Revolutionizing Banking Operations

Abstract

Information Technology is playing a significant role in managing the business operations creatively and this study provides a scope to explore the impacts of IT on the business operations. IT increases the productivity of a company and maximise overall performance to run the operations in a systematic process. Barclays as a famous banking institution provides the banking and financial services to a huge numbers of customers across the UK and other international markets. Through critical analysis of the impacts of IT and artificial intelligence, it is possible to evaluate the operational implications of Barclays to serve their clients internationally. As per the findings, the artificial intelligence and IT framework of Barclays are innovative to manage online activities and digitalise the whole financial service system for the benefits of the customers. The Chatbot options, robotics and online customer’s management services further improve the efficiency of Barclays to run their operations and create strong customers base. There are 24*7 services where the customers can handle their accounts through mobile application and resolve their queries through communication with the organisational representatives. Moreover, the computer network and cloud computing system are effective to manage the whole operations and protect data for customer relationship management.

Introduction

Information Technology or IT plays an important role in the recent era of globalisation, where the corporations try to adopt latest technology and renovate the operational activities to run the business sustainably and meet the strategic objectives (Drasch, Schweizer and Urbach, 2018). It becomes an essential requirement to survive and succeed. IT has an important role in all walks of life where the service industry is mainly based on the IT and creative technologies in order to sustain in the market and provide the best quality services to the customers. IT increases the productivity of a company along with its efficiency of saving effort, time and money, where the organisation would be able to secure future sustainable development and create good brand image. Through this study, it is possible to discuss the role of IT in the business of service industry. Here, the famous banking institution is considered for further critical analysis. Barclays is one of the successful banking institutions and there are great impacts of IT to run their business and operational activities across the market to serve the customers proficiently. The study also provides a scope to explore the ethical and social issues associated with technology, so that it is possible to mitigate the issues by adopting alternative solutions. There is different computer networking as well as influence of artificial intelligence in the organisation which would be evaluated further.

Organisational background

Barclays is the British multinational Universal bank, operating as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays international. It has dominant position in the service industry for its execution services. It is mainly operating in the banking and financial service industry providing the best quality service including retail banking, commercial banking, investment banking facilities as well as private banking, wholesale banking and wealth management services for the benefits of the customers. The total number of employees in the institution is over 83,500 (2021), where the staff members and managers are efficient to manage their customers and provide them the best quality banking and financial services as per their requirements (Barclays, 2021a). Total revenue generation in the last year was £21.766 billion and operating income was £3.065 billion. Barclays UK mainly consists of UK Business Banking, UK Personal Banking and Barclaycard Consumer UK businesses, carried by a UK ring-fenced bank (Barclays Bank UK PLC) and certain other entities within the Group. There is also international operation of this banking institution which consists of a Corporate and Investment Bank and Consumer, Cards and Payments businesses, which are carried by a nonring- fenced bank (Barclays Bank PLC) and its subsidiaries, as well as by certain other entities within the Group. In this recent digitalisation era, the institution is successful to adopt latest technology to runt heir operations in a systematic way so that it would be possible to manage their clients across the UK and also internationally (Barclays, 2021b).

Impact of IT in helping business to enhance their operations

The rise of IT is the latest innovation of the business where digital transformation increases the benefits for the organisations to operate across the market and handle the end users successfully. It mainly provides businesses the scope to analyse data and plan business strategies accordingly. The presence of IT has significant impacts on the business operations which are discussed further,

Cloud computing

the strategy of cloud computing is effective in the business for the on-going operational activities which further provides a scope to the institution to manage the IT framework and improve the capability of the firm as a whole, the improved agility and time and resource management for businesses are the major impacts of cloud computing (Drasch, Schweizer and Urbach, 2018). Good Wi-Fi connectivity an internet system are required for developing cloud computing system, which is an integrated system in the business for running the operations. Barclays is also efficient to establish cloud system in order to store and handle data as with safety and security. Cloud computing is mainly the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage and computing power, without having direct active management by the user. For example, Google cloud is utilised for storing and data handling (Barclays, 2021c).

Working remotely

IT provides a scope to the organisations to handle remote workers where the employees can access the computerised system remotely and provide efficient services to the end users. In the recent era of globalisation, the numbers of remote workers is increasing at rapid rate and the organisation Barclays is also beneficial of handling the remote workers to get the job done within effective time (Barclays, 2021b). The integrated computerised system along with the data base can be accessed remotely to serve the clients successfully with the best financial services.

Mobile technology

It enhances the practice of utilising mobile technology, where the individual prefer to access their operations through the mobile application due to its convenience, efficient and speed. With the rise in the popularity of information technology, implementation of mobile technology has gained ground quickly where the mobile team can improve the workplace productivity considerably. The banking institution Barclays has its own authentic mobile application where the customers can access the application and transfer their accounts as per their requirements (Barclays, 2021c). It is also beneficial, to engage with the banking representatives and conduct emergency transfer of money and handle their personal banking activities.

automation business process

IT is associated with the movement towards increased automation of business processes that further enhances the efficacy and increases workflow considerably. Automated business process further reduces the cost of the operations, where the customers can also handle their operations personally by one click options (Haralayya, 2021). The speed of the task as well as automotive process further influences the customers to utilise the company personal application for managing their financial accounts. It is also beneficial for the institutional employees at Barclays to handle the operations such as tracking the metrics, collecting customer’s data, monitoring the financial transaction of the clients, managing digital data base, billing as well as handling their debit and credit card activities in a systematic process (Barclays, 2021d).

Customers satisfaction

For the innovation of IT in the banking institution, it is possible for Barclays to create customers value and satisfy the clients by providing quality services and continuous assistance as per their requirement. The customers support team are working 24*7 in order to provide the best quality services to the entire customer (Haabazoka, 2018). The availability of adequate information, continuous support and enhancing communication through IT are helpful to develop strong corporate bonding, and trust among the customers. It is hereby considered as the best tools for communicating with customers and solving their problems in real time. There are also the facilities like Email, social media and other messaging platforms for this purpose. It is helpful for the banking institution to retain more clients across the international markets and strengthen their customers base in long run (Barclays, 2021d).

Information protection

IT protects the information and important data related to the market, organisation and customers through the digital data base management system. There are personal password protected computerised system as well as virtual storage system, through there is limited access of the users to utilise the information for the benefits of the organisation. Barclays is also efficient to handle data protection and safety of personal information of the clients for creating strong client base and developing trust. Hereby, IT helps the business to maintain its integrity and maximise the efficacy to run their operations safely (Barclays, 2021c).

Organisational resource management

IT is considered as important system and technical innovation to manage the organisational resources including financial resources, human resources and also handle the operational excellence successfully (Okoye et al., 2018). The Information and Communication Technology or ICT is being implemented in the banking institution for enhancing communication and create good cooperation and team working at the workplace, so that the staff members are informed with latest information and data and serve the customers proficiently. On the other hand, the integration of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) has improved the efficiency of various business processes. ERP is business management software for running the operational activities systematically. It enhances automated business process, where the back end process can be generated and handled through this software system (Barclays, 2021d).

Ethical and social issues associated with technology

Though IT helps to enhance business operations and improve the organisational growth through digitalisation process, there are some ethical and social issues associated with this. Information Communication Technology (ICT) has raised new ethical concerns about the protection of personal privacy, as well as there are other problems such as protection of intellectual property, acceptable access, user responsibility and use of information, software licenses and piracy. There are intellectual property rights and copyright, which should be maintained in order to utilise IT framework and it is the role of the business to handle data protection (Farah, Hasni and Abbas, 2018). However, due to piracy and hacking, the intellectual property right is being hampered. The data theft is another major issue for such hacking and piracy in software system, where the customer’s data and information are not safe on the IT system of the banking institution. Misuse of Personal Information is another ethical issue, where the client’s data cannot be accessed by others and it is utilised only for the banking purpose and customers’ requirements (Alzaidi, 2018). Moral use of data and information is being violated for such misuse of information and there is responsible action of disruptive technology which further raises issue for the companies to manage their data and information. Trust, knowledge, privacy, and individual autonomy are also hampered for such misuse of information. The organisations face issue related to identity theft, data hacking, and cyber bullying and communication breakdown. The customer’s data and account can be hacked which leads to mistrust and create serious issue about protecting financial asset of the customers. It is important for the organisation Barclays to protect their data and information through IT framework and protected cloud computing system with limited access so that such issues can be avoided and the customers of Barclays can feel safe to invest in the banking institution or gaining high return and managing their wealth (Barclays, 2021c).

Types of computer networks with their impact on businesses

Computer networking system mainly enables the employees to share ideas more easily and work more efficiently by partnership working practice. It increases their productivity and generates more income for the company as a whole by maximising the company performance. More importantly, computer networking improves the way that the companies offer their services to the world. Barclays is the first major European headquartered bank to join LOT Network and Open Invention Network Community, which enhances their operational efficacy by sharing creative ideas and business process with each employees (YuSheng and Ibrahim, 2019). The main operating system which is used in Barclays bank is Linux software and Barclays bank chose to utilise Linux because it is cheaper and easy to use to Barclay's employees.

Additionally, the networking system is beneficial to handle huge numbers of employees at different locations. There are different computer networking system such as Local area network, wide area network, wireless local area network, and metropolitan area network. Barclays Bank utilises LAN for its official purpose and they use it for maximising the internal efficiency and productivity of the employees and managers so that they can share the business ideas and work as a team to serve the end users. Metropolitan area network or MAN is also utilised for setting up a medium kind of network and handle the employees at different locations. This further improves storage efficiency and volume as well as it is considered as cost effective resource sharing planning which would be beneficial for Barclays to handle large numbers of employees and develop partnership working practice to serve the customers proficiently. Secured information technology, flexibility in the operational system and utilised centralised data base at Barclays are also other impacts of adopting such computer networking system for handling the large numbers of clients across the international markets (Barclays, 2021d).

Impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in enhancing their businesses

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the simulation of human intelligence processed by the machines, especially the computer system. The applications of AI are such as expert system, natural language processing, and speech recognition and machine vision to assist the customers and continuously communicate with them through the machine language. Barclays Bank is emerging as a great innovator in the use of AI in financial services. The UK bank, ranked 20th on the S&P Global list of the top 100 banks, and it works with the suppliers of AI products and services more than it develops AI applications in house, according to a recent account. The banks are using smart, AI virtual assistants to monitor the transactions, keep an eye on customer behaviours, and audit and log in information to various compliance and regulatory systems. It is hereby beneficial to serve the customers and handle their operations through continuous monitoring and supervision. In the business of Barclays, AI is augmenting the human workforce, and it further helps to resolve the complex problems by identifying patterns in large data sets and performing difficult tasks more effectively by digital database management system. This is leading to improvements in operational efficiency at Barclays, as well as enhances the sales and customer experience (Barclays, 2021d).

The artificial intelligence at Barclays is also beneficial to ensure Risk Modelling with Simudyne that employs predictive analytics to assess loan risk. Apart from that, business automation process at Barclays is beneficial to manage the credit and debit card activities of the customers and also handle the feedback of the clients for running their operations proficiently (Webb, Liu and Yan, 2019). Voice Recognition for Authentication further aims to apply verification and authentication by using voice recognition in the Barclays application, where the customers can feel safe to share the password and access the online application for personal banking and other financial transactions. Nuance mainly provides speech recognition trough voice biometric where the customers can process further for financial transactions. Barclays entered a closer relationship with Simudyne in 2019, investing $6 million to fund expansion, which reduces operational cost and increase efficacy of their operations through AI (Barclays, 2021d). There are several impacts of AI at Barclays where the CEO and management team utilise this innovative technology to run their operations and the benefits of using AI are evaluated further,

Improved customer experience

Client satisfaction can be maximised through such innovative technology and Barclays is successful to implement AI in their operations. The customers get continuous assistance at any time and are guided with the computerised system (Vaganova et al., 2019). The call centres have long waiting time, which raise customer’s issues. But after implementing AI, it becomes easier for the customers to get immediate reply and also get assistance as per their requirements. The Chatbots are also helpful for assisting the clients and Chatbots on call option further provides a scope to have 24*7 communications with the clients of Barclays. Hereby, the company utilise this innovative software program for enhancing communication and cooperation with the customers across the international markets and maximise the standard of banking in long run. In addition to this, fielding customer service inquiries and conversations about individual transactions, the bank Barclays is getting better at using Chatbots to make their customers aware of the additional services and offerings (Barclays, 2021c).

Improved fraud detection and regulatory compliance

Through AI, it is also possible to improve fraud detection facilities and regulatory compliance in the company. The organisation Barclays is efficient to detect fraudulent activities in the banking institution and avoid the signals and activities by taking immediate actions (Nyanaro and Bett, 2018). The regulatory compliance is being managed well and implemented in the institution in order to protect the customers. Big-data-enhanced fraud prevention and it has significant impacts on credit card processes, and in other areas such as loan underwriting, customer handling, personal banking activities and wealth management.

Reduction in operational cost and risk

Through AI, it is possible for Barclays to reduce the operational risk factors, and cost, the automation process improves the operational excellence and serves the customers innovatively. Robotic process automation or RPA is software for managing the automated operations and perform digital task successfully within minimal period of time. It is hereby a time-intensive and error-prone work involved in entering customer data from contracts, forms and other sources. The automation process is also beneficial for choosing the right investment strategy to ensure wealth management (Campanella et al., 2017). Through personalization, Chatbots and customer-specific models, it would be possible for the banking institution to identify the personal requirement and references of the customer and the bank would be able to provide investment advice for further wealth management of the clients (Barclays, 2021d).

Conclusion

It can be concluded that, IT has its significant impacts on the service industry, where the institutions re able to provide the best quality services to all the customers. the introduction of IT in the organisation increases the operational excellence and further help the workers to prefer better by digital data base management system. Barclays is one of the famous banking institutions operating across the UK and internationally. There are great impacts of IT in the organisation, where ICT and ERP are being utilised for managing their international operations. Moreover, the digital data base management system and cloud computing are helpful to protect the client data and organisational information for further operational activities. The adoption of different computer network and artificial intelligence further boost the performance of the bank in long run and it would be beneficial of the organisation to assist the clients and create trust and strong corporate bonding with all the customers across the international markets. The major impacts of such innovative technology in Barclays are such as customer’s satisfaction, smooth operational activities, reducing the market condition, proposing good investment planning, managing online customer through artificial intelligence, Chatbot options and robotics in order to provide 24*7 services and enhance market communication. Hence, digital transformation through developing IT formwork at Barclays provides a scope to the banking institution to run their operations systematically and secure future sustainable development by maximising customer satisfaction.

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