“ We fully expect partner networks to expand dramatically in the coming years , particularly in a post- Covid economy ”
A boom in APIs And ultimately , technology and the setup of legacy systems means partnerships are not only advantageous , but also unavoidable . Even so , making them work in practice is not without its challenges .
Paul Crerand – Field CTO EMEA at
MuleSoft , explains , “ Making partner networks work in practice is often far from straightforward . The reality is that banks ’ IT operating models aren ’ t typically geared towards third-party collaboration . All too often , banking IT is a complicated mix of legacy systems , where valuable customer data is scattered across disparate silos . This makes it difficult for banks to draw the right customer data sets together to collaborate with others .”
Crerand says that to navigate these challenges , banks are increasingly implementing API-led integration . By placing APIs in front of each system they need to draw data from banks that can become more composable and , exposing their IT assets as a network of reusable capabilities that others can discover and tap into .
“ A third-party wishing to make use of a certain banking capability can simply plug the bank ’ s API into their own product or service , to create a connected customer experience . The more that banks are able to open themselves up in this manner , the more opportunities they have to join new value chains , unlocking more revenue as a result .”
Partner networks of the future Strategic partnerships are here to stay – and the technology driving them will continue to iron out the challenges many of them , still in their relative infancy , are facing . This is a conclusion most experts agree on .