Reference Point
Next-Gen Digital Transformation for Global Financial Services

Reference Point is on a mission to transform the way professional services are delivered. A boutique strategy, management, and technology consulting firm, Reference Point pairs strategic consultants with industry experts to help global banking and financial services companies keep up with intensifying market disruptions, risk volatility, and customer behavior changes.

Its multidisciplinary teams serve as unbiased advisors who bring industrial knowledge anchored in real-world experiences to seamlessly unravel the complexities of the rapidly changing financial services landscape. This practical experience uniquely positions Reference Point to lead organizations through transformations and navigate complex technological and organizational initiatives.

Reference Point’s end-to-end services include strategic advisory services, risk and regulatory compliance, digital and technology, and data and analytics tailored to each client’s unique circumstances, ensuring that strategic change takes root throughout the organization.

We spoke with Steve Hook, Partner, Digital and Technology, and Luke Barnett, Partner, Data and Analytics, who lead many of the organization’s transformation initiatives, about what makes Reference Point stand out from the pack.

Boutique + Established = A Unique Tack to Delivery

As digital transformation continues to be at the forefront of the minds of financial services leaders, leveraging the right experience and expertise to reshape an organization can be complex from both technological and cultural perspectives.

Reference Point helps clients link their vision with reality through a full spectrum of interrelated strategy, technology, data, and risk services across the engagement lifecycle. Itsconsultants focus on gaining an in-depth understanding of their client’s businesses to provide tailored, innovative solutions that address their specific needs.

Business technology portfolio management, metrics, incentive alignment, design thinking and UX/UI, enterprise architecture, enterprise agile, and DevSecOps transformation are a few of its strategic advisory services that formulate purposedriven strategies with next-gen technologies in the face of change, stark competition, and uncertainty.

An Expert-Led Approach for Every Client Engagement

Hook’s and Barnett’s backgrounds as senior leaders of industryleading financial and technology delivery institutions are in line with the company’s disruptive vision. The firm follows a unique expert-led engagement model, pairing renowned industry executives who have held CIO, CTO, CISO, and other IT leadership positions at large financial institutions with its toptier consultants, to deliver impactful solutions supported by a top-notch implementation.

“Digital transformation is more than a technology implementation project; it also requires a mindset shift where all C-suite executives see their digital technologies as the catalyst for business growth,” says Barnett.

That’s why at Reference Point, each client engagement is led and supported by former financial services executives who take a bottom-up approach. Every team member brings a critical perspective informed through a wealth of experience—corporate strategy, recruiting, business development, advisory, operational, and transactional. These diverse yet complementary capabilities drive Reference Point’s competitive edge by bringing this expertise to every engagement, assessing each aspect of a new challenge through multiple lenses to ensure clients receive comprehensive analysis, deep strategic insight, and seamless execution.

By building and deploying project-specificteams that support a full spectrum of services related to strategy, management, and technology consulting, Reference Point helps clients achieve their desired end result, truly living up to its unwavering motto of “charting your course to high performance.”

Building Winning Digital Banking Strategies

As banks move to digitalize their core banking platform, they need to consider how quickly they can bring about change and understand the implications of their modernization journey.

Most banks run their core banking operations on legacy platforms, either built in-house or heavily customized versions of off-the-shelf platforms, making their maintenance very complex. Adding to that are the considerable operational risks involved due to core banking transformation complexity and the potential disruption of dayto- day operations.

With a team of industry experts at its helm, Reference Point brings industrial knowledge, technological expertise, and a global perspective to help clients focus on growth-centered transformation and enhance their digital capabilities. Its consultancy services provide a guiding hand for banks and financial institutions to develop next-generation and configuration-driven solutions, allowing them to innovate and address their most pressing needs while continuing to leverage their legacy platform for the majority of core banking functionality.

Digital transformation is more than a technology implementation project; it also requires a mindset shift where all C-suite executives see their digital technologies as the catalyst for business growth

Reference Point’s Services in Action

A growing boutique firm, Reference Point prides itself on serving prestigious clients and high-end cases.

“Our proven track record includes helping financial services clients assess their IT organizations, define target state technology, and deliver large-scale, innovative, and effective technology transformations,” says Hook.

Recently, one of its clients sought industry knowledge and strategic support from Reference Point to execute the initial discovery phase of their HR digital platform transformation to prepare for future expansion goals. They required support to identify significant gaps and opportunities in employee usage of internal HR systems, as well as drive future solution design and implementation.

With Reference Point, the client completed the initial phase successfully and was well-positioned to achieve long-term goals and objectives, including improving employee efficiency and experience, increasing information accessibility, enhancing reporting and analytics, enabling datadriven financial planning, and empowering leadership with datadriven decisions.

An Unparalleled Team of Seasoned Practitioners

The ceaseless effort of its leadership team, coupled with the firm’s appetite for accelerating digital transformation, has brought Reference Point to where it is today.

Reference Point’s commitment to serving clients with humility, drive, and integrity has set the building blocks of its success. It aims to foster an inclusive work environment where everyone has the opportunity and support to develop and progress in their careers. In addition, it highly emphasizes creating an inclusive workplace focused on attracting, retaining, and developing diverse, entrepreneurial, and bright talent while fostering a culture of belonging for everyone.

While the backbone of digital transformation is, of course, technology, it goes beyond that. Technology is an enabler of digital transformation, but it’s the people that unite digital thinking, tools, and processes. Through Reference Point’s services, firms can use the insights brought by technology to envision new business models, markets, and more efficient ways of engaging and delivering value to customers.