Project Runways: ATM Branch Call Center "Channels"-Pathways to the Customer-Still Need a Better Fit in 2008
Lauren Bielski · ABA banking journal · 2007
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Stessa Cohen picked up on renewed interest in almost two years ago. Perhaps the notion of linking ATM, branch, call center, internet, and mobile access to give a 24x7 cohesion, value, and real-time speed had always been an issue. But the aha moment occurred for the Gartner researcher when she talked to a that had already put some sales and service capabilities on the teller line. had also been improving the internet banking GUI, Cohen relates, referring to the customer-facing application design. As a next logical step, the head of retail operations then wanted some better connection between the two environments, she says. It's a classic theme. The plot thickened. Cohen started to hear tidbits elsewhere. She wrote a note about multi-channel banking, pointing out, as part of her analysis, that a more unified, componentized infrastructure where every IT configured path to the customer was built from common elements and performed in consistent ways could, for instance, share applications and processes for risk management or security. Meanwhile, Financial Insights and HP jointly wrote about as part of a transformation white paper. Reduction of needless complexity, better performance, and flexibility were stated themes. At Forrester, Bruce Temkin, vice-president and principal analyst did some research earlier this year on the rise of the experience bank executive whose job was, among other tasks, to look across channels in the act of improving service. Second time around While it's not a groundswell, the word is back out on the street nearly a decade after channel integration first made the rounds at industry conferences and trade articles. Remember the talk? Breaking down silos? Building common user interfaces? Clearly, the topic's resurfaced. This time there are new IT wrinkles. The tools are different. Technologies like services oriented architecture (SOA) and business process management (BPM) enable new options, not the least of which is process design across channels, lines of business, and, if necessary, divisions. For the first time business rules that can be changed and consistently applied is at least conceivable, Temkin says. Before the prevalence of business process management tools, work on channels tended to be handled on a one-off basis with good reason, there weren't options. Moreover, as one analyst told ABA BJ off the record, lower costs associated with new technologies like SOA meant that such reengineering projects were more feasible for mass market customers. More to multi-channel? Customers, of course, go about their banking business in idiosyncratic ways. While everyone knows this, most banks address the matter as if it were, ipso facto, a problem. What if, instead, banks redesigned themselves to enable hybrid, or interrupted transactions so they could be, if not glorified, then easily supported? If so, a would-be mortgage customer could get most of the origination handled online and, if he or she decided to follow through, pick up the process at a branch kiosk with human experts nearby when needed. Being able to support such a complex workflow could become a point of differentiation with an early-mover advantage say experts at Accenture, Gartner, and Forrester. SOA at Synovus Components, an idea related to SOA, have been discussed widely. But they also have a role in the management story, at least, at $33 billion assets Synovus, based in Columbus, Ga., which opted for SOA instead of older, point-to-point methods of linkage. Basically, using loose coupling and components, the bank--which is a Metavante customer for back office processing--has gotten channels working in lockstep with well-orchestrated technical and business policies and, beneath that, consistent business rules. …