Channel Integration
Services distribution channels for banks have evolved over a long time driven primarily by need, changes in regulations, market environment and technological advances. Before the arrival of e-banking, the need for channel integration was rarely on top of the management agenda. But now that financial institutions are juggling numerous channels and ways in which they communicate with customers, banks need to integrate these channels in more pro-active ways. Furthermore, banks need to invest in a consistent and seamless customer experience across all channels, which requires integration of real-time cross-channel communications.
Usage of the major delivery channels is split and changes with time. Branches and ATMs remain the most heavily used channels but e-banking is also gaining ground, although many online customers still also use other channels. All channels are useful to customers for the specific purpose each serves. For example, ebanking may be good for checking balance or transferring funds between different accounts, ATMs for withdrawing cash and branches for discussing mortgages and so on. The demographic details of different channel users is also changing as more and more older customers also begin to use multiple channels, following the lead from younger counterparts.
In the electronic goods industry, some large retailers such as www.argos.co.uk, allow customers to buy products online and then pick them up at the nearest store location. Generally speaking, banks have not been able to deliver this level of service because different products are offered in different channels and with no real interface to unite the systems (Feig, 2006).
Banks need to build integrated channels that facilitate customer information and process flows which will enable them to achieve the operational efficiencies they expected from the implementation of e-banking. But most banks need to deal with the problem of legacy architectures which are not easy to integrate. Legacy systems are very inflexible so maintaining them is also time-consuming, prone to error, and expensive.
As discussed in the previous chapter, one of the best approaches to achieving multichannel integration is service-oriented architecture (SOA). SOA can be used as a platform for all IT operations/applications. This type of platform can provide many benefits including: customer responsiveness, operational efficiency, cost savings by reducing errors, easier future growth and quicker project life cycles as SOA enables to re-use services (computer programmes) that may have been developed for other parts of an organisations. SOA enabled channel integration can help banks to utilize data spread across many systems and turn it into comprehensive, meaningful and useful information available for use by staff who need it.
In addition, banking rules change constantly, due to regulatory and other pressures, and making these changes is usually very expensive from an IT point of view. An SOA based platform can help reduce these costs because these changes only need be done once and applied across all channels (Feig, 2006)
When implementing e-banking an acute feeling of competition between distribution channels can result. For example, staff at bank branches may fear branch closures, or staff at a telephone banking call centre may feel that their jobs will no longer exist in future if e-banking is implemented. These conceptions can easily intensify if special incentives are introduced to promote one channel (maybe at the expense of other). Again a comprehensive approach to managing these conceptions is required which, if carried out properly, can result in different channels actively promoting each other. For example, call centres can be used to support both e-banking
and branch banking. This also helps in creating an integrated feel for customers, many of whom may like to interact with multiple channels rather than just one. One useful approach in this regard is to provide opportunities for managers to work (maybe on short term basis) in a different channel to facilitate mutual understanding. Rhee and Mehra (2006) argue that when managers proactively participate in each other’s functional activities, it can create a harmonious environment thereby minimizing hostile actions detrimental to a banks’ performance.