo has adopted a client-first mindset, creating resources that help the company tailor the company’s experience—and address client pain points.

“We have built a library of personas that covers a variety of company sizes and company industries,” Grewal said. “We also talk about archetypes because in this space you have a variety of user types that come in. In a smaller company, it may be just a couple of people in the company that are interacting with the Vantage software. But at the higher end, it could be 200 people logging in.”

“So how do we make sure we’ve got that right Rubik’s Cube of who you are, what are you trying to do, what problems are you trying to solve, and how do we get the right information in front of you?”  

When selecting a partner, companies feel it is crucial to assess their ability to scale with a growing business. While it may be tempting to focus solely on immediate needs, considering future scalability is essential. Overreliance on multiple vendors can introduce unnecessary inefficiencies and complexities down the line.

“One of the big areas I see with organizations that are growing is that they might start as a garage business,” Bodine said. “Then fast-forward five to 10 years, and all of a sudden they have 20 vendors that they work with because the original vendor was not intended to scale in a bunch of different areas. The ability to be with a partner that has that scalability element is very important.”

Key Elements for Effective Digitization

Transforming processes from an analog version to a more digital version is not just a matter of plug-and-play. Digitization is never a streamlined process, and therefore, the more leadership provides support, the easier it will be. It will be easier not only to educate corporate culture but also to make decisions and allocate the necessary resources to make digitization happen.

“When we think about the strategic elements, it’s about making sure that the change management goes along with it,” Grewal said. “If you’re implementing a new process to drive some automation, how do you make sure that the tools that people are using are the right tools and then all the processes change along with it?

“If you’re moving from paper to electronic payments,” Grewal elaborated. “How do you make sure that you understand the timing differences and the information needs and things like that? That is also part of the digitization process—making sure that all the things that go around driving a change are also there to support the change holistically.”

Success hinges not only on technology but also on getting people on board. Effective communication of benefits is essential to ensure buy-in from all stakeholders.

“Change management is critical, and I like to call the antithesis of that ‘digitization for the sake of digitization,’” Bodine said.

Optimizing Digital Payment Experiences for Customers

Consumers expect digital payment experiences to be fast, convenient, and secure. Failing to meet these expectations could drive them to seek alternative solutions. Therefore, companies must prioritize offering the preferred payment methods for customers, with mobile being a basic requirement given the prevalence of mobile banking and shopping.

“It’s knowing your customer, knowing how to motivate them, knowing what the right size solution is for them. That is how I would encourage others to approach it,” Grewal said.

To foster customer loyalty, digital payment experiences must be convenient. Seamless transactions not only enhance customer satisfaction but also encourage repeat business. Cumbersome checkout processes are a turn-off for customers.

“I would add ease of use and minimal friction in everything we do. I’m a proud Wells Fargo banking customer, and I use my Wells Fargo app every day. One of the reasons I use it is because it’s easy to use and I use it over using my laptop or desktop to pay bills,” Bodine said. “We’re starting to see a lot of that coming to the stodgy old commercial world. Wells is taking a page from the consumer side. So it’s nice to see.”

Working with Fintechs

Financial institutions can leverage the forward-thinking ideas and agility of fintechs to respond to evolving customer needs. These collaborations enable the introduction of innovative products and services—something Wells Fargo has been exploring.

“We look to partner with companies that will supplement and enhance what we’re doing, either to help us deliver a really unique product or service to market or help us accelerate our client experience,” Grewal said.

“Bringing new opportunities to our clients that maybe we don’t offer ourselves and finding that partner that is willing to spend the time with us, work with us, understand the integration options, understand the partnership options. That’s important.”

The Opportunities and Challenges of Fintech Partnerships

When it comes to partnerships between FIs and fintechs, aligning with a partner that shares the same visions and goals is crucial. Being open about challenges, expectations, and wins only solidifies trust and collaboration.

“We’re going to be really deliberate in terms of how we go about it,” Grewal said. “We’re going to make sure that we leverage the collective expertise at Wells Fargo to do this well.”

“Partnering with technology, partnering with risk, partnering across the organization, we bring our experts to the table to make sure that we do this well. In terms of challenges, it’s just making sure that we’re all operating on that same rhythm. It is important that we all have that shared goal of ‘this is the problem we’re trying to solve, this is how we’re anticipating solving it.’ And then, as we learn more, we can put more structure around any kind of partnership.”

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