FTUB boosts business with Decision Support
ABOUT THE VENDOR
Decision Support Inc., based in Matthews, North Carolina, provides intelligent reporting solutions
for enterprises in over 20 countries with thousands of end users. The company's clients represent a
diverse range of businesses, including financial institutions, manufacturing facilities, healthcare
providers, and government agencies.
ABOUT THE CLIENT
First Trade Union Bank [FTUB] is a $300 million full service bank headquartered in Boston that
serves not only a substantial commercial and retail base, but also more than 100 Massachusetts
cities and towns, and nearly 150 unions. The bank provides many ways for customers to access
information about products, services, and their accounts so that customers can manage their
finances in the most convenient manner.
ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY
Decision Support's DQmart is a Web-based data mart solution that provides access to pre-defined
reports. DQmart provides flexibility in choosing reporting parameters and specifying data selection
criteria. For instance, the end-user can easily specify date ranges and product or item categories
for inclusion. The end-user may also specify exception criteria for noting on reports.
FTUB was looking for a data mart solution to help them learn more about their customers and bring
in more business. SearchCRM.com spoke with Lynn George,
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Hannah Smalltree, Editorial Director
Senior Vice President of Institutional and
Retail Banking, about the project.-------------------------------------------------
SearchCRM.com: Why did you decide to implement a CRM solution?
George: We are a small savings bank, just under 300 million dollars in assets. We're up against an awful lot of competition in the Boston marketplace in terms of giant banks that have a very extensive branch network. We don't have a branch network -- we only have two branches. So in order for us to grow our business, we have to take every opportunity and every initiative that we can to not only track where our business comes from but also to grow it. Because we really need to depend on other resources other than a branch network, we really needed to get a handle on who banks with us, why they bank with us, and how to follow that initiative to bring in more business.
The other reason is that because we're small -- we're only 60 employees -- we have to develop a real sales mentality in the bank. Everyone has to be a sales person. In order to do that, every person has to understand our customer base.
SearchCRM.com: How did the technology evaluation go?
George: The head of our technology area, Roger Paquette, spearheaded that effort. I remember going to endless presentations -- but Roger might say that it was only three or four. When you take a look at relative size, one of the things you have to remember is that we have a limited number of dollars to put into technology resources. So it was important for us to get a product that not only gave us results, but also did it in an economical way. There were systems that we looked at that were very expensive and didn't really have the basics that we needed.
SearchCRM.com: What were those basics?
George: We needed to find out, for example, what average balances were. We couldn't track whether a customer's balance was growing or declining. So the initial discussion started out with meeting that basic need of average balance, and it blossomed from there.
The other thing that was important to us was ease of use. We have some folks who are very comfortable in the PC world and we have some folks who still put on the green eye shades and get a #2 pencil. So it was really important for people to be able to get the information they wanted with a couple of clicks.
SearchCRM.com: Why did you choose Decision Support?
George: Knowing the parameters of our needs and our size, Decision Support was able to give us what we needed that was appropriate to what our sales and growth goals were.
SearchCRM.com: How did the implementation go?
George: To me, it was seamless. I'm sure Roger and his area worked a little bit harder than I did. To tell you the truth, one minute we didn't have it, and the next minute we did. That's how simple it was for us.
SearchCRM.com: Were there any challenges?
George: We worked with Roger to save some of their historical data on tape, and there was a problem with getting those in the right format. When we went back and took a look at them, they were not in exactly the right format that we needed.
We had to do an awful lot of housecleaning of our own records. One of the side benefits that it had for us was to put our customers in the right buckets. If we had a customer who was assigned to a particular branch, well, why was that customer there? Was that customer being served by that branch, or was it that the easiest number to input was 01?
SearchCRM.com: Did you experience any internal resistance?
George: I think that the folks who resisted were the folks who would resist Windows or who would resist e-mail, etc. But the nice thing is that once they saw the benefits of the reports and of the information that came out, they have now become dependent on that information. The immediate reaction of some folks is, "We always did it this old way. Why do we have to do it this new way?" Then after seeing the benefits, they slowly came around.
SearchCRM.com: Have you seen ROI?
George: We implemented the solution in January. I'd say by April or May we started to see an increase in what we call core deposits -- checking accounts, savings accounts. I think that one major return we have seen is in the ability to cross sell customers. The second return we have seen is the emphasis on sales production. When you're in the banking business, it's pretty easy to measure whether you've had a successful month. To be able to track those trends was extremely valuable.
SearchCRM.com: What's been the most rewarding result of the solution?
George: It's that we have changed our deposit mix. The interesting thing is that because we had no branch system, we were very dependent on getting deposits in through high-priced certificates of deposit. We have this year changed our deposit mix from 60 percent core -- low-priced, stable deposits -- and 80 percent CD to close to 80 percent core and 20 percent CD. We had to figure out what we needed to do to have customer buy more than one product. If someone has a free checking account, can we talk them into a savings account? If someone has a mortgage, why doesn't he have a checking account? In the banking industry, the customers that tend to leave quickest are the one-product customers.
If we wanted to change our deposit mix, we needed to look at the trends. We needed to figure out what accounts are growing and then figure out why they're growing, and then figure out how to market to that advantage. And you can only do that through trending.
SearchCRM.com: What advice do you have for other companies thinking of starting a similar project?
George: You need to do your homework and identify your needs. You also have to get your own house in order and make sure that the information you're using is cleaned up and in the right place. My third piece of advice is not to be afraid of the technology. Even if you have people who are not used to it, they will get used to it.
This was first published in September 2002
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