December 02, 2008

Datamonitor recently attended IBM's 'Transformation in the Banking Industry' analyst day, where the company shared some candid views on the current and future state of the banking sector. IBM is undeniably impacted to a significant extent by the global financial crisis, and has therefore been compelled to act accordingly.As one of the founding fathers of the IT industry, IBM has previous experience of navigating turbulent market conditions (the dot com boom and bust era of the late 1990s and early 2000s being one such example). However, this is the first time that its main revenue steam - namely the global banking industry - has looked decidedly unhealthy. Given that more than a quarter of IBM's total annual revenue is received from institutions operating in the financial services sector, it comes as no surprise that the company is employing numerous measures in an attempt to weather the financial storm and emerge relatively unscathed.

While it is inconceivable for IBM to spectacularly implode in the same manner as some of its former banking clientele, the organization has been significantly impacted by the global financial crisis, and has therefore been compelled to adapt accordingly.In their double act keynote address, Likhit Wagle and Vikram Lund (IBM's banking leaders in Northeast Europe) spoke openly of the protective measures that have been taken so far. Both were keen to stress that IBM saw the signs of the impending market crash, and, as such, was able to spend time preparing for the momentous events that occurred in the latter half of 2008.Uppermost in this preparatory phase has been a careful structural reshaping of IBM's internal resources to create the Integrated Banking Team (IBT), which is based around four distinct practice areas (underpinned by a data governance layer): core systems & payments, information management, customer care & insight and risk & compliance.