The increased utilisation of new communication media (internet, mobile phones etc.) forced service providers to establish new distribution channels. Often new systems were introduced for the new channels which lead to the result that certain services were available either online or offline.

Customers demand constant quality

Customers expect a constant quality of the offered services without regard to the used channel (branch, internet, mobile phone, telephone, terminals etc.). Differences between the channels concerning the offered services and the user menu are hardly tolerated by the customer.

Multi-channel as a competitive advantage

The different channels are not incompatible as a matter of principle. On the contrary, the internet improves the quality of individual customer relationships by integrating supportive online services into the offline consulting given by the customer consultant. The implications of these expectations with regard to the design of the IT infrastructure and the resulting cost-savings will be exemplified by a multi-channel bank in the following sections.

The multi-channel bank

In the future, about 80 percent of the private customers will use several distribution channels in order to utilise bank service offerings: branch bank, telephone, internet, terminals and the mobile field service are only a few examples. The challenge is the coordination of all distribution channels in order to offer the same services on the same level of quality so that the different channels complement each other in a positive way.

Intelligent IT infrastructure as a guarantor of success

The IT systems of a modern bank become a crucial factor of success. In order to offer identical services of constant quality to your customers a middleware is required which takes the central position in your multi-channel architecture. The middleware incorporates the complete business logic and handles the communication with the backend systems. You can reduce costs immensely by using a modular architecture and separating the business logic from the specific identification methods for each channel. Do you like to know more about the guarantor of your success? Just contact us.

Improved customer relationship by multi-channel

The cross-linking by means of a middleware enables the multi-channel banks to establish a better customer relationship. Because all transactions are conducted on the central platform the customers' activities can be analysed specifically which allows the offering of customised services.