Meridien Research: A Web-Ready Knowledge Factory Will Be Key To Leveraging Customer Relationship Opportunities By 2002

As financial institutions anticipate technology investments past Y2K, marketing and IT managers are collaborating on plans for better platforms for mining customer intelligence. For many institutions, data warehouses built three to five years ago will not support finely targeted marketing and cross-selling activities over more channels. At the same time, the channels themselves are creating more challenges, as online financial services divert rich sources of customer intelligence outside the purview of the institutions. These are some of the findings of a recent report from Meridien Research titled, "Building A Web-ready Customer Knowledge Factory: Essential Competencies for the Year 2002."

The 36-page report explores the solutions that are needed to build the customer knowledge factory (CKF). The CKF is composed of a set of solutions and core competencies required to support near real-time decision-making with customer intelligence at every point of contact. These elements include real-time analytics, unstructured data, real-time personalization, bi-directional closed data/DSS loop, multi-channel access, middleware and enhanced data warehousing.

The report examines the offerings of 39 vendors, in the context of these elements within specific financial industry segments. Though many vendor solutions promise similar functionality, as the report notes, extensive differences exist in processing and performance within the products.

"Customer Knowledge research is not just making analytics available at the desktop or at the point of customer contact. It is about how customer intelligence becomes actualized, to benefit the customer and the institution," says Randi Purchia, senior analyst and author of the report. Query tools and analytics are already a well-accepted investment category in financial institutions, and we expect that post-Y2K investments in upgraded analytics will serve as the catalyst for other CKF investments."

Bill Bradway, research director for the Customer Management practice at Meridien noted, "The report includes three case studies that illustrate how financial institutions are moving to capture and analyze Website data as well as utilize to Internet friendly infrastructures." The case studies are Allied Irish Bank, which instituted a customer data warehouse to consolidate fragmented customer information as product offerings and services grew; NatWest Group, which deployed a campaign management solution to segment client and prospect databases into finer segments for more targeted marketing; and Bank of America, which initiated a project designed to empower the users of analytical tools for fast-paced decision making.

Meridien Research of Newton, MA, provides analytical research services to users and providers of financial technology. Meridien Research targets three technology segments of strategic importance to financial services firms: e-Financial Services, Risk Management and Customer Management. Each practice delivers quarterly reports and monthly briefs, detailing new issues and challenges in the area, while keeping the realities of legacy core systems in mind.

For more information about Meridien Research, contact Amy Habeshian at 617-796-2800 or ahabeshian@meridien-research.com or visit the Meridien Research Web site at http://www.meridien-research.com.