Data deluge, data desert or both?

Reg research Staying in business and keeping out of jail has dominated the financial services management agenda for the past few years and rightly so. IT has playing a crucial role in supporting those aims, helping organisations achieve regulatory compliance, in particular when it comes to the relevance, accuracy and timeliness of data delivered to the business.

At the same time, many customers – be they individuals or companies - continue to perceive their banks and insurance providers as hopelessly out of touch, plagued by bad service and broken processes, and frequently trying to push products ill-suited to actual needs. So why aren’t things getting any better?

A recent Reg Reader study looking at the way information is captured and used in the financial services sector provides some clues as to what may lie behind some of the issues that continue to dominate headlines and consumer bulletin boards.

What we found will surprise no-one: when it comes to business intelligence (BI), the emphasis is fair and square on regulatory compliance, risk management and financial reporting. So far, so good. After all, what’s the point in having great customer service or innovative products if your company is at risk of going out of business due to shortfalls in risk management and compliance.

But the lack of balance when it comes to BI provision is likely to come back to bite firms that have neglected some key areas related to customer acquisition and retention, such as understanding customer profitability and segmentation. Even the companies with good information management capabilities aren’t shining examples here, so there’s clearly work to be done.

To find out more about what separates the BI sheep from the goats, and the extent to which technology can support effective information management, read the latest Reg reader research report by Freeform Dynamics – it’s free and you can download it here (reg req'd). ®