Perspectives From The Customer Side
As usual in the KMWorld White Papers, our interview subjects are currently working with some of the key software companies providing solutions to—in this case—the financial services marketplace. But this group is a little unusual in that they have all spent more time as customers of software solutions than as vendors of them. Most of these gentlemen have worked most of their professional lives on Wall Street or for similarly entrenched investment groups or banks. Some have been on the "vendor" side for as little as three months.
This is a good thing. The perspectives they bring to this White Paper are unique and valuable; it's a rare opportunity to hear from the kind of person who can cut through the chatter and talk from personal experience.
Allen Harris
Director, Global Industries Group, Financial Services
EMC Documentum
Allen Harris is the co-lead of EMC Software's Financial Services Global Industries Group. He is responsible for EMC Documentum's business strategy in financial services. Harris has more than 25 years of experience in almost every aspect of process improvement and office automation. Harris has also held several senior positions at MetLife, Fidelity Investments Systems Co., Ernst & Young and other leading firms. He has been responsible for a variety of different enterprise systems including CRM, image and workflow, architecture, utility systems and records management. Harris has received a patent for the "Intelligent Document Factory Process," which supported Web-based delivery of workflow functionality to distributed call and service centers.
"We have customers who know that the ONLY thing that differentiates them is technology. So everyone from the CEO on down understands that. They invest in it and act on it. But 80% of the industry is still skeptical at the executive suite level. And, in fact, there's a basis for their skepticism. People have misjudged what it takes to operationalize it. You have mis-set expectations. Once you've done that it's hard to re-set that table."
Alan Horton-Bentley
Director, Financial Services Worldwide Marketing, FileNetAlan Horton-Bentley has responsibility of the worldwide marketing efforts for FileNet's Financial Services Industry Marketing team. Bentley has more than 30 years of sales, marketing and software application development including hands-on experience with notable financial institutions such as Bank of America, Barclays Bank, Lloyds TSB, Security Pacific, Ameritrust, BankOne, JPMC and Merrill Lynch. Bentley was CEO of XCEL Banking Systems and president of Regcom LLC, where he spearheaded the strategy to address the significant challenges of achieving regulatory compliance within the financial services industry.
"They (customers) are putting fires out. We say, let's put the fire out in a way that is also in the direction you want to go. Let's have one form of authentication, one customer ID, one database with client data that we can keep safe. There needs to be much more awareness that as you introduce technology to put out fires, or to be more competitive, or to reduce costs or any of the usual motivations, that it should also be leading you somewhere. It should be moving you in a general direction, and that is missing."
Ralph Severini
Industry Manager, Financial Services, Hummingbird, Ltd.Ralph Severini is responsible for solutions sales and marketing for Hummingbird's financial services industry market. Previously, he was senior vice president of Sungard's business integration division, vice president of Random Walk Computing and vice president of financial services for Entrust Technologies. He has also held executive positions with Sun Microsystems and CNA Financial Corp. He holds both MS and MBA degrees, as well as two professional diplomas in financial services.
"Just about every financial institution—banking, capital markets, trading, broker/dealering and insurance—is looking for enhanced ways to manage their high net-worth, wealthy individuals. That's the fastest growing segment of the market worldwide. China, for example, now has $4 trillion dollars worth of assets under management. Five years ago it was a communist country."
Srikant Sharma
Senior Director, Financial Services, InterwovenSrikant Sharma brings 14 years expertise across financial services and technology to Interwoven. He has been a senior Wall Street and banking executive with several global financial institutions. Recently, Sharma has been involved in the development, marketing and operations of several technology solution products to the financial services marketplace. He is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, and obtained his MBA from Cornell University in New York. Sharma has published in the areas of corporate finance, OTC derivatives, asset management and venture capital
"In the more customer-centric businesses, such as premium deposit banking and retail banking in general, there is more emphasis on the top-line. The economy is doing well, personal income levels are much higher than they were even two years ago, so the scramble now is to get more of the customer wallet-share. You can't do that simply by cutting costs; in fact, sometimes you have to ramp up costs. It's a pendulum that's swinging back."