LEADERS IN BANKING TECHNOLOGY
An appetite for change Ahmad Dorra, Customer Experience Solutions Sales Lead for the Middle East, Africa & Turkey, discusses how Avaya are helping banks enhance the customer experience while taking them through the inevitable changes brought by digitisation
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hat excites you and keeps you motivated as a regional leader in banking technology?
Banking is one of the key pillars of the region’s economy. What keeps Avaya motivated as a regional leader in banking technology is our appetite for change and our desire to stay one step ahead with technology that enables regional banks to enhance their digital services – both for customers and employees. Banks in the Middle East quickly adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting shift in customer preferences. They rolled out fully digital branches, virtual banking services, selfservice chat bots and other innovations in their attempt to provide their customers with world-class digital experiences. The best part is that these responses to an immediate challenge will pay dividends long into the future. Looking to the post-COVID world, Avaya’s recent Life and Work Beyond 2020 report shows that 79% of consumers expect organizations’ contact centers to do everything possible to make them a happy customer. These digital-first investments will make it easier for banks to deliver on that demand.
Describe your journey in banking technology and how this has influenced the role you are i today? Banking is one of the key segments for Avaya’s business. The top 10 commercial banks in the United States use Avaya
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solutions, and we have an extremely strong banking business in the GCC, too. With that deep experience, we are in a unique position to now help banks to navigate the uncertain outlook today and enable them to create an opportunity to reconfigure working practices, customer experiences and physical spaces. Our technology plays a pivotal role, encompassing everything from reviewing channels, digital transformation, ways of working and cloud solutions.
What does your company bring to the banking and financial sector that helps it advance levels of service and remain profitable? As banks continue to contend with fastmoving trends around customer and employee experience, we are working to support their success. Customer
WE ARE WORKING WITH OUR CUSTOMERS TO IMPROVE THE RANGE OF FUNCTIONALITY AND CUSTOMER SUPPORT ON THEIR APPS
Banking and Finance news in the MEA market
journeys and branches are changing, we are helping to provide new and innovative technology platforms that enable, for example, secure payments through smart authentication for apps and other channels, personalized experiences based on predictive analytics of customer behaviour, and meaningful customer relationships supported by video and voice solutions in bank branches.
In the light of the past turbulent year, what are your plans for 2021? This year we are focusing on enabling our banking customers to contend with the major trends facing the industry. We recently conducted a research study with banking executives across the Gulf, and through those interviews, identified six key trends where we can add value: B a n k b ra n c h es t ra n sfo r m e d through cashless commerce: The reduced need for branches to handle cash means banks are playing catch up on customers’ payment choices, and we are working with our customers to improve their digital capabilities to fill that gap. B anking apps as part of the multiexperience: Most mobile banking users need customer support for queries, complicated questions or just reassurance, and that’s where Avaya comes in. We are working with our customers to improve the range of functionality and customer support on their apps.
