Retail Banking: The Pressure Is On

CSC, Oracle Alliance Offers Integrated Sales And Service Software

With other lines of business struggling to meet their numbers, retail banking is under pressure to generate revenue like never before. The need to gain wallet share from retail customers is nothing new, but the challenge to create a positive customer experience in today’s environment is daunting.

“Consumers’ retail shopping experiences are raising expectations of their financial services providers,” said Jim Eckenrode, a global banking research fellow at research and advisory firm TowerGroup. “Complex branch revitalization and multi-channel platform projects that unify front and back offices need to be accelerated to enable retail banks to perform at the expected level.”

The pressure is on to deliver a consistent customer experience across all channels, from branches to Web-based mobile devices. In order to compete for wallet share, according to Eckenrode, retail banks must cross-sell more effectively with actionable and compelling information at each point of contact. Many organizations, however, face major challenges in integrating front-office channels with multiple back-office systems, often having to coordinate the process through multiple technology vendors.

Two Tech Giants, One Unifying Solution

CSC and Oracle have joined forces to relieve the pressure on retail banks with a faster approach to integrating marketing, sales, origination and service capabilities at call centers, through branch channels and over the Internet.

“Oracle and CSC share a commitment to helping retail banks achieve rapid value from the deployment of a complete front-to-back-office solution,” said Don Russo, group vice president, Oracle Financial Services Global Business Unit. “Our collaboration should make it easier for banks using our applications to achieve a single view of the customer and improve service across delivery channels.”

The joint offering combines CSC’s Hogan® core banking systems with Oracle’s Siebel front-office retail banking application to help banks:

• Integrate front-office channels with multiple back-office core banking systems
• Present a 360-degree view of customer relationships
• Unify the customer experience with consistent services across all channels
• Increase revenue and wallet share organically by focusing on current customers rather than acquisition.

Best-of-Breed Approach

Oracle’s Siebel retail-banking front-office application suite includes Siebel Branch Sales and Service, Contact Center, Branch Teller and Self-Service. The integration of Oracle’s best-in-class banking applications with CSC’s Hogan core banking systems on the back end will convert rich data from Hogan’s Customer, Deposits and Loans systems into actionable knowledge, smart product advice and targeted customer experiences that are consistent across all channels.

The new Hogan Multi-Channel Accelerator builds on a 15-year alliance between CSC and Oracle, and marks the first packaged banking solution tailored to Hogan systems users. Banks already using Hogan systems can quickly reap the rewards of unifying front-end and back-end systems.

“CSC and Oracle are working together to combine the best of our offerings to provide new and cost-efficient choices for the banking industry,” said Jim Cook, president of CSC’s Financial Services Sector. “This is only the beginning of our collaboration to broaden top-tier and mid-tier banks’ access to best-of-breed IT solutions.”