Financial services executives invited to hear expert advice on fully leveraging the changes and opportunities of digital technologies 

GMC Software, a leader in Customer Communications Management (CCM), announced today it is taking an executive discussion of financial services digital transformation on the road with a two-city tour, along with banking giant, BMO Bank of Montreal, and analyst firm, Celent.

Hosted in two of the most significant financial centers of North America, speakers from BMO, Celent and GMC Software will gather with select financial services executives from some of the continent’s most influential institutions on September 20, 2016 in Toronto and September 22, 2016 in New York City. They will discuss how digital transformation is an imperative in the modern enterprise, driving fierce competition in the financial services industry. Leading digital transformation requires a vision of how to fully leverage the changes and opportunities of digital technologies in a strategic and prioritized way.

At the event to share his company’s experience and business case for digitization will be featured guest speaker, Abe Karar, director of Business Process & Integration for retail banking with BMO Bank of Montreal.  His talk will explore how BMO affected digital transformation by accelerating its use of digital capabilities and provide attendees with immediately usable information on how to successfully develop a business case for digitization.

“When we began our digitization program, we put together several guiding principles to move the program forward,” says Karar.  “They involved an understanding of the avenues we could safely take to cut costs out of the system, look at how to simplify our processes and build the technology required to be reusable across the enterprise. All of this was to realize our main goal in this project—upgrade the customer experience both external and internal.”  

At the New York City event, Daniel Latimore, senior vice president of Celent’s Banking practice, will assess the state of digital banking, describe its powerful connection to the customer experience and provide a view of how organizations can effectively execute their digital transformations. Celent analyst, Stephen Greer, will discuss this topic at the Toronto event.

“Banks seem to understand instinctively the importance of digital,” says Greer. “But in practice they have a long way to go to make the fundamental changes to the institution's culture and operating model.”

“The effect of digital disruption is profound, as it is redefining boundaries, value chains, business models and, ultimately, who wins and who loses business,” says Scott Draeger, vice president of product, GMC Software. “We are excited to host this event, as we know it will help financial services leaders see how they can help their organizations—and the industry at large—develop a compelling and effective transformation strategy.”