Digital Transformation for Retirement Plan Providers
Between disruption and digitisation
In March 2021, Infosys surveyed 293 respondents from retirement services providers to better understand their firm’s digital transformation and the impacts of various technologies and initiatives on their firm’s strategic objectives. While the savings gap for the world’s workers continues to widen, retirement service providers are faced with the need to reinvent themselves once again.
The pace of digital transformation has accelerated considerably as a result of the pandemic. To remain operational, many companies have been forced to embrace and enhance the digitization of their businesses, and do so faster and more comprehensively than ever before.
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Respondents
0%
C-suite
0%
$25 billion+ asset size
Our survey results suggest that there is a link between investment in digital transformation and a respondent’s view of their firm’s profitability. 
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have at least doubled their pace of digital transformation
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reported that modernizing their record-keeping and administrative systems is important
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see their firms spending on digital initiatives and technologies
Investments in digital initiatives
Design thinking and Agile are the digital initiatives that remain highly important to transformation. 
Confidence is high amongst retirement providers in meeting changing customer needs.
Confidence in navigating the future
Key Findings
When asked about investments in digital initiatives and technologies, most respondents reported that they are looking to increase investments across the board, with an emphasis on design thinking principles and agile practices. Our survey data shows that retirement services executives have a broad interest in a variety of technologies while not relying too heavily on any single one. However, nearly a fifth of retirement providers say they plan to reduce spending on efforts to transform the workplace.
The retirement industry has changed in recent decades to keep pace with shifting demographics and evolving customer preferences and expectations. Respondents from our survey report that modernizing their record-keeping and administrative systems is critically important and key to the industry’s larger transformation agenda. A flexible, efficient, cloud-based solution can allow retirement providers and contributors to stay updated, keep pace with evolving customer needs and enable personalized services.
Nearly 90% of respondents said they are positive about the industry’s ability to transform and meet customer needs. Even with the global economy not fully recovered, confidence in the ability to meet customer needs is high among retirement providers. When asked about the importance of digital initiatives it seems that all initiatives ranked high, whether it is workplace transformation, agile processes or talent considerations. Respondents also noted interest in several modern technologies.
IT respondents reported siloed work environments between business and IT as the biggest challenge, while business respondents reported a lack of a proper vision and a strategic road map. Amongst business executives there was another difference while business C-suite respondents did not view budgets as a problem area, heads of departments consider it the top challenge to digital transformation. All of this hints at a possible disconnect between business and IT on strategic focus areas.
The digital outlook
Those firms that were already digitally mature have been able to adapt and flex to the current environment.
- Martha King,
Chief Client Officer, Executive Vice President and Head of Retirement Services Center of Excellence, Infosys
Next In Financial Services
Next in Financial Services is designed to provide financial institutions, business and IT leaders with the latest market and technology insights that support the shift towards a digitally enabled future. Through this platform, we aim to keep you and your organization ahead by bringing insightful topics that will build knowledge and understanding, while guiding towards better outcomes that leverage digital solutions and enhance processes, performance and ultimately profitability.
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