Case Study: Barclays Reaps 50% Time savings with iD Solutions
Our main priority is to provide service of the highest possible quality for our customers. Cincom software definitely helps to achieve that aim.
– Phil Robinson Barclays Project Manager
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Goal: Centralize customer information and permit access from thousands of authorized worldwide branches. Challenge: Send out over 24 million personalized letters per year. iD Solution: Intelligent correspondence from Cincom iD Solutions enables Barclays to create a seamless customer service environment from all their branches worldwide. Key Results:
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Situation:
Barclays has been a leading player in the banking industry for almost 300 years. However, like many other financial institutions, Barclays was faced with a dilemma: how to maintain a personal approach and yet ensure that all their branch communications were of a consistent quality and content.
Barclays Bank plc has 2,067 branches in the UK alone, catering to the needs of one million business account holders and seven million personal account holders. With such a massive client base, the bank depends on technology to enable it to provide consistent levels of customer service.
In 1993, Barclays began searching for a software solution that would help to automate its labor intensive letter-writing process. After an extensive investigation of the potential solutions available, the bank selected iD Solutions from Cincom. Phil Robinson, the Project Manager for Barclays, comments: “ The Cincom software met all our main requirements. We therefore installed it in one of our two mainframe computer centers.”
Additionally, every branch of Barclays has a UNIX file server connected to the mainframe in the computer centers. Robinson explains: “Cincom was the only company that was prepared to adapt its product to all the environments we needed.”
Flexibility, Personalization — and Intelligence
iD Solutions enables a letter to be changed according to the needs of the user, who can choose whether to send a standard or an “ad hoc” letter. If a standard letter is chosen, the user will be presented with a choice of words to use. To date, Barclays has made 450 standard texts available on the system.
The bank’s staff can access specific customer data from the mainframe — such as name and address, or account balance — and this can then be automatically inserted into the standard document templates used to generate the letters.
Additionally, the templates react to the data to produce a letter that is specific to that customer, as if it has been generated by hand. Robinson explains: “The document templates are intelligent; they can look at the data and then adjust the contents of the letter accordingly. For instance, if the letter concerns an unauthorized overdraft, the contents will be automatically amended according to the number of previous letters sent. The wording can also be adjusted according to whether the overdraft is large or small. “ Another example would be if we knew that a customer was nearsighted, the system could automatically take this into account, and choose a larger typeface for the letters.”
He continues: “iD Solutions gives us the ability to build logic into letters when they are being created. This reduces both the number of decisions needed and the manual effort required. For instance, we often have to create facility letters which relate to complex loans. However, there are rules associated with loans, and we can now help employees to write much more accurate letters by restricting the wording options they are given. This lessens the likelihood of any mistakes.”
Globalization
Most importantly, iD Solutions provides bank personnel with shared access to data, and to any letters that are produced. For example, if one branch produces a letter and the customer has a query, it can be answered by any branch they visit.
Once a letter is completed, it can be printed either locally or centrally. Barclays encourages central printing, as the entire mailing process — collation, folding, putting into envelopes, and franking — is carried out automatically. Central printing carries another advantage. The mainframe has a database of some 15,000 signatures. Whenever a letter is created, the software invites the user to identify the signatory. If the name is on the database, the letter and signature can both be printed centrally.
Details of each printed letter are automatically sent to the mainframe, and stored on a database against the customer’s particulars. This gives rise to a list of letters that is customer-based, rather than location-based.
Robinson concludes: “At the end of the day, our main priority is always to provide a service of the highest possible quality for our customers. Cincom software definitely helps us to achieve that aim.”
