New CIF Systems Stress Customer Service
Mark Arend · ABA banking journal · 1992
Offering retail customers better service is the proving ground for banks in the '90s, but friendly smiles new products are only part of the picture. Flexible truly all-encompassing customer information file (CIF) systems are part of the equation. But until recently, many CIF systems used by banks were limited in their ability to correlate all customer relationships. CIF systems typically are databases of information on customer accounts housed in mainframe computers with interfaces to deposit, checking, other retail account processing systems. Many banks are redesigning-if not replacing-such systems so that the customer is the focus of attention, not the account. Ultimately, bankers do not want a passive CIF system that simply houses account data, but an active one that helps focus marketing efforts by, say, targeting customers for new products. Two examples of CIF replacement efforts are currently under way. In Banc One Corp., Columbus, Ohio, Norwest Corp., Minneapolis, are using a system developed with technology giant EDS of Dallas. In the other, two Jackson, Miss.-based institutions, TrustMark National Bank Deposit Guaranty National Bank, are rolling out IBM DB2-based customer information systems from Software Alliance Corp., Berkeley, Calif Banc One/Norwest. We needed more uniform information about our customer says Mitchell Zoellner, manager of the EDS Strategic Banking System implementation at Banc One Corp. product we're developing replaces all CIF functionality for the entire corporation, says Zoellner. Some of the bank's retail customers work for corporations that also have relationships with the bank. The goal of the project is for the bank to better understand the entire relationship a customer has with it, explains Zoellner. Bank One, Marion, with $178 million in assets, was the first affiliate to go live with the Strategic Banking System, in November 1991. The bank has a large retail customer base, which will help the holding company gauge the system's effectiveness in retail. The next installation, scheduled for completion by yearend, is at Bank One, Dayton, with $2.7 billion in assets a greater mix of retail commercial accounts. We need to test the system in a corporate arena as well as a retail one, says Zoellner. CIF systems were mainly informational in their early days, notes Donald Flores, EDS's director of technology for the large financial institutions division. Eventually, they took on file maintenance capabilities. Our intent was to carry that one step further, says Flores, and make that information an active, if not controlling, part of how a bank processes customer requests, handles transactions, provides services. Flores was an initial architect of the Strategic Banking System (which is based on customer information technology already in use at GMAC offices throughout the United States Canada) worked closely with Banc One Norwest Corp. system developers. Norwest is using its version of the system more on the corporate account side than in retail banking. Both bank holding companies operate banks in many states. Such geographic diversity can complicate the task of monitoring a bank's exposure to risk through its corporate individual customers accounts. We put into the system the ability to do on-line inquiries at the holding company level to look at all of a customer's net positions across the organization, explains Flores. If Bank One, Texas, has a customer that is a subsidiary of a parent company that has a relationship with the holding company in Ohio, we can present a net corporate view to the bank in Texas. This gives them a better understanding of all their outstanding exposure or liabilities. What's more, changes to a customer's status, particularly in the case of a corporate customer, are immediately reflected in other accounts or relationships that customer has with the organization. …