Consolidation of information important

Companies operating in the financial service industry are often characterised by the large number of relationships that exist between themselves and their customers, and within and around these relationships, the vast amounts of information stored in numerous IT systems. For most, efforts are constantly being made to reduce the process time around these relationships, and make the information contained within their many systems more manageable, with the ultimate aim of servicing clients more effectively.

In most cases in the financial industry, client service personnel may have to access four or five different systems in order to process and respond to a single query. This process is often time consuming, making the overall cost of the sale high. By consolidating their various systems, companies can have the ability to bring all the relevant information contained within these systems together, automatically, through a single interface.

According to Migal van As, MD of Intervate, developer of the local intranet and extranet solution and development framework IntraCS, consolidation is an emerging solution that focuses primarily on getting the information contained within an organisation`s many systems to the right people, as quickly as possible, in order to reduce decision-making and process cycles and improve service delivery.

"Consolidation is all about giving companies a clearer picture of their information as it relates to specific groups of people, as well as the ability to study this information. This in turn allows them to effectively automate paper work and similar processes. Once you have the ability to fully understand the relationships between information, you can identify what works with what, and what needs to be and can be automated", says van As.

Companies operating in today`s financial service industry are essentially measured by customer service, and the more effective or efficient it is, the more likely a company is to gain and retain clients. Much of this is dependant on getting the right information to the right people at the right time, something that consolidation addresses directly.

Furthermore, consolidating information facilitates effective cross-selling, allowing individuals to clearly identify which products or services a client has or does not have, and use this intelligence to put systems in place that allow them to offer the products or services which clients don`t have.

According to van As, consolidation also addresses concerns around company acquisitions. "Organisations that acquire companies on a regular basis have a problem when the systems and technologies that come along with these acquisitions are different to their own. Consolidation offers a consolidated view of the information contained therein, thereby reducing the need for additional system implementation and development," he says.

Where some companies have modern systems and some have legacy systems, all built on different interfaces, architectures and platforms, consolidation also has benefit, as it allows for the seamless sharing of information across these systems without further development of each individual system. A good example of this is when a company interacts directly with either brokers or customers who have different systems to its own.

In conclusion, the major benefit consolidation delivers is that it "frees-up" a substantial amount of time, allowing client service personnel to be far more informative with clients in as shorter time as possible, resulting in both improved productivity and greater customer satisfaction. Furthermore, the benefit to the individual in an organisation is that, if you can consolidate all the information and systems that they require access to, it makes their lives a lot easier and therefore enables them to do their job better.