Early Birds Is Urging Companies From The Banking And Financial Sector To Explore Its Innovations Ecosystem

EarlyBirds, an open innovation platform & marketplace, is urging companies in the banking and financial sectors to explore the offerings from its ecosystem to solve real business challenges. EarlyBirds also recently announced a tie-up with the Union of Arab Banks (UAB), a non-profit, Pan Arab organization affiliated with the League of Arab States established in 1973, called the UAB Digital. The agreement is to accelerate the innovation efforts, improve strategic agility, and elevate the maturity of digital transformation of its banking and finance sector across the 20 member countries.

The company says that there are many challenges facing the banking and finance sectors in the coming decade. It cites examples such as the rise in cybercrime, analysis of vast quantities of data, the opportunity of using artificial intelligence, and many others. The company says that each opportunity and threat pose unique challenges to overcome. The reason large institutions such as banks and other financial behemoths are slow to respond to market changes is that they are mired in regulation and red tape that slows down momentum when it comes to responding to the changing landscape.

The company talks about other challenges such as customer retention, expansion to newer markets, growth geographies, the rise of cryptocurrencies, and the opportunity of blockchain technology integration in traditional financial services. According to EarlyBirds, such changes are outside of the wheelhouse of financial services companies and banks that focus solely on providing the best services to their customers with existing technologies and market expectations. This is the reason that technological progress tends to blindside large corporations, leading to an upending of the status quo every so often. The company says that to avoid becoming a dinosaur in an ever-changing world, companies should invest money and resources in staying up to date with the latest innovations that can help propel them into the new baseline by being well prepared.

The company says that its recent partnership with the UAB to form UAB Digital is an example of innovation being put to good use. It says that UAB Digital is uniquely positioned to act as a service provider to UAB members and will play a catalytic role in achieving world-class innovation and a fully transformed financial services sector in the Arab states. Specifically, EarlyBirds Marketplace will support the UAB Digital transformation agenda by enabling interaction across a global innovation ecosystem connecting tech innovators with UAB members, fostering a culture of collaboration and crowdsourcing across UAB members and globally, and building global partnerships with innovators to benefit UAB members.

Speaking about the partnership, Jeff Penrose, cofounder of EarlyBirds Marketplace says, “There is a real desire by UAB members to implement a global open ecosystem to proactively promote innovation and solve business challenges with disruptive technology. This agreement will help the UAB achieve their digital transformation goals by strengthening and enabling collaboration that already exists at high levels between the UAB member states and their financial services sector." Further details about the partnership can be read at https://earlybirds.io/en/news/46-union-of-arab-banks-and-earlybirds-marketplace-to-bring-actionable-innovation-to-the-arab-states.

EarlyBirds Marketplace is an open innovation platform comprising of an ecosystem of technology innovators, early adopter businesses, and subject matter experts, specifically designed to solve business challenges with innovative technology solutions. The mission of EarlyBirds, it says, is ‘Engaging Society in Actionable Innovation’. EarlyBirds marketplace allows businesses to explore new business models in their industry, radically improve and disrupt their business processes, create new or dramatically enhance their products and services, and establish an enterprise innovation culture.

EarlyBirds says it empowers the people behind the business to share ideas, provide freedom to people to try new disruptive solutions, enable a fail fast, learn faster approach, and create an organic innovation culture across the organization. The company also claims to help businesses attract new customers using the latest technology, engage with their customers more effectively, enhance the customer experience to a new level, and deliver greater customer satisfaction. When it comes to investment opportunities, EarlyBirds helps businesses explore the latest and rapidly emerging innovators, identify potential options, conduct due diligence on selected Innovators, and invest in or acquire relevant innovators. More details about the EarlyBirds self service and assisted programs can be read at https://earlybirds.io/en/early_adopter.