Author: Penny Lane
A core banking transformation rarely stalls because the ambition is unclear. The business case is usually well understood: replace brittle systems, simplify the estate, launch products faster, improve resilience, and create a better foundation for digital customer experiences.
The difficulty appears when strategy becomes delivery.
Financial services programmes must connect business change, operating models, data, integration, testing, security, compliance and customer experience. They also need people who understand the detail of the platforms involved. When that specialist depth is missing, a programme can remain well-governed on paper while delivery slows underneath.
For consultancies and agencies, this creates a familiar challenge. You may have the client relationship, programme leadership and transformation approach, but not every specialist engineer required for every phase of the engagement.
That is the specialist gap worth closing.
Why core banking programmes stall
Core banking modernisation is not one technology project. It is a sequence of interdependent decisions and delivery activities.
A bank may be introducing a new core while maintaining legacy services, rebuilding digital channels, migrating data, changing processes and connecting third-party services. In parallel, the programme may need to deliver new onboarding journeys, lending products, payments capabilities or customer communications.
Several recurring issues tend to slow progress.
1. The architecture is wider than the core
The core platform is only one part of the customer and operational experience. A transformation may also depend on:
- Digital banking and engagement platforms such as Backbase
- Cloud-native core banking platforms such as Mambu
- Enterprise core and wealth platforms such as Temenos T24 and Avaloq
- Experience and customer data platforms from Adobe
- Commerce, marketing and CRM capabilities from Salesforce
- Integration services, APIs, event streams and data platforms
- Identity, fraud, payments and regulatory technology
This means a core banking specialist who does not understand the surrounding digital estate may solve one part of the problem while creating friction elsewhere.
2. Specialist knowledge is needed at the point of risk
The most consequential decisions are often highly specific.
How should a product model map into the target core? Which data should be mastered where? What is the right integration pattern for a real-time customer journey? How should an Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) implementation consume content and customer context? How should Adobe Experience Platform (AEP) and Adobe Journey Optimizer (AJO) support compliant communications?
The same applies to Salesforce Commerce Cloud (SFCC), Marketing Cloud and CRM. The question is not simply whether the platform can perform a function. It is how that function fits into the bank’s architecture, controls and delivery model.
3. The delivery team is planned for the average week
Resource plans often account for the expected workload, but not the moments when specialist knowledge becomes critical.
A migration rehearsal may expose a need for an experienced Temenos T24 engineer. An integration workstream may need someone who understands both Backbase and the target core. A release may depend on an Avaloq or Mambu specialist who can resolve an issue without waiting for a lengthy escalation path.
These needs are difficult to predict precisely and expensive to solve through a new permanent hiring cycle.
What specialist depth changes
Specialist engineering is not a substitute for programme leadership. It makes the programme leadership more effective by turning decisions into workable delivery patterns.
The difference is usually visible in four areas.
Better translation between business and platform
Financial services technology consulting often sits between senior business stakeholders, platform vendors and delivery teams. A specialist engineer can translate requirements into platform decisions early, before ambiguity becomes rework.
For example, “real-time onboarding” may involve customer journeys, identity checks, data validation, core account creation, notifications, audit trails and operational handoffs. A platform-aware engineer helps the team understand what belongs in the core, what belongs in the digital layer and what should be handled through integration services.
More realistic estimates and sequencing
A delivery plan is only as credible as its assumptions.
People with direct experience of Mambu, Temenos T24, Avaloq or Backbase can identify dependencies that are easy to miss in a high-level plan. They can also distinguish between configuration, extension, integration and custom engineering.
That distinction matters. Treating a complex integration as configuration may produce a schedule that looks efficient until the first build sprint. Treating every requirement as bespoke engineering can create unnecessary cost and delay.
Faster resolution of delivery blockers
A programme does not need a large team of specialists at all times. It does need access to the right depth when a blocker appears.
This is where platform engineering services and staff augmentation can be useful. A senior engineer can join an existing workstream for a defined period, work within its tooling and governance, and focus on the issue that is affecting progress.
The value is not simply additional capacity. It is reduced time spent discovering the problem, explaining the context and finding a safe route forward.
Stronger handover into business as usual
Core banking transformation does not finish at go-live. The platform must be supported, enhanced and governed after the implementation team leaves.
Specialists can help document decisions, establish support patterns, improve test coverage and share knowledge with permanent teams. This is particularly important where the consultancy remains accountable for a long-term client relationship.
A good augmentation model should leave the client team more capable, not more dependent.
A practical lifecycle for closing the gap
The specialist requirement changes as the programme progresses. Consultancies should consider it across the full lifecycle rather than adding resources only when delivery is already under pressure.
1. Shape the transformation
At the start, the focus is on current-state assessment, target architecture, platform selection and delivery planning.
Specialist input can help test whether the proposed design is practical. This may include assessing the role of Backbase alongside Mambu, Temenos T24 or Avaloq, or mapping how Adobe and Salesforce capabilities will support customer acquisition, servicing and communications.
Structured readiness assessment, vendor evaluation and implementation planning can also help test assumptions before a transformation is fully mobilised.
2. Mobilise the delivery model
Once the programme is approved, the team needs clear ownership, environments, ways of working, backlogs and engineering standards.
This is a good point to identify gaps in platform leadership, solution engineering, integration and quality engineering. A specialist does not need to own the whole workstream to make a difference. They may be needed to establish patterns, review designs or help the wider team become productive.
3. Build and integrate
This is where the breadth of the banking ecosystem becomes most visible.
The team may be connecting a new core to digital channels, CRM, marketing automation, payments, data services and operational tooling. Adobe AEM, AEP and AJO may sit within the experience and engagement layer. Salesforce Marketing Cloud and CRM may support customer relationships, while SFCC may be relevant to financial services businesses with commerce journeys or adjacent retail propositions.
At this stage, platform specialists help maintain consistency between the architecture and the code being delivered.
4. Migrate, test and rehearse
Migration is often where hidden complexity becomes tangible.
Data mapping, cleansing, reconciliation, performance testing, regression testing and cutover planning all require discipline. In practice, integration, testing and data migration need the same level of attention as implementation and modernisation.
Consultancies should ask whether the delivery team has enough specialist capacity for dress rehearsals, defect resolution and non-functional testing. These activities are not administrative preparation for go-live; they are part of the transformation itself.
5. Cut over and stabilise
The team’s needs change again during launch and early-life support.
The priority becomes incident response, operational handover, performance monitoring, user support and controlled remediation. People who understand the platform’s normal behaviour can help distinguish between a genuine defect, an integration issue and an operational process problem.
The result is a more measured transition into business as usual.
Questions delivery leaders should ask
Before adding resources to a core banking programme, it is useful to ask:
- Where is the current bottleneck: architecture, configuration, integration, testing, migration or release management?
- Which decisions require platform-specific experience rather than general engineering capability?
- Are the digital, core, data and customer experience workstreams working from the same assumptions?
- Do we have experienced specialists for the highest-risk migration and cutover activities?
- Can additional engineers work inside the client’s existing tools, cadence and governance?
- What knowledge must be transferred before the specialist leaves?
- Would a short-term specialist reduce risk faster than starting a permanent recruitment process?
- How will the client recognise that the gap has been closed?
These questions help avoid a common mistake: adding people without defining the delivery problem they are expected to solve.
The role of a specialist delivery partner
For consultancies and agencies, the right partner should extend delivery rather than introduce another management layer.
That means providing senior people who can operate within the existing programme structure, understand the client context quickly and contribute at the level required. Sometimes that is a platform engineer. Sometimes it is an integration specialist, technical lead, migration expert or senior developer supporting a specific workstream.
The engagement may involve Backbase, Mambu, Temenos T24, Avaloq, Adobe or Salesforce. The technology matters, but so does the ability to work across the surrounding architecture and delivery team.
Finative UK’s technology specialisms cover these six platform areas, with platform engineering services designed around the team, engagement or product milestone in front of the client.
The practical lesson is straightforward: core banking transformation does not usually fail because organisations lack a strategy. It loses momentum when the strategy reaches a specialist problem and the programme has no immediate depth available to solve it.
Closing that gap early, and deliberately, gives consultancies a better chance of protecting delivery, maintaining trust and helping financial services clients move from transformation plans to working platforms.
Discuss a delivery requirement with Finative UK or visit finativeuk.dev.
+44 20 4620 4946