Meridien - Corporate Customer Data Warehouses Are Crucial In Maintaining Strong Customer Ties As Business Lines Expand

As financial institutions extend their product coverage and market presence, they face the need for a more comprehensive data architecture for customer relationship management. Existing data warehouses have not proven to be adequate repositories for leveraging current customer information to identify cross-selling opportunities and project new market strategies. In addition, financial institutions face the challenge of integrating disparate data sources after mergers and acquisitions. To address these issues, institutions are investing in a new generation of enterprise-wide corporate customer data warehouses (CCDW).

The technical requirements and business concerns are discussed in a recent 25-page report from Meridien Research titled, "Gaining Competitive Advantage from a Corporate Customer Data Warehouse." According to Meridien's findings, industry investment in these solutions, currently estimated at $425 million for 1999, is projected to rise to approximately $950 million for 2004. The report examines 12 vendors and their offerings in the CCDW marketplace, as well at looking at how the data warehouse is developed and how the information is analyzed and used.

"As they extend their businesses in new directions, financial institutions face increasingly more complicated relationships with corporate customers," says Bill Bradway, research director and author of the report. "Enterprise data warehouse solutions not only enable corporate relationship managers to more insightfully sell to their existing customers, but support new-customer initiatives as well. While the CCDW is a high priority for many institutions, a "big bang" approach to implementation can be risky. It may be more practical to implement the enterprise warehouse incrementally, pulling in one application or line of business after another." Three case studies illustrate how institutions are deploying CCDWs. Union Bank of California created an enterprise warehouse to support the systems and procedures for an improved enterprise sales management and decision support initiative. Dodson Group, a property casualty and liability insurance carrier, implemented a data warehouse to restructure business for maximum customer profitability. First Union Corporation integrated data from its small, medium and large business customers by building upon its retail customer data warehouse.

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. For media relations, contact Kathleen Hawk, Clearview Associates at 212-966-9397 or khawk@newyorknet.net.

Note: A graph entitled "Spending for Corporate Customer Data Warehouses by Segment" is available at http://www.meridien-research.com/search/corp_cm_july99.html or by phoning Meridien Research at 617-796-2800.