James Hill, CEO of Flexys, which provides debt management software for organizations of all sizes, spoke at FTT Lending 2026, arguing that the biggest risk to financial institutions is not the cost of digital transformation, but the risk of “standing still and not moving forward”.
Hill acknowledged that transformation can be expensive and lengthy, but stressed that it doesn’t have to be and Flexys also countered the idea of a “hidden cost” associated with manual processes, stating that the cost in people, software, and inefficient processes is a “very real cost” that organizations see every day. Transformation is simply the key to unlocking efficiencies, cost savings, and a better customer experience.
The primary barrier to transformation, according to Hill, is the internal restrictive factor: the tendency to insist on doing things the same old way, just with better systems. He explained that a long-serving employee, when asked what “better” looks like, will often just describe what they already do with a few wish-list items. This is why successful transformation requires the alignment of people, process, and technology coming together with an essential external view to build a roadmap and define what “good can be”.
Customers are inherently aware of an organization’s technology stack, whether it’s modern or legacy. Flexys offered the example of banking apps, where customers experience the difference firsthand when comparing a legacy tier-one bank with a challenger. Furthermore, manual processes breed inconsistency in decisions and outcomes, especially as processes “morph” over time as one person trains the next. Automation offers the ability to inject repeatability into processes and the customer journey, which helps organizations remain compliant, align with regulation, and deliver consistent customer expectations.
To avoid the “scary thing” of a “big bang” transformation, Flexys advocates for “500 small steps” executed against a clear vision and roadmap. Most importantly, the process must remain fundamentally agile as over a multi-year project, customer expectations and technology itself will change, so an organization must be able to keep up with that pace while remaining vigilant and focused on their “North Star” goal.
