As we approach 2025, the financial services industry is doubling down on software investments to enhance workflow efficiency. From generative AI to document automation and advanced data analytics, 100% of IT leaders said they’ll invest in new tools to drive productivity and innovation next year. But these investments come with mounting pressure to quickly deliver meaningful value, both by cutting costs and improving operational efficiency.
In this guide, we’ll dive into how to increase return on software investments, with actionable insights from tech leaders in investment banking.
Software ROI: Why it’s Essential
Making the Most of Your Software Budgets
94% of tech leaders in investment banking reported having their budgets slashed this year. What’s worse, UpSlide’s research shows that banks aren’t maximizing their remaining budget, with 68% believing over a quarter is wasted on underutilized software.
With careful planning, IT leaders can ensure that every dollar of their budget goes towards value-driven software investments.
Viewing Software Procurement as a Strategic Foothold
The software landscape is rapidly evolving alongside innovations like generative AI and advanced analytics.
For the financial services industry, keeping pace isn’t optional—it’s essential. Those who fail to optimize their software investments risk falling behind competitors that are leveraging these tools to drive efficiency, better client engagement, and commercial growth.
Maximizing software ROI is not just a financial exercise; it’s a strategic imperative. By approaching software procurement with a clear, forward-looking strategy, banks can select the right tools, ensure successful deployment and foster high adoption rates across teams.
How to Increase Return on Software Investments: 4 Expert Tips
To uncover the most effective strategies for maximizing software ROI, we gathered leading tech experts in investment banking for an exclusive webinar and a live event in New York. Here, we’re sharing their strategies and best practices to help you increase return on your software investments in the coming year.
Tip #1: Understand Your High-Value Gaps
Expanding your tech stack without a clear purpose can quickly dilute ROI. Every software investment should be anchored in addressing a specific strategic or operational need. For instance, if your deal-sourcing teams are struggling to create pitchbooks efficiently, that becomes a “north star” use case to guide your software selection process.
Christina Maddy, Executive Director of Investment Banking Innovation at Nomura, shared her software spending strategies on our recent webinar. For her, it starts with fully comprehending the intricacies of a banker’s workflow.
Christina mentions: “The purpose of this program is to understand the granularities in day in the life of a banker and the lifecycle of a transaction. That way, I can identify the biggest pain points and areas for improvements, which then forms our book of work.”
Tip #2: Buy Software, Rather than Building In-House
An emerging trend among banks is shifting away from building software in-house to opting for third-party solutions—a significant departure from past practices. But why this change?
By purchasing specialized software rather than developing it internally, banks can:
- Reduce long-term expenses associated with maintenance and ongoing training
- Conserve resources and enable teams to focus on their core business functions
- Leverage best-in-class tools that evolve with industry standards, regulations and emerging technologies
As Ian Clark, CTO at a leading investment bank puts it: “Over the last several years, there has been a huge shift to focus on cost reduction across all industries. Building and maintaining your own software in-house is expensive – plus you need a team of developers to be able to constantly update it and keep it secure. When you go with a SaaS solution – you buy a service, and you don’t have to worry about your team feeding and watering that solution.”
Tip #3: Choose the Right Vendor to Work With
Selecting the right SaaS vendor is a crucial step to increase return on your software investments. Choosing the right platform is important, but equally crucial is finding a vendor who offers robust services and ongoing support to help you achieve your goals.
At Nomura, Maddy prioritizes vendors who embrace a long-term partnership model, allowing her team to provide direct feedback to shape the product’s evolution. This collaborative approach ensures the software adapts alongside the shifting needs of her bankers and the broader financial services landscape, compounding the value long term.
Read more about our event on LinkedIn
Tip #4: Build an Effective, Tailored Adoption Plan
The real challenge begins after investing in a SaaS solution: ensuring it’s fully adopted by your teams. How can you secure buy-in from bankers and convey the software’s value to them from day one?
Our North American Head of Professional Services and Success, Majhon, offers a few proven strategies:
- Develop a training program tailored specifically for bankers: consider shorter sessions that fit around their busy schedules and are accessible on-demand.
- Create an open feedback loop: encourage users to test the software and share insights to refine your approach, tailoring training sessions and content to their real-life workflows and use cases.
- Prioritize vendors, like UpSlide, that provide dedicated adoption support: embed the solution effectively across your teams with strategic communication plans, deployment timelines, customized training, and industry-specific change management experience.
With a strategic adoption plan, you can drive user engagement and maximize the impact of your software investment from day one.
Consider Potential Software Strategy Pitfalls
Measuring ROI Effectively
Accurately quantifying the ROI of software to share back to your stakeholders is a complex challenge, especially when productivity gains are the primary benefit. Deutsche Bank’s recent white paper discusses these challenges, particularly when it comes to technology like generative AI, where the impact on productivity can be significant yet difficult to measure.
Short-term metrics like cost and time savings offer a more straightforward calculation, but they fail to capture long-term ROI indicators such as improved client satisfaction and increased employee retention. For more on how to effectively measure ROI, jump down to the section below.
Avoiding Technical Debt
Technical debt has posed a significant challenge for enterprises over the past two decades, particularly within financial services, where operations often rely on legacy infrastructure.
Scalability is one of the biggest hurdles: as financial institutions expand, outdated systems struggle to keep pace, leading to slower development cycles, higher maintenance costs, and reduced agility. This burden hinders growth, delays responsiveness to market demands, and limits innovation.
To minimize technical debt, financial institutions have two main paths:
- For in-house development, prioritize code quality and best practices. Regular code reviews and ongoing refactoring can reduce technical debt, helping to ensure efficient operations and long-term ROI.
- Alternatively, consider external software solutions, where vendors bring implementation expertise that ensures the new tool is deployed effectively. Ultimately, this puts you in a better position for future scalability.
By proactively addressing technical debt, firms can maintain the flexibility and efficiency needed to stay competitive.
Calculating Return on Software Investments
When calculating software ROI, it’s essential to consider both tangible and intangible returns. While tangible benefits like cost and time savings are more measurable in the short-term, intangible returns—such as enhanced client satisfaction or improved employee morale—offer a more holistic view of the software’s long-term impact on your organization.
Use our ROI calculator to explore how these factors can translate into measurable value
Tangible ROI
Tangible ROI refers to quantifiable benefits such as cost savings, increased efficiency, and revenue gains. These metrics are more straightforward to measure and can provide a quick way to gauge the impact software has on your business.
Time Savings
One of the most immediate ways to calculate tangible ROI is through time savings. Here’s how you can measure this:
- Identify the specific tasks your teams will automate with the software (e.g., formatting slides in PowerPoint).
- Determine the average time it takes to complete these tasks manually.
- Measure the time required after the software is implemented.
- Multiply the time saved per task by the frequency of these tasks in a month.
For example, if a banker saves 15 minutes per presentation and creates 20 presentations per month, that’s 5 hours saved monthly per user.
Cost Savings
For stakeholders more driven by commercial returns, you can estimate the total cost savings by combining time savings with the hourly remuneration or billable rate of your team. For example:
- If a banker earning $100 per hour saves 5 hours monthly, the software generates £500 in savings per user each month.
- Multiply this across your team, and the numbers add up quickly to demonstrate tangible value.
By focusing on these measurable outcomes, you can clearly articulate the return of your software investments.
It’s not just about the time saved; UpSlide allows us to maintain data integrity, as well as improve efficiency and consistency, thus making our lives easier.
Intangible Returns
Intangible returns, such as improved brand reputation, stronger customer loyalty, and enhanced employee satisfaction, are critical drivers of long-term success. While these benefits may not be as easily measurable, their impact on organizational growth is arguably more impactful long-term.
Send Employee Satisfaction Surveys
Assess the impact of software on team morale and productivity by sending out satisfaction surveys at one, three, and six months post-deployment. Some example questions could be: “Do you find your work less manual, and more fulfilling due to our new tool? True/false” or “Rate your satisfaction of the tool between 1-10.”
Gather Client Feedback
Ask clients directly if they’ve noticed improvements in deliverables, such as higher-quality documents, faster turnaround times, or improved data analysis.
Measure Lower Client Churn / Higher New Business Success
Track metrics like client retention rates and the success rate of new business pitches. This is important if the software has a direct impact on your pitching process, for example, like document automation software. If the tool has enabled improved team output, it will ultimately lead to better client outcomes and support business growth.
Gain a more comprehensive view of how your software investment contributes to both immediate and long-term organizational value.
Key Takeaways
As you plan your software strategy for the year ahead, ensuring ROI hinges on three critical factors:
- Understanding your business needs and user workflows to identify high-value gaps and select solutions that truly address them.
- Getting the change management aspect right with tailored adoption plans that drive user engagement and maximize adoption rates.
- Choosing the right vendor who can provide ongoing support and evolve their product to meet your organization’s changing needs.
By focusing on these pillars, tech leaders can increase return on software investments to drive long-term value.
