In this exclusive interview, Eric Bierry, CEO of Sopra Banking Software, unveils his unexpected journey from Sopra Steria Group to spearheading SBS. He candidly discusses challenges in transitioning to a software-centric model, offers keen insights into banking trends, and reveals SBS’s pioneering initiatives and ambitious global expansion strategies, notably targeting North America’s burgeoning market landscape.
1. Can you share with us your journey to becoming CEO at Sopra Banking Software, including key milestones and challenges you faced along the way?
My journey to becoming CEO at Sopra Banking Software (SBS) started when I joined Sopra Steria Group, one of Europe’s largest digital consultancies. If you had told me then that I would eventually become CEO of SBS, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. After over five years at Sopra Steria, I joined SBS as the company’s Chief Client Officer to lead forward a customer-first approach in everything we did as a company. Our customers are, and always have been, our top priority.
My previous experience and expertise in financial services helped me to build trust with some of our biggest clients–who are still clients to this day. This ability to build trust with, and continually support, our clients is one of the main things that help to propel me forward at the company and into the role of CEO.
One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced during my time at SBS was managing the shift from a services-based company to a software company. We had to attract top software talent as a non-software business and train our existing staff from a services-to-software mindset. We now oversee the rollout of various digital banking, lending and financing solutions to more than 1,500 banks and financial institutions worldwide.
2. What initially sparked your passion for the financial industry, and how has that evolved throughout your career?
I entered the financial services industry on a bit of a whim early in my career. As a high school graduate, I had to choose a trainee program to enter into. I chose banking because the industry was undergoing a rapid transformation at the time, which made it an attractive avenue for me to start my career. I joined banking as the internet and FinTechs were starting to emerge, and banks were growing and transforming with the times.
Back then, FinTechs were seen as competition to the banks. I’ve had the opportunity to witness the evolution of this thinking from then to now firsthand, where banks and FinTechs have moved beyond competition and actually complement each other by each doing what they’re good at. It’s this symbiotic relationship that continues to foster innovation in the industry.
3. Given your extensive experience in banking solutions and outsourcing, what insights can you offer about current trends and future directions in the industry?
The trajectory of the financial industry today is largely defined by two trends: the move to the cloud and the specialisation of IT talent.
While ‘cloud migration’ and other similar terms have become somewhat of buzzwords due to the scale at which this migration is happening across industries, it’s a lot more than just moving from one framework to another. Banks have more data at their fingertips than ever before, and the cloud provides the only environment for them to store and process this data efficiently. Without it, they’re more or less stagnant in their ability to actually leverage the data to achieve their business goals and deliver more value to their customers through personalised, data-driven financial experiences.
The specialisation of IT talent refers to the shifting demographics within IT departments at banks. Among smaller local and regional banks, we’re seeing more and more institutions outsource their IT functions to technology experts and consultants as digitisation becomes critical to their ability to deliver on rising consumer expectations.
Large banks are focusing their in-house IT resources, especially within dedicated areas of their business where digitisation is driving strategic business value. In many cases, these business units are focused entirely on innovating new customer-facing solutions as banks work to differentiate themselves in today’s crowded market. Meanwhile, things like data processing that don’t require a high-level of human intervention, or provide banks with strategic market differentiation, are being handled by AI, Machine Learning and other automated processes.
4. Could you elaborate on any innovative initiatives or projects that Sopra Banking Software is currently undertaking, particularly in areas such as cloud technologies, Artificial Intelligence, or cryptocurrency?
We’re constantly evolving our innovation roadmap in response to shifting customer and market needs. For example, we’re seeing increased demand for core banking services and operating platforms that offer digital currency and crypto capabilities, so we’re moving to meet this demand.
We’ve also recently embraced a fully Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and cloud-native mindset that we see as critical to building the underlying data foundation that’s needed for implementing new capabilities such as AI. By having these types of digitally-native, data-powered systems under them, banks are able to quickly and efficiently add any new AI use cases that they create directly on top of their existing frameworks—and then scale them from there.
5. How do you approach leadership and team management within your role, especially considering your involvement in general management, sales and account management?
There are endless books, schools of thought and other resources out there on effective management strategies, but for me, it comes down to one thing: Trust. I think it’s critical for leaders to establish these trusted relationships not just at the top, but organisation-wide—no matter its size. To me, every employee from the most senior to the most junior needs to feel that they have a voice and are understood in order to foster a culture of trust throughout the organisation that extends to its client relationships. Even as an organisation of more than 4,000 employees worldwide, I want to know each and every individual and encourage them to share their ideas for our company.
6. With your strong ties in major European companies and understanding of the market, how do you envision the future growth and expansion of Sopra Banking Software globally?
Our focus continues to be on expanding Sopra Banking Software’s global footprint, with a particular emphasis on our business in North America. We have a strong presence in Africa and Europe, and we’re hyper-focused on bringing that same level of recognition to our work in the Americas. We’ll continue to invest in expanding our market presence there over the next several years as we scale delivery of our end-to-end banking platform, Sopra Banking Platform, and wholesale finance and digital auditing software, Sopra Financing Platform, around the world.