Canadian business execs in survey expect continued momentum, though obstacles to transformation remain
After a historic 2020, leaders in the Canadian financial services industry overwhelmingly share a vision of continuing digital transformation that will transcend the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the third annual survey on Canadian digital transformation conducted by Broadridge Financial Solutions, 87% of business executives at financial firms said the pandemic forced an acceleration in their company’s plans to digitally transform how they work with clients. An even more commanding majority of the respondents (96%) said they expect the digital focus to persist past a global “return to normal.”
Asked to choose a Canadian hockey phrase that encapsulates their company’s digital transformation experience during 2020, 44% of respondents signalled optimism as denoted by “Slapshot,” though that was down slightly from 49% in 2019.
Other phrases and descriptions of companies’ digital transformation journeys were:
- “Hat Trick” (accomplished) – 29%;
- “Face-Off” (neutral) – 22%;
- “Off the goal post” (unconvinced) – 4%; and
- “In the sin-bin” (negative) – 3%.
“Actively prioritizing digitization has been an increasing trend for Canada’s financial services firms, and 2020 greatly accelerated those efforts as companies moved to a remote working environment,” said Michael Dignam, president of Canadian Securities Processing Solutions at Broadridge.
Among the various areas of growth resulting from digital transformation, increased customer advocacy, loyalty, and retention was cited by the largest proportion of respondents (79%); it also saw a huge acceleration as it was cited by 26% more participants compared to 2019.
Nearly the same number of executives stated increased productivity and resulting lower costs as a benefit of digital transformation, though that marked a slight dip of 6% from 2019. While only 50% of respondents in the latest poll saw increased employee retention as a benefit of digitalization, that represented a 29% jump from 2019, the greatest year-on-year rise in this year’s survey.
Still, the overwhelmingly positive inertia in favour of digital transformation hasn’t removed the obstacles to digitalization faced by Canadian financial firms. As Dignam noted, more than three quarters (77%) of the respondents in 2020 said their firms are grappling with legacy technology as well as finding the resources to adapt and update their digital capabilities.
Another seven tenths cited a lack of resources (69%), and nearly the same number flagged the challenge of regulatory compliance (68%). Executive sponsorship isn’t as big a problem as it used to be, with the percentage of respondents citing it going down 11% in 2019 to reach 29% in the most recent survey.
With respect to tech trends that would most significantly impact businesses over the past year, 51% of respondents said the cloud will continue to have an outsized effect, up from 41% in 2019. Just over a third of the participants in the latest poll (34%) cited artificial intelligence (a notable decline from 50% in 2019), while blockchain was a factor for only 15% this year, compared to 9% in 2019.
Asked to rate their company’s efforts at digital transformation, two thirds (66%) of respondents this year gave their companies an A or B. Conversely, just 33% of respondents gave themselves a “C” or below.
