Norwest Banks Minnesota has signed an agreement giving Micro Resources Inc. the right to market Crisp/Gemini software, which grew out of a joint development effort between the two companies.
Norwest Banks Minnesota was one of first banks to use Crisp when it was introduced nine years ago. At that time, Crisp was a DOS-based customer management and tracking product.
Through a series of changes and customizations organized by Norwest managers, the new Crisp/Gemini product builds on Crisp's existing functions. It combines marketing contact management with comprehensive customer profitability and officer/portfolio planning functions.
At Norwest, the system is also reconcilable to the bank's general ledger.
A Client-Server Application
Unlike the Crisp product that runs on DOS and is now available for use on OS/2, Crisp/Gemini is a client-server application that operates on Windows or Windows NT, accessing a relational data base.
This new product gives managers integrated analyses of company contacts, sales pipelines, and completed sales.
James Campbell, executive vice president of $55.3 billion-asset Norwest Corp. said that Crisp/Gemini has been instrumental in increasing the bank's customer earnings and cross-selling ratios.
In 1989, Norwest's commercial bankers averaged two prospects per banker in the pipeline at any one time. In 1994, that figure has risen to eight.
In addition, noncredit services was growing less than 10% a year in 1989, but with Crisp/Gemini, the growth rate has been 15% to 25% across the entire product line.
