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The Huffington Post: Cognizant’s Vice President and Head of Banking and Financial Services in the UK & Ireland Says Innovation in Payments can Only Succeed With Customer Insights

“Whilst the way money exchange is handled around the world varies dramatically from region to region, one thing cannot be denied: payments systems, infrastructures and options are evolving. Over the years, we have transitioned from bartering to tender and cash, moving into check and card payments, with many countries now also embracing online and mobile payments,” writes Tony Virdi. “In order to keep up with alternative payment providers, those players in the payments ecosystem who do not look to the future, risk stagnating as consumers increasingly seek alternative, more convenient and immediate ways of making payments.” Excerpts:

“Overwhelmingly, the evolution of technology and in particular, the rise of online and digital channels is having significant impact.

While these mobile, digital and social changes are mostly impacting the front end of retail payments, there is also an important role to be played in the back-end integration of new payment channels. Co-operation is now key and this involves all parties from banks, merchants and card issuers to payment processors, mobile operators and handset manufacturers working together to develop a multi-channel payments process that is user-friendly.

In a global and digital world, the future lies in innovation. Those organizations that use analytics and customer insight will be the winners.

Analytics technology allows organizations including merchants, card issuers, banks and technology and service providers to understand the spending and payments habits of consumers. Such valuable insight ensures that any new channels rolled out match customers' habits accordingly. Following such a process will enable organizations to innovate and become more competitive, which is critical given the rise in alternative players entering the market.

Customer insights can be gleaned by gathering data from various different sources to create a 360 degree view of the customer. Real-time insights about each customer are based on advanced statistical analysis and machine learning techniques on very large datasets of granular payment data. It is this granular data that enables organizations to better understand their customers and tailor their communications and processes in a more personalized way, rather than relying on old segmentation methods. As each customer's response, feedback or behavior is processed, it is analyzed to provide inputs about campaign effectiveness, brand loyalty, changing spending habits and profit/loss.

There is a huge opportunity for the payments ecosystem to adapt and evolve in line with the digital transformation that is changing the rest of the world.”

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