A New Era of Client Retention

The insurance industry is experiencing a major shift in market behavior. Whether this becomes a perfect storm for failure or a new growth opportunity will depend on the insurer’s ability to respond to the sea change. Check out my latest article in CMSWire where I look at the challenges insurers are facing, whether they are a duck, a gekko or an elephant 🙂

 

A Simple Plan

A Simple Plan: How Case Management Helps Financial Institutions

 

While it’s no secret that lenders are looking for better ways to simplify, streamline and continuously improve the loans, credit and financing processes within their organizations, it’s not always clear to them what changes will have the greatest impact.

A few months ago I helped conduct a survey of North American retail banking executives to examine current trends in optimizing loan processing. We found that most executives are not satisfied with their current environment and see loan complexity as the major factor driving the need to improve performance.

A simple plan then to apply technology to remove complexity should be the answer. However, just as in the movie “A Simple Plan”* we can all appreciate that nothing is really ever that simple. There is solid evidence though that Case Management can make a significant impact.

I captured my thoughts in a series on CMSWire.  You can read more at

1. A Simple Plan: Why Lenders Need Adaptive Case Management
2. A Simple Plan: How Lenders Prepare for the Future with Case Management
3. A Simple Plan: How Case Management Helps Financial Institutions Overcome Challenges

 

Fast Cars, Fast Financing… with ACM

When products are comparable what do you do to differentiate?  Customer experience and speed of deliverying results are how automotive leasing and financing companies are capturing and keeping customers.  Case Management is the tool they are using. I recently wrote about this in my adaptive case management series in CMSWire.

 

What a Bank needs, what a Bank wants

I’ve been fortunate in my pursuit of business process improvement practices to talk with a number of bankers, banking technologists, and  industry analysts and advisors about current FSI needs and future wants.  As we come to the end of this year and look ahead to 2012 , I thought I would share some of the highlights of those conversations: 

• Improved ability to focus on the customer is a primary concern.
• Cost reduction, regulatory reporting, rapid delivery of new products & services are and will continue to be top of mind.
• The retiring workforce is seen as a risk, as are meeting the requirements of the “new” (social and mobile) employee and customer profiles.  This drives a perceived need to get new and improved systems in now.
• There is major focus on consistent brand experience and integration across channels (esp. w/mobile)to improve customer service/satisfaction.
• Banks are often pursuing business process and case management solution purchase decision as though getting an application (vs. a BPM technology platform)
• A natural cycle of refresh is happening and banks are open to new sources – the notion of an app is morphing… Build or buy,  is no longer the simple question … category is blurry, a continuum.
• Many of the banks start with a modernization approach (technology focus) but then find they need a business transformation.  
• IBM, Oracle, Microsoft  identified as strategic vendors, but  banks of all sizes seem to be willing to go for mixed solutions and heterogeneous approaches.

Of course, it’s important to realize that the above points are a result of my conversations and not necessarily a scientific study.  I would be interested in your views and what you are seeing and hearing in the banking industry for process improvement initatives.

 

Future Banking, Future People

I like this video from Microsoft that was done a while back on Future Banking (actually not so future today )

and this new video on the future of productivity