Do you need to review your payment system?

I have talked a lot recently about legacy payment systems, the problems they can cause within financial institutions and how to approach change, but I often get asked how companies can ascertain if they would benefit from evolving their payment systems. I think there are ten questions they should ask themselves:

1. How do you compare with your competitors when it comes to the sophistication of your offerings?
2. Are your customers happy to stay with you, or is the flexibility on offer from your competitors overcoming their loyalty?
3. Are the services you are providing to your customers giving them greater value, and are they willing to pay for it?
4. How far can you tailor the services you deliver to your customers? Are you offering a fine-tuned Ferrari or an assembly-line Model T Ford?
5. Do your customers get the services they want when they want them?
6. Do you know what your customers' overall positions are? Are you able to tell them?
7. Does information get used and shared by the whole financial institution? Or is your customer talking to three different businesses?
8. Can you take on board white labeled products from third party specialists and use them to efficiently expand your range of services?
9. Are you able to provide your own specialist services to other parties for them to white label?
10. Do you know whether you would benefit from in-sourcing or out-sourcing payments services - and are you in a position to do so?

I believe that honest answers to these questions will make it clear if an organization should start seriously thinking about moving their payment systems into the future.