Bankers Better Embrace the Social Enterprise

“It’s time for banking to completely embrace social technology. We need to move beyond paper, phone, and email folks.” This plea was not from an industry consultant, but from banker Bradley Leimer. He manages the online services group for Mechanics Bank in California. Leimer recently expressed his views in an industry blog Bank Think.

Leimer felt compelled to write this after attending a Salesforce.com ”Dreamforce” conference, which focused on the rise of the social enterprise – defined as “engaging communication by sharing of innovation and ideas, and for enriched connections among employees, customers and inter-related groups.”

Leimer says the banking industry can use the social model to innovate, and remain relevant to customers and employees as they gain control of the conversation.

“The customer is now the driver of the conversation, and the move toward leveraging social technologies will only heighten the importance,” he writes. “The social enterprise is a learning enterprise, always focused on listening, engaging, and improving.”

Those can be unnerving words to many bank executives worried about adopting new technologies amidst increasing regulation and earnings pressure.  Historically, says Leimer, banks have been risk-averse to a litany of things such as email, the internet, online banking, bill pay, mobile banking, open source architecture, and cloud computing, not to mention P2P, PFM, and NFC.

He notes that many banks restrict employee access to Facebook and Twitter, and have not yet unlocked the potential of cloud-based business collaboration tools like Google Docs or LinkedIn. In turn, that sends a clear message to employees, customers and prospects that a bank is less than willing to embrace marketplace innovation.

“Don’t let the same lethargic response happen with the social enterprise,” he says.

Instead, he recommends bankers evaluate how social channels are influencing activity throughout a bank, and affecting their business model and processes. If not, banks will continue to work in isolation, the consequence of which will be a disconnect internally and externally at a time when engagement is needed most.

Concluding with a very strong message from a banker to his peers, Leimer says: “If we don’t start thinking about embracing the social enterprise today, we’ll certainly find it harder to connect our legacy business model to the growth engines of the next decade.”