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vertical opportunities
FIS: The Era of Intelligent Commerce
division, and his direct reports driving product, client service and strategy are Jim Johnson, chief operating officer; Serena Smith, chief client officer; and Bob Legters, chief product officer.
With Smith responsible for client services across the entire division, Johnson’s and Legters’ areas of responsibility are divided into three parallel segments: financial (includ- ing debit and credit), emerging commerce (including prepaid, loyalty and EBT) and retail (includ- ing legacy retail businesses, such as Certegy). Each segment has two senior leaders—one on the opera- tions side and the other on the product side. The counterparts address their segments holistically, combining the intelligence gath- ered in day-to-day execution with the strategic vision for product growth and new opportunities.
“Rather than having a narrow view of what a client needs to support one product, we look at its com- plete needs, providing insight on delivering efficient solutions that create synergy across product lines—without a lot of hoops and bureaucracy,” explains Legters. “The reorganization—coupled with greater empowerment to allocate capital and prioritize development in the payment product line—re- moved the internal FIS friction of competing priorities, replacing it with a one-stop-shop for clients.”
“Clients are seeing that we don’t have competing priorities anymore,” adds Johnson. “The first evidence is
Security iS the Bottom Line
With a nine-figure investment in its security/risk department, security is what FIS is about, says Chief Operating Officer Jim Johnson. “Our motto is ‘secure by design,’” he explains. “For us, it’s a way of life, and our senior executives begin each work day with a call to discuss security. Our clients’ data are the most precious assets we have.”
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a single point of contact at FIS. This approach, which has driven client service ratings to an all-time high, according to Johnson, provides fewer opportunities for miscom- munication or dropping the ball. “Focusing on clients is job No. 1 for us,” he says. “And, we now have more opportunities to be our clients’ very best partner.”
Big and Nimble: An Oxymoron? Being nimble isn’t easy for any organization, much less a proces- sor with annual revenues exceeding $6 billion. Johnson says FIS’s nim- bleness is improving every day. As evidence, he cites the number of new products coming to market, which are expected to double this year compared to 2014.
But how will FIS’s holistic approach affect client service, like when a client has a complaint or needs process improvement or develop- ment? The reorganization supports responsiveness in two ways, Johnson says. The first is the transformation of Smith’s client service area into a proactive unit that thinks ahead on behalf of clients. “Like, being out in front with information on fraud trends or the introduction of a new payment form factor, like Apple Pay,” he suggests. Second is the internal resources the reorganization has
freed up by reducing duplicative efforts. “In the past, we might have had several wallet initiatives, for example,” Legters adds. “Now, because we can see across our organization, development is cen- tralized, freeing up resources to work in other areas, like addressing clients’ specific needs.”
It’s Fun to Be the Cool Kid
Although Lowthers contends that his division views itself as a start- up, owing to the entrepreneurial backgrounds of many of its senior members, he’s also quick to acknow- ledge that it’s terrific to have FIS’s resources behind him. “We have the benefit of tremendous scale, includ- ing 8,500 North American financial institutions and several thousand retailers as clients, along with more than 2 million POS endpoints,” he says. “And, when issues arise, we look around the world for learnings from another market. For example, when the Fed started talking about faster payments, we’d already addressed a similar issue in the
U.K. and Thailand.
“Our size brings us tremendous opportunities that others just don’t have,” he adds. “And, with all the excitement in payments these days, it’s really fun to be the cool kid talking about innovation with clients.”