Jennifer Harris: Setting New Standards in Business Intelligence by Leveraging Innovation in the Global Market

Jennifer Harris is the Head of Marketing and Business Intelligence at Sandstone Technology. She is responsible for overseeing the global marketing function, market trends, business data, and analytics which enables her to build their partner ecosystem and marketplace.

Sandstone Technology was founded over 25 years ago by two ex-IMB employees who identified an opportunity of using the internet for banking and other financial capabilities. Since its inception, Sandstone Technology has been providing banks and financial institutions with leading financial technology solutions ranging from internet banking and mobile applications through online acquisition tools by lending origination and intelligent document processing (IDP) solutions.

A Dynamic Leader

During the course of her career, Jennifer has led teams of marketing professionals and was involved in business development roles across multiple industries. She originally came to Sandstone Technology to help build out its proposition through the marketing and communications function.

Jennifer stated, "Knowing your own strengths and limitations can help you in creating high-performing teams. Surrounding yourself with people whose skills complement your own and understanding what drives them aids in creating a highly collaborative environment." She also believes that a leader needs to be able to lead with empathy, especially in times of crisis. "Taking an interest in your employees on a personal level and having a true understanding of where they are at and any point in time, allows a leader to pick up on anomalies early and provide the opportunity to address them. By understanding who they are and how they like to operate means you, as a leader, will be able to help them transition through any blockages, learn from them, and grow" adds Jennifer.

Inputs for a Productive Workforce

The most important thing for Jennifer early on as a leader was knowing how hard she had to work to be seen and heard.

She learned early on that the ability to listen was incredibly powerful at the inception of her career. She advised, "Listen, absorb, and learn." According to her, some working environments drive people to be very individualistic in their approach, where employees feel as though they are competing against one another for a share of voice or fighting for that promotion. These organizations create a very toxic culture and working environment. Whereas organizations whose leadership focuses on a 'one team' approach have a healthier culture and a more productive workforce. Jennifer admitted that this was one of the reasons why she joined Sandstone Technology. Despite its size, it is still a family-run business with a lot of those foundation principles alive and well today, and that exactly is the reason which attracted Jennifer to contribute to Sandstone.

Empower. Listen. Create. – Her Success Secrets

Jennifer observed that strategic vision, clear communication skills, emotional intelligence, and the ability to organize information into processes and systems are some qualities that make a worthy leader. She feels that providing governance and driving a sense of purpose to people is vital in delivering success, but success will only come if the employees feel like they are part of the solution. She advised, "Empower your people. Listen to what they have to say. Create an environment for creative thinking and expression of ideas."

The Inner Meaning of Real Innovation

Jennifer thinks that there are multiple facets to creating an innovative working environment. "Firstly, one would need to have a thorough understanding of the customer, "What are their goals? What are they wanting to achieve? What are their pain points?" etc. Secondly, there needs to be a strong sense as to what is happening in the market. Technology moves quickly and there are always new ways of working, new opportunities on offer. It's having the ability to look at the market and identifying trends and forecast what comes next.
And finally, creating an environment where people can come together to create and share ideas" asserted Jennifer.

Jennifer believes that when one combines all elements listed above, he or she can identify additional features and functionality within existing products, or identify entirely new products to meet future needs. This is what she thinks is real innovation- creating something for a need that doesn't yet exist.

Disruption Tech that Drives Innovation

Jennifer feels that there has been so much disruption within the financial sector particularly over the past couple of years, with the pandemic thrusting everyone into a world where agility and the ability to pivot the business were rewarded. It highlighted the need for digitization and servicing customers remotely. As an organization that helps banks and financial institutions meet the needs of their customers through digital transformation, they noticed how significantly the conversation changed. "Automation, the use of AI, and the ability for customers to self-serve through digital channels will continue to be a focus for the industry over the next couple of years. However, Sandstone Technology is also seeing a shift towards API-driven models such as banking-as-a-service, and with open banking starting to gain more of a foothold across the regions, data will continue to drive the conversation even further" stressed.

Jennifer also describes how the extensive use of intelligent document processing (IDP) platforms are influencing internal processes and removing manual handling. IDP platforms absorb documentation and sort, categorize, extract relevant data, and turn the unstructured data into structured data for validation. These IDP technologies can handle multiple documents at one time and carry out the task within minutes with no human interaction. These innovative solutions are born from the minds of some of the most creative and forward-thinking professionals. However, Jennifer believes that these innovations would never have even seen the light of day if the leadership within the organizations didn't provide their staff with freedom of thought. Jennifer is excited about what is in store for the financial services industry and is thrilled to be a part of that transformative journey.

The Changing Landscapes of Leadership

While talking about what changes in the landscapes of leadership took place over the years, Jennifer mentioned that the most significant one is that the leaders have placed more trust in their people. Empowering them to be the best possible versions of themselves. "They know that by providing their people with the freedom to create and not just do, they are giving their teams the means to create real impact for themselves, the customer, and the business. It's a win-win situation" she further added.

Words of Wisdom to New Leaders

Advising the new leaders to become successful, Jennifer claimed, "Belief in yourself, be confident in your choices, and don't change who you are to fit someone else's expectation of what they believe you should be." She also added that the leaders should know their strengths and must be capable enough to play with them. Jennifer believes that women have an incredible capacity to see things for what they really are, and they shouldn't be afraid to call it out. "Compared to even ten years ago, the number of women in executive leadership roles has increased dramatically across all fields of industry. So, aim to be one of them and create a leadership path for the next generation" Jennifer concluded.