Capgemini builds next-gen digital experiences across the finance sector with Adobe
Today many major banks have moved from brick-and-mortar branches to the digital realm. Customers expect that they can do all of their banking online: opening new accounts, checking balances, transferring funds, or applying for loans. For many of the world’s leading banks and other financial services organizations, those websites, mobile apps, and other digital experiences are created with support from Capgemini’s Financial Services business unit.
Capgemini is known worldwide for operating at the forefront of innovation to support clients with consulting, technology, and digital transformation services. As head of the Experience Design Practice for the Financial Services group, Kapil Joshi focuses on designing applications associated with banking and insurance processes. Apps may range from customer-facing mobile apps, digital loan applications, and customer web portals to enterprise apps used by agents to manage clients and their financial services.
“Many of our clients have mature digital landscapes, but now they’re looking to embrace the next generation of technologies to improve customer experiences,” explains Joshi. “The COVID-19 pandemic, in particular, highlighted gaps that companies had in their digital transformation, such as applications that agents needed to work from home.”
Joshi and the rest of his team provide full support for banks looking for new apps or web portals, from research and planning to prototyping to coding and development. Adobe XD and Adobe Acrobat are two essential apps used in this design process, allowing the team to increase productivity by 30 percent while communicating seamlessly and more securely with finance clients.
Experience design with Adobe XD
Every new digital experience starts with research. The experience design team works closely with clients to interview end users, observe user journeys, and find pain points along the way. Any insights and ideas gained through research and discussions with the client are carefully documented, forming the backbone of the eventual prototype. While designers previously used apps such as Microsoft Word or PowerPoint to collect these ideas, they now use Adobe XD for both documentation and prototyping.
“User experience is very complex, requiring a great deal of thought and collaboration to understand the requirements for each experience,” says Joshi. “Adobe XD has a rich variety of features, templates, and add-ons that help us customize the experience depending on the project. This allows us to keep the entire design process in one location.”
Designers can add flow charts, select templates, create art boards, and add notes to create living documentation that captures the needs for each digital experience. As Adobe XD is part of Adobe Creative Cloud, designers can seamlessly import graphics from Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator to build out the documentation. When it comes time to start the prototype, all notes are available on the same screen, eliminating the need for designers to flip between apps. They can easily copy user journeys or use templates to quickly define multiple personas within the same experience.
“Our productivity is up at least 30 percent from the functionality available with Adobe XD. It’s a dynamic tool that can do anything, which allows designers to work faster for our clients.”
Kapil Joshi, Head of Experience Design Practice, Financial Services, Capgemini
More secure collaboration with Adobe Acrobat
Adobe XD makes sharing designs easy, with highly secure links that allow clients to view prototypes in the cloud. But with security being a top priority in the financial industry, many organizations prohibit access to any type of outside link, no matter how trusted the source. For these organizations, Capgemini turns to another essential Adobe app — Adobe Acrobat — to create highly secure PDF files that can be emailed directly to clients.
Designers can easily export documentation and wireframes created in Adobe XD into PDF files for client review, utilizing the free Adobe Acrobat Reader app. Capgemini can also lock down files, preventing changes to a document, or add passwords to help prevent unauthorized viewers.
Capgemini uses Adobe Acrobat beyond design teams to communicate all types of information with clients. Adobe Acrobat can turn any type of content into a PDF file, making it an ideal universal format. Capgemini typically creates presentations for clients with Microsoft PowerPoint, but by converting it into PDF, the company can send a much more lightweight file that clients can open reliably and easily. Many of Capgemini's client apps also take advantage of Acrobat form capabilities for loan applications which customers need to submit for review by underwriters.
While Capgemini locks down PDF files to prevent changes before sending them to clients, Joshi appreciates the editing capabilities within Adobe Acrobat. “If I want to make small, last-minute adjustment to a PDF, such as rewording text or switching out an icon, I can use the Adobe Acrobat editing tools instead of opening the source file and re-converting it to PDF,” explains Joshi.
“Adobe apps have been a cornerstone of Capgemini operations for many years, helping us improve how we design and communicate with our clients,” says Joshi. “I’m a big champion of Adobe apps because they’re so user-friendly and powerful. All of the apps work together to create a seamless experience, which allows us to provide clients around the world with top-quality service that Capgemini is known for.”