A new report from Aite Group indentifies three types of information technology (IT) cultures found within financial institutions, and describes how each of these IT cultures makes IT decisions. Based on an online survey of 80 North American bank senior managers, CIOs, and technology executives completed by Aite Group in August 2009, the report sheds light on the impact of bank IT culture on IT priorities and spending.
A minority of North American bank executives view their institutions as having a strong IT culture. A superior IT management culture is not unique to large banks, nor is it found in all large banks. In fact, community banks and credit unions may also possess a high-caliber IT management culture, and are proving to be formidable competitors in the banking industry. Vendors to the banking industry have considerable opportunities to play a greater role in helping their clients improve their overall IT management performance, including developing a culture conducive to successful IT management.
“Large banks should not overestimate the firepower of their IT budgets,” says Gwenn Bzard, research director with Aite Group and co-author of this report. “Nimble competitors, namely community banks and credit unions, can compete very effectively on the technology front. These smaller financial institutions should not underestimate the impact that the right IT management culture can have on their relatively small IT budgets.”
D.C.