Comarch’s Southeast Asia Head of Sales on Future-Proofing Wealth Management through Digital Transformation

IT solutions provider Comarch is one of the leaders spearheading the digitalisation of the wealth management and financial sectors in Asia. The firm is leveraging its suite of solutions to deliver to the financial services sector, spreading the gospel of well-thought-through digitalisation, which, since the pandemic hit, is more critical than ever. Comarch’s team firmly believes that improving the customer experience is not enough to stand out in the market, and accordingly, they stress how the RM’s capabilities and productivity are such important drivers for growth. Digital means both high tech and high touch and must achieve both a great user and excellent provider experience to be truly effective. Parida Leelaniramol is Sales Director of Comarch Thailand, responsible for selling the software products delivered to clients in Thailand and SE Asia, especially in the banking and insurance industries. Comarch supported our Hubbis May 25 Thailand Wealth Management Forum, at which Khun Parida spoke with Hubbis founder Michael Stanhope in a short Head-to-Head discussion. She reviewed how wealth managers in Thailand have been enhancing their digital capabilities. She commented on some of the trends we are likely to see in the Post-Covid world and told delegates how Comarch helps clients realise their vital objectives of digital transformation.

Comarch is a Polish company founded more than 30 years ago and is a highly experienced provider of innovative IT solutions for many industries, including telecommunications, banking, insurance, airlines, resources and utilities.

The firm has been intently focusing on the private banking and wealth management segment in Asia, building relationships and winning valuable new clients in the region. With some 7,000 plus people globally, Comarch is a veritable giant in the industry.

Hubbis: What are some of the trends that you have observed in Asia’s wealth management markets, and how do they affect the rollout of digitisation?

Parida: Mobile is key to everything these days. We use smartphones for pretty much everything, including investments nowadays.

There is incredible innovation taking place with new technologies arriving all the time, with AI, machine learning and Big Data, all of which are resulting in innovative solutions and some big changes in the mobile applications that we use on these mobile channels, making it easier and better for clients handling their investments.

The shift towards digitisation in wealth management started before the pandemic and then really accelerated. In our opinion, this will continue in the post-Covid world ahead. We anticipate the fully remote wealth management customer journey, supported by technologies to allow RMs and advisors to connect face-to-face with clients via video consultations as they so wish, just as they connected to them in the pre-Covid world in person.

In short, clients and financial institutions are fully ready to onboard this kind of behaviour already and fully mobile, but the banks and others still need to catch up with the other technologies that are available in the market.

Hubbis: How can Comarch help clients in these missions?

Parida: Comarch is a global software provider with our own Comarch Wealth Management Service software that can help banks and other provide the best wealth investment advice for every client, no matter who they are, or how they change their behaviour along the way.

We are long-established, opening the business more than 30 years ago, we have many clients, and we work in many countries. We bring this global expertise to bear for each and every one of the clients. So we can bring this global expertise and tailor it to our local knowledge in Asia, for example, in Thailand’s wealth market.

A very good example is that right now, we are working with Krungsri Bank here to provide software applications that support their relationship managers in their deliver of enhanced investment products and ideas. Our solution allows RMs to use applications that help tailor ideas, advice and products must align more accurately to the clients’ needs and expectations, so that the investment advisory is very closely aligned with client risk profiles, their personal situations and so forth.

Not only this, but we have other offerings, for example, AI to help advance data management and thereby identify the best products to be fed to the clients, to enhance the relationships and to make sure those connections endure and grow in the future.

Hubbis: How do you go about the implementation of these projects?

Parida: Before we start a project, we begin with understanding the needs of the clients. We identify what they expect and also what they need. We conduct a lot of workshops together with the clients to refine all these areas. We bring our collective knowledge and expertise to bear so we can identify what these clients actually need for the future, so that we can then refine the products, their feature and their functionalities. Only when we have clarity on all these areas do we actually launch into these projects and start developing and implementing.

Very simply, financial institutions need to deliver a better customer experience and a better user journey. Digital transformation helps them achieve these goals, and we at Comarch can help deliver these goals efficiently and in a timely and efficient manner.