Data is changing traditional industries such as finance and energy beyond recognition

Can a bank sell cars? Why not  

New trends in finance were presented by Jakub Hytka, Trask's chief consultant for banking business. Banks have passed the covid crisis with honour. Overall industry revenues fell, but individual institutions were able to take advantage of the situation to make changes that ultimately made them stronger. That's why the share of digitally active bank customers was able to grow by 70%, digital banking penetration by 20% and digital sales by 100%. The volume of e-commerce sales has even increased to three times its pre-cide level.  

Banks have been able to expand their service portfolio and come up with innovative projects that suit their target groups. The Brazilian bank Itaú has launched an app for acquiring a new car, which includes a range of relevant products. RBC in Canada offers its clients assistance with house purchase and moving, while it has launched the SmartReno portal for construction companies to easily access renovation requests. NatWest in the UK can help its corporate clients with data analytics to track the performance of their business.  

Automation is proving to be the key to success in banking. Those companies that have outperformed others in it have 2 to 5 times higher employee productivity compared to standard banks. This allows their human resources to focus on higher value-added activities. For example, digital development and working with data.  

The new insurance company will save you from a heart attack

Insurance is often considered one of the most traditional sectors of the financial business. However, insurance companies have shown a strong appetite for growth in the post-financial crisis period, which is reflected, among other things, in the successful adoption of new technologies. At Trask Future Insight, business consultant Vojtech Batek spoke about it.  

The insurance industry in general is undergoing a total paradigm shift. The market is shifting from reactive products to predictive and proactive products. Important players are shaping their business to prevent claims as much as possible.  

Individual pricing is now pretty much standard in the industry. The client has become the focus of companies that seek to serve them through multichannel where it is most convenient for them. The trend that traditional insurers are having to deal with is the emergence of new competition from other sectors. Both retailers and big players in e-commerce, such as Amazon, are offering insurance for their products. And they are not the only ones.  

Given the role that IT systems, wearables or even the Internet of Things will play in creating dynamic pricing and proactive activities for insurance companies, strengthening digital competencies in insurance companies is essentially a must. At the same time, along with the increased rate of adoption of new technologies, the control that experienced IT experts will have over the process must also increase.  

New players will enter the energy sector and their commodity will be data

In the coming months, new technologies will logically also be crucial for the development of the energy sector. The most interesting ones were presented by Libor Benák, Director for Utility, Telco and Insurance. He focused mainly on the development of working with data.  

The energy industry is facing the future of decentralised sources, virtual power plants and smart grid integrators, which will require real-time measurement using many sensors, control and synchronisation of different energy networks. Groups of active customers will create their own energy environments that respond flexibly to actual consumption. All this will depend on the analysis of huge amounts of data including prediction models, visualizations and accessibility in general. The security of the whole system and its sub-systems must not be forgotten either. New business models are already being introduced in the energy sector, as is the application of cyber security and infrastructure protection.  

It's here

Today, we are no longer waiting for technologies that will transform the world. We have them and we know how to apply them. The future is knocking.