Business intelligence in the banking and credit union industry is particularly fascinating because of these institutions’ vast amounts of data. There is so much untapped potential in data that could be unlocked with business intelligence solutions. In the highly competitive banking sector, the power of information that business intelligence (BI) holds can be a crucial component in any financial institution’s strategy for success.
Business intelligence sounds excellent in theory, but how can we apply it in practice for financial institutions? Credit unions face stiff competition and an ever-changing regulatory landscape. There are various business intelligence applications that banks and credit unions can use to gain a competitive advantage. The following are some of them:
- Dashboards and Visual Analysis
- Data Integration and Data Warehousing
- Fraud Mitigation
- Marketing Strategies
- Product Propensity
Why Building a BI Team is Essential for Credit Unions?
- Improved Operational Efficiencies: Financial institutions need to be as lean and efficient as possible in today’s highly competitive marketplace. By using BI operational analytics solutions, organizations can reduce their ongoing costs and make the most of existing resources and expertise.
- Improved Products and services: BI solutions allow companies to track individual revenue streams to determine better which products and services are profitable. But those are not all the benefits. Business intelligence solutions also allow financial firms to analyse large amounts of customer data to gain insights into customer needs and sentiments about banking that can be used to improve products and services.
- Improved Marketing: With BI, marketers can analyse CRM data against a set of criteria to determine the most profitable customer profile. Along with that, the customer base can be analysed to identify and develop new cross-sell and up-sell opportunities and execute more targeted online marketing campaigns.
Improved Customer Retention: As mentioned earlier, BI applications can help financial institutions identify and track the most profitable customers. BI also plays a vital role in improving customer retention and loyalty. With the help of business analytics tools and techniques, companies can find out why customers switch to competing institutions. They can then implement new processes to reduce customer churn.
- Develop new investment strategies: Asset managers are using new data sets to develop new investment strategies. By developing models around social media, investors can gain specific insights into sentiment and develop trading signals. Other research analysts use satellite imagery to understand the global supply of commodities such as oil and gas or triangulate consumer spending based on the number of cars in mall parking lots.
- Risk mitigation: The financial world is constantly changing and full of uncertainty. More than ever, banking and financial institutions need to use every tool at their disposal to mitigate risk. Fortunately, today’s solutions from Business Intelligence provide actionable intelligence that companies can use to mitigate risk in several areas. With the ability to track customer transaction history, institutions can quickly identify and reduce fraudulent activity, particularly credit card fraud.
Conclusion
Technology is changing banking and finance, and it’s not done yet. In the future, those institutions that adopt and fully leverage BI solutions to manage risk, drive operational efficiencies and deliver products and services that meet real customer needs will be better positioned to achieve sustainable growth, profitability, and a competitive advantage in the years ahead.