Customer Intelligence at ING

ING Group, a leader in integrated financial services ranking seventh among European financial institutions. ING’s core business areas are retail banking and insurance, corporate & institutional banking, financial markets & investment banking, asset management & private banking. Within Belgium, ING subsidiaries work together to optimise the integrated distribution of banking and insurance products.

The Challenge

Due to the financial market trends and competition pressures, to know the customer and to efficiently manage the customer relationship can significantly improve the market position of the Bank compared to others. “This is why a global CRM program was launched end of year 2000” says Frédéric Van Weyenbergh, Customer Intelligence Manager at ING Belgium, “comprising some 18 projects, among which CI - Customer Intelligence (understanding of who the customers are, which ones are the most profitable, what they are expecting, what business potential they can represent for the Bank, and from there, deriving focused marketing activities and customer loyalty-building campaigns) is key for the success of the overall program”.

The Solution

In order to build a (better) Customer Intelligence, ING was initially looking for specialised competencies to support its overall process of Customer data collection, analysis and pertinent findings according to the Bank’s overall marketing objectives and to help them to set-up the adequate underlying tools and techniques. Fujitsu Services was appointed to support the Bank in the design, development and implementation of specialized data marts, while ensuring progressive knowledge transfer to the Bank CI team.

Working in close collaboration with MineVision (a local firm specialized in data mining & statistical approaches), the ING/Fujitsu Services team adopted a step-by-step approach, focusing on quick wins while taking into consideration the Bank’s existing assets and reusable components and technologies. The team developed a first data mart, focused on short-term business concerns.

The Benefits

Knowledge Transfer
Today, the first data mart delivery is over and the business results have been tested and successfully evaluated in “life / on the field situations”. “Thanks to a successful collaboration between the Bank and Fujitsu Services and a rigorous project management practice, the ING Customer Intelligence team has gained increased expertise in various areas such as: data mining techniques, data mart tools, and overall Customer Intelligence approach” says Van Weyenbergh.

Proven Results
An initial assessment of potential business opportunities at the very beginning of the CI project, combined with a good perception of the Bank’s existing assets and constraints and a direct “on-thefield” experimentation have enabled the team to quickly evaluate the level of success of this first data mart. This concrete result has also lead the team to adjust / refine its approach as well as the characteristics of the proposed specialized data mart(s). There is no better way to promote a solution and a winning partnership than through tangible success demonstration.

Performance improvement
The management had already observed improvement in performance resulting from the first engagement, but AXA Belgium foresees a big leap forward once the electronic document processing solution is installed.