Content-Enabled Solutions in Financial Services
and Insurance

Effective business processes often require a combination of both structured data and unstructured information, such as Word files, scanned images, spreadsheets, presentations, correspondence, reports and email. But the processes that financial services and insurance organizations rely on often fail to include the unstructured part of that information set. Often the data-driven business systems themselves aren’t designed to handle unstructured content. And when this information isn’t included as part of the process, organizations are ill-equipped to make informed decisions, reduce costs, meet compliance requirements or address other business needs.

Earlier this year, EMC sponsored a survey by AIIM, the industry association for enterprise content management. The purpose of the survey was to understand how organizations are using unstructured content as part of their core business processes and where these processes can be improved.

Key findings:

• Respondents said that unstructured content is critical to business processes. Almost all respondents (99%) stated that unstructured content played at least some role in their core business processes.
• Problems arise when unstructured content is not accessible as part of a business process. Top issues cited by respondents included inconsistency in communication, duplication of effort, poor decision making, non-compliance with internal best practices or governance and increased costs, among others.
• Implementation of traditional enterprise content management solutions requires too much effort—47% of respondents reported that they believe deployment requires more effort than is "reasonable or justifiable." And respondents identified integration as a major culprit.
• Many respondents said they wanted pre-built, platform-based solutions that enable organizations to integrate critical unstructured information into business processes. And many wanted flexible, "80% solutions."

The Need for Content-Enabled Solutions
So what does this mean for typical financial services and insurance organizations?

First, it’s clear that unstructured content plays a critical role in the financial services and insurance organization. Think of supporting documentation required for new accounts, insurance claims, loan applications and other processes. Everything from copies of drivers’ licenses to photos of homes, field adjuster reports, application forms, and more—it all needs to be included as part of these business processes.

When that information is not available, a variety of challenges can arise. Inconsistent communication between functions can similarly lead to confusion and inconsistency when communicating with customers. Not integrating unstructured content into business processes can lead to duplicative or wasted effort because employees recreate content they don’t know already exists or spend time searching for information that should be readily available; both situations result in increased costs. In addition, incomplete or outdated information can lead to slow or poor decision making, such as accepting a risky loan or denying a valid insurance claim; and that can increase risk or lower profit. Finally, without access to unstructured content, organizations can’t comply with internal best practices.

Yet while they are aware of these implications, organizations are struggling to rapidly deploy enterprise content management solutions. The AIIM survey shows that organizations are looking for solutions that are 80% to 100% complete, are easy to deploy and that address specific business problems. They want content-enabled solutions.

Content-enabled solutions help organizations effectively incorporate unstructured content into their business processes so that employees can make faster and better decisions, share information across functions, ensure consistent communications and more. Content-enabled solutions, built on a scalable enterprise content management platform such as EMC Documentum, are easier to deploy than traditional enterprise content management solutions. They include pre-built integrations into complementary content management products, partner technologies and a full range of professional services and partner offerings to complement industry and business process expertise.

The EMC/AIIM survey illustrates the market’s desire for industry- or business process-focused solutions that enable organizations to leverage the power of their unstructured content.

Content-Enabled Solutions in Action
A US-based global financial services provider, whose businesses include trust management, wealth advisory and retail and commercial banking, wanted to improve the efficiency and regulatory compliance of its commercial lending operations. It was looking for a comprehensive solution for loan origination, processing and servicing that would bring together imaging, document management and business process management and be scalable enough to be used for multiple business lines within the organization.

The company chose a commercial loan system developed by Crown Partners, a "Designed for EMC" partner. The solution includes EMC Captiva InputAccel, EMC Documentum Content Server, EMC Documentum Process Suite, IGC Brava Viewer and ILOG JRules. The new solution integrates with other banking systems inside and outside of the company.

The results of the new system have been significant. By choosing this EMC content-enabled solution, the company was able to implement the solution in seven months—including conversion of 5.8 million existing images from a legacy imaging system. The company is enjoying gains in productivity, enhanced regulatory compliance through records retention, increased information security, and process standardization. It has also saved in storage and copying costs.

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EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) is a leading developer and provider of information infrastructure technology and solutions that enable organizations of all sizes to transform the way they compete and create value from their information. We combine best-of-breed platforms, software and services into high-value, low-risk information infrastructure solutions that help enterprises manage growing volumes of information—from creation to disposal—according to its changing value. Information about EMC’s products and services for financial services and insurance can be found at www.emc.com/solutionsforbanking or www.emc.com/solutionsforinsurance.