Boston-based Dalbar Inc., a financial services research firm, has started a rating program for suppliers to the insurance and investment industries.
The Dalbar Balanced Scorecard, launched in November, tests suppliers from regulatory filers to securities custodians, said Louis S. Harvey, president of Dalbar.
"In general terms, we're testing the critical service providers," Mr. Harvey said. Buyers of the service "are the firms that want to do due diligence before selecting vendors. Or buyers can be insurance companies, securities companies, or banks that want to review their vendors."
The scorecard takes four measures of suppliers' performance: capability and competence; innovations and value-added features; customer ratings, derived from the opinions of a supplier's customers; and financial strength and track record.
The ratings are done for the following business functions: administration, communications and printing, custody and portfolio accounting, human resources, Internet and Web sites, phone centers, record keeping, and sales support.
The scorecard does not look at the retail aspects of the investment and insurance industries, Mr. Harvey said.
"This is definitely a back-office look," he said. "The securities and investments operations, the trust operations at a bank - those are the people that will be interested in this."
As part of the scorecard, subscribers can compare suppliers' results - "though they can't look at, for instance, which insurance company uses which supplier," Mr. Harvey said. "That's proprietary."
Dalbar does a number of surveys and studies in the investment and insurance business. These include reports on the service quality, customer satisfaction, and investor behavior at mutual fund and annuity providers. It also reports on the clarity of these providers' Web sites.
