KlariVis Wrapped: Our Top 10 Blog Insights from 2025

2025 has been an incredible year.

The KlariVis team spent thousands of hours talking with community bankers about what’s working, what’s not, and what keeps them up at night. Then, we spent hundreds more writing about it, testing ideas, and sharing what we learned.

The result was over 50 pieces of specialized content for community bankers, each one shaped by real conversations about real challenges. Some articles landed exactly as we hoped; others surprised us completely with how they resonated.

Looking back, I’m realizing that the content that connected most wasn’t always the most polished or the most technical (who would have thought! 😉). It was the honest stuff — the pieces that acknowledged how hard this work is and what looking in the mirror sometimes looks like — that our audience connected with best.

Listed below are the ten most read articles we published this past year. If you missed one, now’s your chance to catch up and learn about what we’re doing here at KlariVis.

 

1. Ten Years Later: A Journey of Loss, Purpose, and Impact

Leaving Valley Bank in 2015 wasn’t just a job change for me, it was losing a mission I believed in completely. That loss shaped the decision to stay in community banking through consulting and eventually building KlariVis. Bankers who’ve experienced mergers or acquisitions understand that purpose exists in the work and the relationships, not the institution itself.

Read the article HERE.

 

2. WEBINAR RECAP: It’s Time to Make Use of Your Transaction Data

Abby Wendel, David Nohe, and Jerry Bradley made a straightforward case about enriched transaction data revealing commercial relationships buried in personal accounts and customers routing payments through Square. Banks that can see this behavior can act on it. Banks that can’t are losing ground to competitors who already do. In a year of margin pressure and customer attrition, this webinar offered a practical approach to using information most institutions already have.

Read the article HERE.

 

3. WEBINAR RECAP: Day in the Life | CFO

I’ve known Beth Beale for nearly 20 years, which means I’ve watched her navigate every kind of market condition and leadership challenge community banking can throw at someone. Her KlariVis demonstration showed what changes when a CFO has immediate access to liquidity, margin, and portfolio data. Her team achieved a 40bps margin expansion by making daily pricing adjustments instead of quarterly corrections. Community banks saw a peer demonstrating measurable results from on-demand visibility, and the proof mattered much more than theory.

Read the article HERE.

 

4. Going Bananas: Why Banks Need to Take More Big Swings

So…baseball and banking have more in common than I previously thought! The Savannah Bananas removed everything fans dislike about the game, including hidden fees, long wait times, and bad seats. They asked what frustrated their audience and eliminated it systematically and purposefully. Banks face similar friction points around fees, wait times, and complicated processes. The institutions willing to identify and remove these barriers create memorable experiences that build loyalty (just look at Citizens Bank of Edmond and Frost Bank).

Read the article HERE.

 

5. Building Smarter Banks with Platform, People, and Process

Only 17% of banks report having data ready when they need it. FVCbank achieved 27% greater month-end efficiency by focusing on visibility, culture, and consistent execution rhythms. Banks don’t need to overhaul everything…now, read that again. They need trustworthy data, teams trained to use it, and regular decision-making cadences that prevent problems instead of reacting to them.

Read the article HERE.

 

6. Meet Amber Robinson: KlariVis’ New VP of Sales & Strategic Alliances

Watching Amber step into this role has been one of the most rewarding parts of leading KlariVis. Her growth from sales executive to strategic leader reflects the kind of development I hope for everyone on our team. Her background in communications and technology taught her that relationships matter more than feature lists. Community bankers recognized someone who understands that partnerships require trust and genuine investment in client success. Her approach reflects how we work by listening carefully and staying committed to helping institutions achieve their goals.

Read the article HERE.

 

7. What Is a Business Intelligence Platform?

Business intelligence is a performance and decision engine, not just reporting. It shows what happened, explains why, predicts outcomes, and suggests actions. We wrote this to clarify the difference between generic analytics and tools designed specifically for banking workflows. Real examples from FVCBank, Benchmark, and Wayne Bank demonstrated concrete outcomes like faster month-end close and margin improvement. Eighty percent of banks discuss data investment, but clarity about what to buy matters as much as budget.

Read the article HERE.

 

8. Chime’s IPO Proves Data Still Wins in Banking

Chime filed for an $11.6 billion IPO without a banking charter. They’re succeeding by targeting customers earning under $200K and doing it through disciplined use of transaction data. Better insights inform better products, which strengthen relationships and generate more insights. Community banks have advantages Chime doesn’t, though, including trust and local knowledge. What they often lack is comparable visibility into customer behavior. That gap is closable, but it requires infrastructure that turns transaction data into actionable intelligence.

Read the article HERE.

 

9. Bridging Data and Strategy to Unlock Branch Profitability

Sixty-seven percent of consumers value having branches nearby, but banks manage them with fragmented data and delayed reporting. When branch performance connects with digital activity and operational metrics, executives can identify weak locations faster and managers can make staffing decisions based on demand. One CEO described using analytics to find daily opportunities to recognize his team. When performance data supports both accountability and recognition, organizational culture improves alongside profitability.

Read the article HERE.

 

10. Why Transactional Intelligence Is Important for Banking Right Now

Transactional Intelligence addresses banks not being able to see where customer relationships are shifting until it’s too late. Customer expansion opportunities identifies payments flowing to Square or Stripe. Visibility into noninterest fee income clarifies where revenue originates and where it’s declining. Channel Delivery shows whether customers prefer mobile, ATM, or branch interactions. This clarity empowers and encourages targeted conversations with specific customers about specific needs rather than discovering them in quarterly reviews.

Read the article HERE.

 

Looking Ahead to 2026

Reading and writing these pieces this year reminded me why I love this work. Community banks are asking harder questions, pushing back on vendors who overpromise, and getting serious about what actually moves the needle. They care about leadership and culture as much as dashboards and data feeds. And more than anything, there’s a willingness to be bolder — to learn from what’s working elsewhere, remove friction for customers, and make faster decisions.

To me, next year’s trajectory is abundantly clear. Banks that treat data as the driver for performance rather than monthly reporting will separate from institutions still operating on delayed information. The technical capability exists; the question is whether or not there is organizational commitment to using it.