The New Best Practice Unifying Banking Across Lines of Business
and compliance issues? Definitely not. It makes no sense, since there are obvious economies of scale to be enjoyed by sharing information and systems.
The Best Practice Thinks Across the Institution
Why not start with a common onboarding process? Banks should rethink the onboarding process and eliminate redundant customer interactions. As customers respond to cross-marketing programs, the customer experience should be efficient and painless. None of us like to be repeatedly asked for the same information.
Secondly, in light of recent inadvertent disclosures of millions of customers' private information, we know that something more must be done to secure customer data and avoid future unlawful disclosures. Fact: the fewer the number of customer databases under management, the less likelihood of unauthorized release. This is not technology jargon; it's plain and simple math. By design, banks must strive to avoid replication of customer data. This will bolster the business case for a single customer onboarding process and information repository approach.
Creating a common customer view. With expanding lines of business and growing customer interactions, a unified onboarding practice will give tomorrow's financial institution more opportunities to build customer loyalty. A master customer account ID used throughout the institution enables anyone interacting with the customer to view their entire relationship.
Putting unified customer view into action. Of any business, banks have the best, most comprehensive information for understanding customer intentions and needs. From payroll deposits to debit and credit card spending to cash outflows, they have access to consumer behavior and financial position information that most companies would kill for. Leveraging this information, however, requires cross silo access.
Implementing Unified Account Onboarding
So how do you transition to best practices that benefit the entire organization? The answer is to put a stake in the ground and drive to it by implementing in stages. The next time you refresh or replace a core LOB process, consider not only addressing the particular needs of that line of business, but subscribing to the broader goal of one day enabling your financial institution to look like the one you designed on that fresh sheet of paper. Commit that all new automation projects will drive toward that ultimate goal; if not, question its validity.
Many of the same class of benefits identified by implementing a unified onboarding process can be enjoyed by taking a similar approach to compliance. There is commonality across all LOBs with many of the regulatory dictates, particularly with non-banking specific legislation and corporate governance. Case management also offers opportunity for a unified approach. In all instances, new account onboarding, compliance and case management as well as new business practices are required to set the framework of operation.
The very best "best practice" should have two objectives, optimum execution of today's business processes while driving toward an ultimate goal. Make unified client onboarding, compliance or case management your first step.
FileNet Corporation helps organizations make better decisions by managing their content and processes that drive their business. For more information on FileNet in the financial services industry, visit
http://www.filenet.com/financialservices