ISI: Schroder Invests In Customer Service
Schroder Unit Trusts Limited (SUTL), the retail unit trust subsidiary of leading investment manager Schroder Investment Management, has implemented a new on-line document warehouse which will improve service to Independent Financial Advisors by enabling call centre staff to deal with commission queries more quickly.
The system, supplied by electronic information management company ISI (Image System Integrators) has been installed in SUTL's central call centre facility in London. It speeds the resolution of queries by providing staff with on-line access to commission statements and payment transaction reports, together with data mining facilities to identify and resolve discrepancies.
Chris Baldwin, Project Manager for SUTL, explains: "We sell the majority of our investments via IFAs and other agents so it's imperative that we give them an excellent service. Information is now delivered straight to the desktop of our investor services executives which means that queries can be settled on the spot."
Commenting on why SUTL selected ISI, Chris Baldwin says, "ISI gave us a solution with an established user base and an excellent match to our functional and technical requirements."
SUTL plans to extend its use of the technology into other areas of the business in order to deliver additional service and productivity improvements. A further application of COLD is already in place within SUTL's internal finance division, where it is used to resolve reconciliation differences within monthly ledger reports. Chris Baldwin comments: "If any items don't balance we can mine the data on-line to identify the source of the difference. And we've slashed our report printing costs at a stroke."
The on-line document warehouse holds over three years' worth of statements and reports in a highly compressed form, using ISI's Retriever software. The documents are automatically extracted from SUTL's central mainframe system and are held on a Windows NT server. Documents can be retrieved in less than one second and viewed on screen in their original format.
Effective storage and management of large-scale computer output and scanned images, once perceived as a low-value, high-expense necessity, is now being recognised as a source of competitive advantage. ISI, the electronic information management specialist, is working with blue-chip UK and international clients to transform passive data archives into strategic systems that allow them to exploit fully some of their most valuable customer information. ISI is achieving 50% year on year revenue growth, and today boasts over 200 customers, including NatWest Group, AXA Sun Life, Lloyds TSB, Aon Group & Schroders.