Digital Equipment at Helm Of Center Built to Aid Banks With Customer

A consortium of five firms headed by Digital Equipment Corp. has launched a facility to help banks manage customer relationships.

The data center in Greenwich, Conn., will let users build a repository of their own bank's information off-site, test and validate it, and determine which data are necessary for generating more business with customers.

"It's no secret that CRM (customer relationship management) is an immensely complex area that is developing rapidly," said Tom Richards, Digital's director of financial services industry marketing. "Learning is the key to reducing risk, and now there's a place to go do that."

In moving toward a customer focus, "some banks begin by automating their marketing campaign analysis and some begin with profitability," Mr. Richards said.

Each of the center's five partners lends capabilities to a particular component of a customer relationship management solution. Between them, they can provide for data extraction, behavior modeling, profitability analysis, and marketing campaign management.

The companies involved are Profit Management Group Inc. of Malvern, Pa., Cogit Corp. of San Francisco, Exchange Applications Inc. of Boston, and Norbert Technologies of Greenwich, Conn. Digital operates the center on its Alphaserver systems.

Bill Bradway, research director and principal of Meridien Research Inc., said customer relationship management is "a hard process to do well." What's at stake, he said, is the $1 trillion represented by U.S. consumers' financial wallets. In his view, the future lies with institutions that rapidly integrate new customer-centric technologies.

"The pace of technology change will accelerate. Gaining quick time-to- market results is crucial," Mr. Bradway said.

Banc One Corp. has been working with Norbert Technologies to help it manage customer information better. Patricia Shafer, senior vice president of communications for the banking company's retail group, said Banc One has been testing Norbert's CorWorks product in-house, but would not reveal whether it plans to use the new center.

The center also will conduct workshops on customer relationship management at which participants will be given an opportunity to share their knowledge, express opinions, and move toward agreed-upon goals.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
MORE FROM AMERICAN BANKER