Microsoft Exchange 2010

Like every other industry, the financial services sector has had a rough ride over the past couple of years.  Never have they been in the news so much, or dislike so intensely.

Aside from the economic crisis, financial institutions are experiencing a slump.  Changes in legislation, increased competition, increased costs and decreased efficiency are just some of the reasons.  These institutions are often so convoluted in their processes that it is almost impossible to have a complete view of their client portfolio and make decisions or sales based on that information.

Lately some of the more forward looking institutions have discovered financial CRM products.  CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management and is a system that spans an entire infrastructure, designed to put information into the hands of those who need it.

Financial CRM’s enable the banks to get to know their customers again.  It also enables them to analyze them and target them with products and services that might want or need depending on criteria.  It opens up a whole new vista of opportunity for increased sales, customer retention and therefore profit.

The main obstacle to these financial institutions is that before CRM, they stored customer information in disparate and often incompatible systems that couldn’t talk to each other, so information was fragmented.  Not having the whole picture of a client prevented the business from maximizing profit and understanding their customer more.

It isn’t all about selling more stuff to customers though.  A financial CRM allows an institution to study their clients, to get to know them more and to pre-empt issues.  Two sayings are pertinent here, prevention is better than the sure, and it’s easier to keep a customer that get one.

If a customer is seen to be habitually missing payments or going into debt, then a bank can interject and offer solutions to the customer pro-actively.  By offering the solution to a problem, the bank is taking the initiative back while appearing to be caring to the customer.  The customer feels the service is good, that they are being looked after which increases loyalty.

That is just one example of how a financial CRM can help the profitability of an institution.  Another is the speeding up of decision making within the company itself.

Most of us have seen or heard about the employee escorted off the premises for inappropriate behavior over IM or email. The email we can understand as it leaves a trail, and unless completely deleted will still be present on the mail servers. But what about IM, and what is an Instant Messaging Archive? (UPDATED TO CHANGE LINK)

Hundreds of millions of us use IM each day. Some are work related, but most are not. Larger corporations even have their own clients for internal use. Most of use the big names like MSN, AIM, GTalk or Yahoo for our personal chats and consider ourselves pretty safe when using them.

Did you know however that every chat is or can be archived for future use? MSN and AIM both have in-built archive features on the clients. These are often a great way of recalling a conversation or piece of information for later use. 99% of the time they will be completely harmless and will offer no threat to anyone. These are optional though, and at the moment at least, are off by default with the exception of GTalk. The chats are saved on Google servers by default until deactivated by the user.

Many companies and government agencies will record everything said over IM chat as they would over email. Those organizations that are subject to SOX or other SEC regulations have to record IM by law. There has been a couple of investigation, then prosecutions that used IM data as evidence and there are bound to be many more.

Companies need to be aware of this method of communication and take steps to protect themselves from abuse, leaking of information accidental or otherwise and more serious threats like industrial espionage. There are many third party IM managers that can control access to clients, and record what everybody says. While this may seem a bit “big brother”, it is a necessary step in many companies. Filters can then be set up that picks up keywords, or external file transfers for later investigation.

Recent research found that over one third of employees use Instant Messaging at work. The vast majority of it will be completely harmless and won’t impact business at all, except a minor loss of productivity. It adds a great way for employees to communicate instantly over distances which would otherwise take time. It can make for quick decisions, instant information gathering and a whole host of other beneficial features.

As long as the business takes steps to protect itself from harm, the use of IM in the workplace should be encouraged. The benefits still outweigh the negatives in a fast moving environment where quick reactions are key. The IM platform is essential in adding another communication medium to staff to do their jobs quickly and effectively.

Important Links

• http://www.sec.gov/about/laws.shtml
• http://dashboard.aim.com/aim
• http://www.smarsh.com/prinsite/nr/default2.asp?siteid=12&webpageid=157 (UPDATED TO CHANGE LINK)
• http://messenger.yahoo.com/
• http://www.google.com/talk/
• http://www.compliancehome.com/resources/SOX/Regulations/