2010 marks my fifth year with Forrester Research. Over the last five years, I have had a chance to work with many, many financial service firms. While I will openly admit that I am biased towards the Web, the past year provided more evidence than ever about the  growing importance of the Web channel. 

Conversations with clients these days are equally weighted around sales and service – a change from five years ago when it was almost always about service. This shift is important because it changes the role of the channel from just a cost-reduction channel to one that can move the needle on revenue. And when the focus changes towards revenue, senior executives stand up and take notice.

With all this mind, I recently published my view on trends in 2010. VIEW TRENDS 2010

Based on the trends outlined in the doc, I see three key areas of focus for 2010

  • Merchandising: eBusiness teams move beyond content, functions and tools and start embracing retail terms like merchandising. This drives a whole litany of decisions including metrics, organizational structure and personnel.
  • Mobile:Financial firms come to grips with the fact that mobile financial services are a "nice to have" until the channel offers something Internet banking does not.  In 2009, we saw the start of that and 2010 that differentiation needs to continue if we are to see the level of adoption that many research firms are touting.
  • Online financial management. A lot is wrapped into this area including features like categorization, reporting, alerts, etc. Financial firms put a large emphasis in 2009 and those efforts will continue in 2010. From Forrester's perspective, what drives success here is not just functionality but the old "I-word" – Integration.

I welcome your comments and feedback either here or via Twitter: www.twitter.com/strothkamp

Brad