It is starting to feel…

It has been a bit strange this year; I seem to have struggled to feel Christmassy for some reason.

  • Maybe it’s because Christmas is on a Monday, and everything seems to have run much longer, busy until Friday.
  • Maybe it’s because we all work remotely these days, and there is now less routine since the pandemic, or…
  • Maybe, and this cannot be ruled out, it’s that I am just getting older!

It’s not like I haven’t tried… I think I have watched every Christmas movie going, I have eaten over four boxes of mince pies. I have certainly enjoyed the all Christmas parties, they have helped.

But now, on Christmas Eve, it is upon us. The house is cleaned, the turkey is defrosted(ing), and the nut roast is cooked. It is really starting to feel like Christmas.

It now seems inevitable; finally, the Christmas spirit is rising.

So at this point, I wanted to wish everyone, if you celebrate it, a wonderful Christmas, and if not, then best wishes for the season…

Thanks for all the help and support this year… will see you all on the other side.

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A plan for Jan… to carry on jingling

With the year winding down, in contrast, I have been finding that everything activity-wise has been winding up… getting busier rather than slowing down.

This has meant a fair bit of rushing around, setting and meeting deadlines and of course not getting the time to reflect and write quite so much.  My regular blog posts have been pushed into a mini hiatus!

Jingle Bells

And, its not just me, everyone I speak to seems the same. It’s a very familiar story… rushing to wrap up work projects, attending a whirlwind of social commitments, and a flurry of holiday preparations.

It is of course a holiday season… and there are parallels to similar effects we see in the summer too. 

Seemingly the psychology is this…. put on rush, make all efforts to finish tasks… officially all for  a sense of closure and completion, yes… but also in a somewhat desperate, yet ultimately futile, attempt to avoid being swamped with emails when you get back.  (hands up… who takes their laptop on holiday?… and more relevantly, who will be doing emails on Boxing day… just remember ‘delay send’ for the rest of us please!).

The irony here is that for a holiday season, it’s hardly a break and sometimes the rush to ‘get everything done’ can send us into a frenzy… Once you make it collective, the effect becomes exponential… and here we are a mad rush to the end. 

And then relax

One would think, but not really… once the holidays start, even then ‘the break’ is hardly tranquil.  Our days quickly packed with family visits, social gatherings, and activities.

It can be a juggling act trying to see everyone, an impossible feat as everyone else off trying to do the same! And to make it worse there is none of the infrastructure we have at work, at least I have not seen Calendly invites for family gatherings just yet…!

Then, the  New Year and it is over… January begins and… tumbleweed.

The party’s over

We return to work, laugh about the holidays and by the second week realise we are staring into the grey abyss of winter weather and the prospect of no holiday until March break (or Easter here).

Put like this it all does all seem a little crazy…

Now I really don’t want to be a party pooper… it is great to be busy, have fun and see everyone… I am here on this.

Yet, maybe we need to also think about spreading a little more cheer into January and February too. Even creating a little more time to relax in the holidays.

After all collectively we do need to give ourselves something to look forward to.

Or is it?

So yes, the weather is still cold, but it is also still a great time to get together, meet new people and start on the plan of execution for the year. 

And with so many of us still working remotely these days, maybe the social interaction is something we all need too… to keep us engaged, motivated and upbeat… an anti-dote to the lack of sunshine.

So this is a first New Year’s resolution… to try to a different approach, to spread events and commitments better throughout the year. 

It may alleviate the year-end pressures, create a more balanced, enjoyable work calendar and maybe, just maybe provide a little un-seasonal cheer too.

With this being said… it is now 10:30pm and I am off to put up the outside winter lights, in the rain…

Enjoy the run-up to Christmas everyone (just remember to relax and leave a little to have some fun in Jan/Feb too!)

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The MetaVerse is dead – Long live the Metaverse

Last week, I had the pleasure of chairing the Credit Connect Technology Think Tank, where we all gathered in Manchester to discuss the latest themes across Risk Operations, Credit, Collections, and Recoveries.

It was an interesting and lively discussion with a couple of key themes emerging.

Gradually Rising Arrears

It feels like we have all been waiting and predicting a rise in arrears levels over the last five years. As discussed over dinner, in some ways, it is our job to explain how the ‘sky is falling in’ so we can at least try to do something about it before it does. We often come across being seen as pessimists it feels…. but this time it does feel like levels are gradually increasing… and reported back widely.

The increase is slow and persistent, a notable, yet subtle, change of trend. The main concern now is the increase in interest rates, which is starting to have a significant impact on customers renewing mortgages or on renters who are having the costs passed on.

Energy and the price of energy was also still a concern… although maybe this is something we will hear more about when the temperature drops.

Regulatory Changes

2023 has been a big year for FCA-regulated firms with the introduction of Consumer Duty. This has now been implemented across the industry, and discussion revolved around the speed at which these changes are coming at teams. It is presenting difficulties for firms to adapt and adopt swiftly, with significant resources required. For smaller firms in particular, this can be a strain.

Further to this, CP23/21 Product Sales Data reporting is being flagged as a future change to watch. This is requiring firms to

provide detailed information on the initial sale, and ongoing performance, of individual agreements which will assist us in understanding how firms operate, allowing us to gain further insight into the markethttps://www.fca.org.uk/publication/consultation/cp23-21.pdf

All this will add further burden to compliance teams and likely take resources away from what are already stretched data analytic and reporting teams.

With a general focus on data and the use of data to gain greater insights and capability on performance, this change in resourcing could impact capabilities around data analysis. Something that is being used to give companies a competitive edge. You wonder if more investment in this area is going to be needed as a priority.

Artificial Intelligence

It seems no conference in 2023 can be complete without discussing AI and specifically ChatGPT.

Of course, even the term AI can be controversial. “AI” can encompass a broad spectrum of technologies, from powerful language models to machine learning algorithms and scoring systems… and yet all too often we bandy about the broad term of AI that could mean anything… I am guilty of this too.

Tightening this language is important and a sign of increasing maturity and understanding of the technology and something we need to work on.

Tis area is seen as having potential for significant opportunity. It is however tinged with a sense of caution too.

On one hand, AI offers promising opportunities for automation, efficiency, and predictive analytics. Yet on the other, it is still felt that human interaction remains indispensable in many contexts.

It sounded like it is all going to be about striking the right balance, with of course, the devil in the detail around implementation too!

Changing Contact Channel Landscape

Demographics evolve and so apparently are our preferred contact channels for customer interaction in the UK.

Apparently, Telegram has risen to prominence as a popular chat application, being amongst the most downloaded. This was something that was definitely not on most people’s radar in the room… nor did we have TikTok or Snapchat either.

What was clear was the speed of change and the need to identify and adapt to these shifts in communication preferences. It is essential for staying connected with your customers.

This was the overarching theme, the need for adaptability and keeping your systems and processes flexible to adjust for these changes as they occur (and they most surely will).

What happened to the Metaverse?

The Metaverse…. it was the topic of 2022… and something that appeared to drop from discussion in 2023. Was it a flash in the pan or an idea that is in fact a longer-term change we will see later… and is ChatGPT the same?!

The consensus was this time it’s different… and I suppose time will tell.

Personally, I think the metaverse has not gone away and we should not underestimate the power of Large Language Models to help write the code to make this happen. Applications in fields such as medicine, vulnerability, and customer service all have great potential… maybe it is just building these is more complicated than we thought…. we may also find something similar with Large Language Models (ChatGPT)…!

It is after all not the first time the excitement around ideas has run away and ahead of the practicalities of implementation.

Balancing Tech Investments

Lastly, a bit of a reality check. At conferences and in discussions, we all have the tendency to focus on shiny things, the new, the novel edge cases… it is exciting after all to think about new capabilities and challenges to solve.

However, in the real world, we typically have limited budgets, real customers, and operations to run in the now, so choices need to be made… and this applies equally to technology investments too.

Assessing tech priorities wisely is still a priority, as is making the most use of the data and technology we already have too. It was a good point made across the panels. It is always good to keep our feet on the ground too.

Have a good rest of the week

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