Having worked with retailers through fourteen years of disruption driven by customer adoption of web and mobile Im now seeing banks make their way through what feels like a very similar journey.

Whilst that doesnt mean the answers are the same for banks as they are for retailers it does mean there are many similarities in the drivers of change and the strategic options available. I can see one great similarity - for the first few years of development the new channels (direct/digital) operate as a silo from the traditional business but eventually they have to be integrated or its the customers who feel the pain and vote with their feet . So, what did we learn from helping retailers to grow their new channels and subsequently to integrate them to offer a multi-channel experience? One lesson (of many) that we learned is that its not just about systems and technology. Its very easy for any major organisation to become convinced that multi-channel integration is a massive systems investment programme that is just too scary to take on. The reality, and weve proven it over and again in retailing is that if you start with a focus on creating integrated customer experiences it is possible to make real headway ahead of the infrastructure challenge - ask me if you want to know more. But it starts when you choose to define multi-channel as a priority and break out of the organisational channel silos. As consumers we should all be able to relate with the channel shift challenge in banking because we are interacting with our banks differently today than we were just a short time ago. The rise of our self-service culture has been enabled by the growth of phone and internet banking, our adoption of this means that banks now need a rethink about the role of the branch, and guess what they spend a lot of time on this. You will no doubt have noticed that a number of banks have introduced a more open plan design, maybe have a greeter out front to direct you to the services you need, they may even serve coffee. This is part of a change that positions automated services at the front of the branch for self-service and behind this are the face to face services being reserved for high value interactions such as a conversation about a loan or your savings. The latest example that grabbed my attention is from Citi and is a variation on the theme, this is a bank that had largely retreated from the retail position and is now on a drive to open super branches in major cities. They have adopted a design apparently inspired by the Apple Store and they talk about Citi for Cities - you can see here the recent opening of one of these high-tech flagship branches in the Shanghai metro - right at the heart of their target customers busy lives. There are plenty of examples, of branch redesign but not much evidence of anyone really reshaping the question. I think the real channel shift challenge is this: should my bank have two teams thinking about a) the role of the branch and b) how to drive direct/digital banking or should my bank be crashing these questions together and thinking about how to deliver an integrated multi-channel experience for customers?