Can you give us an overview of your role?

At ATCE Holdings I serve in the capacity of Corporate Sr. Vice-President and Chief Technology Officer across our product family. Our product family is largely in the traditional CORE banking space, but we have announced new Payments Platforms and you will soon see many other offerings as a result of our work. My role is to work with client thought leaders to look over the horizon and map a course from the business of today to the business potential of tomorrow.

Mine isn’t merely a role of technology, but a role where I must remain Business Focused and while maintaining Technology Awareness. I lead not from the perspective of what technology can do — but from the perspective of What Business Must DO, and How Technology Must Support it. I have an obligation to consistently make certain our offerings are aligned to satisfy those needs, in that order. Some time ago I came across a Sun Tzu quote that I have incorporated in my email signature. And it is “Strategy without tactics is the slow route to victory. Tactics without Strategy is the noise before defeat”.

What prompted you to participate in BIAN?

I’ve been involved in BIAN since 2012. I first became aware of BIAN before joining my last company, and rather immediately saw how it could be used as a set of Organizing Principles for delivering Systemic Change. I requested to be included in that company’s “Core Development Team”contributing to the BIAN effort. When I left that company I inspected to make certain the company I was joining had a commitment to BIAN. I am a believer.

Too many vendors offer only “point solutions”. And, at the end of the exercise those ‘solutions’ may deliver results, but the industry needs to make broader change. Change in how systems are organized such that lighting up new business opportunities and channels can be accomplished in hours/days vs weeks/months. There will always be old systems and there will always be new systems. The trick is to have a set of Organizing Principles (delivered via a Pattern Framework) that will facilitate bi-modal (or multi — vector) existence of all necessary systems. BIAN at its core, provides the Pattern Framework that will fill the void.

Actually, I’ve often said; “while some may see BIAN as being an imperfect model (or even somewhat incomplete) — I see it as being perfectly buildable”. To make sweeping change you first need a set of Organizing Principles. So, if not BIAN — then what?

Borrowing from Steve Jobs “A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”— BusinessWeek (25 May 1998). And that may well be the larger challenge until such time as BIAN has Reference Implementations to show people exactly how this change can be accomplished.

Our company is built around the notion of a Community Contribution. We believe that not all innovation needs to come from within our 4-walls. So, we have a “Community Build”model, an operating framework that will facilitate augmentation from wherever innovation may exist.

What do you see as the biggest challenge facing the banking industry in the next 5 years?

There are many challenges facing conventional banking near-term. Ever-present changes in banking regulations and Openness Mandates, Challenger Banks (and non-banks), Changes in banking preferences–Millennials (for example) are far less patient clients than Baby Boomers. A bank that fails to respond with services the next generation expects in short enough time span will stand to lose 25% to 30% of their retail client-base. And that will have a ripple effect across the other product lines. Challengers such as PayPal, Google and Apple will be preferred (by many) as they mature their offerings. Banks can’t wait to make sweeping change.

Banks must become more nimble. They must develop (near real-time) a view of their client such that services can be offered in anticipation of need or interest. Doing this requires banks to break-glass. Old norms aren’t going to work much longer. The “siloed”structure banks have historically operated from (Product, Customer, etc) must be flipped on its side. Client Financial Journey is far more important, and that cuts across silos. But most banks and banking systems are not organized to facilitate such views.

Now, more than ever there is a need for banks to consider major CORE updates/replacements!

How would you sum up the future of banking in one word?

Exciting!