Crises bring changes. This was visible in the corporate arena in the 1970s in the United States (US), for example. Due to the oil crisis, many companies sought professionals with a background in finance to lead their companies in those years. Due to the little internal growth of their markets in the 80s, many companies worldwide began to look for new international markets. This new crisis, which some said was only an extension of the previous one, translated into the need to find professionals with a background in marketing to fill the much coveted CEO office. After the financial crisis in 2008, which hit the worldwide financial system hard, the talent search turned to the professional with a background in risk management and compliance, especially in the banking sector.

This year, the global crisis of COVID-19 has created a set of circumstances by which, banks in particular and, other industries in general, the CIO (“Chief Information Officer”) is receiving attention in-house. For reasons that we will not discuss here, banks in particular are under pressure to increasingly deliver “digital experiences” to their customers. “Digital” implies bringing everything (this would be ideal) that a bank offers in products and services through a communication channel, be it, the website, smartphone, social networks, the "cloud", among others. The COVID-19 crisis deepened and broadened that pressure.

More than ever, the CIO will have to work in a joint and coordinated manner with the areas responsible for the business strategy and the marketing plan of a bank. The goal will be to translate those mentioned elements into a digital experience that convinces and retains existing customers, but also attracts new ones. Regardless of the strategy or the market to be reached, the CIO must know its area and limitations, based on some of the following questions:

Are your platforms solid, efficient, online (even better, are they on the "cloud"?)? Are they really available 24/7? And what type of strategy does it respond to, a multichannel or omnichannel? Do your applications respond directly to customers, or interested parties, or do they all re-link them to your web page, so that customers end up writing an email.

Once in your web page or applications, do they provide your clients with instantaneous visual reports and graphs of their financial activity, or can your clients only download their information to Excel, so that they can “manipulate it as they please”? Does your digital platform send alarms to clients when a certificate of deposit is about to expire or does the account officer still have to call them and leave a voice message about it.

Do your platforms allow you to promote / send service or product offers in real time to your customers' apps or devices? Do your website and applications have the ability to receive money transfers, including "NFC"?

These questions and others in the areas of platforms, the management of financial affairs, on-line decision making and payments with the mobile device will serve to understand what the CIO needs or not to support the strategy and the marketing plan, in view of the new market demands post COVID-19.

Let's jog your memory. Before the pandemic, how did your customers get to your business? Were they asking for more parking space? Were you thinking of applying for a loan to expand your premises? Had you visited another city several times to see where to locate another store of yours?

The pandemic has arrived. Now, are your clients asking if they can pay with transfers? Are customers asking about your social media accounts? In-house, has your marketing area established alliances with independent delivery services to speed up deliveries and, therefore, collections. Is your IT department saying that it is not enough to “make a web page”, now they are talking about “applications”, “the cloud”, and the “consumer experience -` CX` ”. And, the year 2020 is not over yet...

On the other hand, the Central Bank of Ecuador (ECB) reports that last year, our main exports to Canada were fresh roses, cocoa beans, shrimp and canned palm hearts, among others. From Canada to Ecuador, the main imported good is wheat, about USD200 million for the same period.

Indeed, the pandemic brought changes and accentuated others. One of the changes that it accentuated was the profiles of Ecuadorian consumers.

Actually, although the pandemic apparently produced a “new” type of consumer, as early as 2017, for example, more than 60% of the country's consumer depended on a smartphone to work / use the internet. Between 2017 and 2018, purchases via the internet jumped approximately 50%. This percentage meant more than 16 million in transactions. And its value in currency? ... The not shabby amount of USD1,200 million; this amount equals the 4th quarter capital goods imports in 2018 (Source: eCommerce Institute, 2019; Central Bank of Ecuador, 2019).

These amounts and transactions were possible because, in the population aged 15 years and over, more than 50% have a bank account; approximately 30% handle a debit card and about 9% use a credit card (Source: World Bank Financial Inclusion Data Index, 2017).

An additional piece of information. Only 2.5million of the 16 million Ecuadorians do not use the internet. The number of users in the country has grown in recent years in the use and dependence on the internet for their affairs and interests. For example, in the entertainment area, the user creates and consumes more videos and photos; here, visual and aesthetic content has gained importance. Emails and messaging are another common way to communicate, in addition to phone calls or in-person visits. Searches and inquiries are now common, given that consumers don’t simply accept the sales pitch they see on the screen. Purchases in different portals and transactions are growing and payments are no longer for "electricity and water" bills.

Based on these information bits, it is not surprising that the Ecuadorian consumer is changing and it is difficult to serve them in the way alluded to in this article`s initial paragraph. Everything indicates that this “new” type of consumer will simply continue to strengthen its habit of using and depending on the internet and, therefore, their level of sophistication will be accentuated. It is worth learning to recognize Ecuadorian consumer profiles and see the ways that your company can serve them.

Everyone agrees that company products need to be evaluated periodically for changes or improvements. Similarly, corporate websites should also “be put under the microscope” for improvements or regular maintenance; however, this idea is rarely taken up. Many companies feel their corporate website was “good” when it went up and continues to be so even now. Below, we comment briefly on some areas that are common to web maintenance services.

Site backups/recovery: Backups are a basic necessity for every type of website, but companies often don`t know this fact nor allow time to do so.

Design/development ” tweaks”: Tweaks are less time-demanding than a total site build or rebuild.

Content updates/changes: Web analytics and insights help companies know how well their corporate website is working. Tracking and reporting on corporate website activity are very useful.

Software updates: Many corporate websites are based on WordPress and others, which use updates frequently. Accepting the “update” option is not enough in these cases. Other technical aspects need to be considered so that those updates are useful.

Hosting management and security issues may be other possible areas of assistance when corporate website maintenance is being performed.

Large companies that realize and accept that their corporate websites need to be maintained usually do so with assistance from their IT area. Other companies do not have the benefit of an IT area and therefore may put off updating or maintaining their corporate website; we can help these companies. Call or write to us to know how our maintenance services can improve your corporate image and improve business opportunities.