Characters:
- Mark – Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of a small, community bank.
- Lisa – Mark's perceptive and witty wife.
Setting: A cozy kitchen in a more-than-modest home. Evening. Mark enters, carrying his laptop bag. He’s excited about something.
Lisa: You're home late. Let me guess—another thrilling day at the office?
Mark: It was! Today I approved a multi-million-dollar contract to upgrade our entire tech stack and enhance our mobile banking experience!
Lisa: Wow, great! But are you sure you’re choosing the right technology? You’ve said there’s a lot out there.
Mark: No, I’m not sure. In fact, I’m pretty sure that by the time we implement this—probably over a year—there will likely be more advanced and cost-effective options. But the fear of missing out is real.
Lisa: So, you're investing in technology that might be outdated before it's even live?
Mark: Well, yes, but that doesn’t worry me much since chances are I won’t be there to see the full implementation.
Lisa: Wait, what??
Mark: I’ll more than likely be at another bank … in a better position and making more money.
Lisa: So, you're initiating a massive project and then leaving?
Mark: I have to. This project could very well be a career-ending failure.
Lisa: Good point. How about some dinner?
Mark: Great idea!
Should You Build In-House or Partner Up?
With long-term tech solutions, banks are often faced with a big question: do we build it ourselves or bring in an external partner? Both paths come with their own set of benefits, but also some pitfalls to watch out for.
Going Internal:
Building your own tools can sound appealing. Complete control, purpose-built for your exact needs, and developed by your own team. But here’s the catch: it’s not just about the upfront development cost (which many folks factor in for initial budget planning). There’s long-term maintenance, updates, the inevitable bugs, and the people you need to manage all of that. For smaller banks, those demands can seriously stretch already limited teams and budgets. Then you end up with tech that sits on the shelf, never to be used again. Money, time, and resources wasted.
Speed is another challenge. Internal builds can take months or even years. And in tech, that’s a lifetime. By the time your solution is live, customer expectations — and the tech landscape — may have already shifted.
As we discussed in our blog post, “Why isn’t your AI implementation what you’d hoped?,” banks, as well as businesses in other sectors, often struggle with taking tech in house. Here’s why outsourcing can be beneficial:
- Cost and resource efficiencies: Developing robust technologies requires significant investments in specialized talent, infrastructure, and ongoing research—costs that are often prohibitive for smaller community banks.
- Enhanced time-to-market: Customer expectations and compliance requirements are constantly evolving and must be addressed in a timely fashion. External tech partners often offer pre-built, customizable tools that can be integrated more quickly than building a tech stack from scratch.
- Access to advanced expertise: Tech-driven providers have dedicated research and development teams focused solely on advancements in data management, customer experience, and information security, among others. Banks partnering with these providers gain access to the latest innovations in natural language processing, predictive analytics, compliance automation, and more.
Going External:
That’s why many banks are looking outward, and over 350 bank partners have looked to us. With the right partner, you get access to subscription-based solutions that are already built, tested, and constantly updated. Instead of reinventing the wheel, you’re getting to market faster — and staying there. Plus, your internal team can keep their focus where it matters most: serving customers and driving growth.
Bank Marketing Center, for instance, offers a web-based platform that puts banks in complete control of their marketing production process. With a massive content library created by marketing professionals specifically for both community and commercial banks, customization is made easy. Banks can tailor content to their market while protecting their brand, without the expense of ad agencies or freelancers. This approach not only saves valuable time and money but also ensures compliance and consistency across all marketing materials.
Bank Marketing Center
We’re Bank Marketing Center. Our goal is to help bank marketers with topical, compelling communication with customers that builds trust, relationships, and revenue. And we do this through automating critical bank marketing functions, such as content creation, social media management and digital asset management, as well as regulatory and brand compliance.
We also want to share what we know – and learn along the way – with all our community banking friends. Whether it’s the latest on AI technology, suggestions on how to attract and retain top talent, or the importance of data protection, we’re here to make bank marketing the best that it can be.
Want to learn more about what we can do for your community bank and your marketing efforts? You can start by visiting bankmarketingcenter.com. Then, feel free to contact me directly by phone at 678-528-6688 or via email at nreynolds@bankmarketingcenter.com. As always, I welcome your thoughts.