JP Morgan Chase 2015 Annual Report Download - page 30

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IV. WE ARE HERE TO SERVE OUR CLIENTS
We have to be innovating all the time to
succeed. Investing in the future is critical
to our business and crucial for our growth.
Every year we ask, “Are we doing enough?
And should we be spending more?” We do
not cut back on “good spending” to meet
budget or earnings targets. We view this type
of cost cutting like an airline scaling back
on maintenance – it’s a bad idea. We spent
more than $9 billion last year on technology.
Importantly, 30% of this total amount was
spent on new investments for the future.
Today, we have more than 40,000 technolo-
gists, from programmers and analysts to
systems engineers and application designers.
In addition, our resources include 31 data
centers, 67,000 physical servers globally,
27,920 databases and a global network that
operates smoothly for all our clients. There
are many new technologies that I will not
discuss here (think cloud, containerization
and virtualization) but which will make
every single part of this ecosystem increas-
ingly more ecient over time.
We need to innovate in both big and small ways.
Technology often comes in big waves – such
as computerization, the Internet and mobile
devices. However, plenty of important
innovation involves lots of little things that
are additive over time and make a product
or a service better or faster; for example,
simplifying online applications, improving
ATMs to do more (e.g., depositing checks)
and speeding up credit underwriting. Many
of these improvements were not just the
result of technology but the result of teams
of people across Legal, Finance, Technology
and Client Coverage & Support working
together to understand, simplify and auto-
mate processes.
One of our growing teams is our digital
group, including more than 400 profes-
sionals focused on product and platform
design and innovation. In addition, the digital
technology organization has over 1,200
technologists that deliver digital solutions,
including frameworks, development and
architecture. This is an exceptional group,
but you can judge for yourself when you
read about some of the great projects being
rolled out.
We have thousands of such projects, but I
just want to give you a sample of some of
our current initiatives (I will talk extensively
later about investments in payments, in big
data and in our Investment Bank):
• Consumer digital. We are intently focused
on delivering dierentiated digital experi-
ences across our consumer businesses.
For example, we added new functionality
to our mobile app with account preview
and check viewing, and we redesigned
chase.com with simpler navigation and
more personalized experiences, making
it easier for our customers to bank and
interact with us when and how they want
– via smartphones, laptops and other
mobile devices. We now have nearly 23
million active Chase Mobile customers,
a 20% increase over the prior year.
Many of the new and exciting things we are
doing center on technology, including big
data and FinTech. We are continually inno-
vating to serve our clients better, faster and
cheaper – year after year.
How do you view innovation, technology and FinTech? And have banks been good innovators?
Do you have economies of scale, and how are they benefiting your clients?
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