Harland Financial Solutions and North Communications Establish Alliance to Bring One-to-One Marketing to Kiosks
June 17, 2001
Harland Financial Solutions and North Communications Establish Alliance to Bring One-to-One Marketing to Kiosks
Harland's ChannelExpert to manage multi-channel messaging,
including North Communications kiosks
ATLANTA -- Two companies that serve financial institutions are combining forces to bring financial institution customers the right message in the right way, at the right time in an increasingly multi-channel industry.
John H. Harland Company (NYSE: JH) announced a partnership agreement with North Communications, Inc., that will result in financial institutions being able to deliver targeted messages to their customers via North's AURORA online banking software for kiosks. The backbone of the system is Harland Financial Solutions' ChannelExpert™ system, which improves financial institutions' profitable cross-selling capabilities and customer satisfaction levels.
ChannelExpert, which is in the final stages of development, will help financial institutions manage customer-centric marketing through all of their delivery channels, including kiosks, Internet banking, telephone banking, and the employee sales platform. ChannelExpert will match the customer profile, such as current profitability, potential profitability, and likely needs, with the financial institution's campaign rules to deliver highly customized messages through a wide variety of channels. With this interaction, financial institutions will be able to continuously refine one-to-one marketing throughout their entire organization.
North Communications, a provider of transactional kiosk applications and software solutions for financial institutions, considers the alliance with Harland a highly strategic partnership.
"Customers can perform all standard banking services and transactions via North kiosks running AURORA. That coupled with ChannelExpert's ability to tailor messages to the individual user is a revolution in highly-targeted marketing for financial institutions," said David Lyons, senior vice president, sales & marketing. Additionally, the relationship between North and Harland will help financial institutions improve their client services
.
"Every day, people use North Communications software to access information and conduct financial transactions," said North Communications President and CEO Victoria L. Overton. "This agreement will help our clients better leverage the knowledge they have of their customers to service them in the best possible way, through all of their delivery channels. In turn, this will create the best possible experiences at our clients' kiosks."
The rules-based ChannelExpert establishes a sophisticated tracking system for marketing offers and enables financial institutions to avoid repeating messages to the same customer. The program's integration with Harland's MAX$ELL for Windows system allows it to quantify how many times the offer was made and how many times the contact resulted in a sale. MAX$ELL for Windows is used by more than 1,000 financial institutions, helping them understand their customers' total relationships by combining key account, behavioral, and demographic information into a single household database.
"ChannelExpert will offer a measurable, data-based solution to today's multi-channel challenge," said John O'Malley, president of Harland Financial Solutions. "ChannelExpert enables financial institutions to not only be more aware of the customers' track record but of their own."
North's AURORA system integrates a user-friendly interface with enhanced multimedia marketing functions to a secure, scalable, and robust financial transaction software application. Aurora provides a seamless connection to core backend processing systems and enables users to access online banking features through a web-enabled platform to perform all standard banking services and transactions.
How ChannelExpert Will Work with AURORA
When customers first identify themselves at a kiosk, ChannelExpert determines the best message to present, based on the customer's household profile. If the customer is a likely candidate to profitably purchase a home equity loan, for example, a placeholder on the kiosk screen is filled with imagery and text associated with the loan offer. ChannelExpert will also document if the customer clicks on the message for additional information. The presentation and tracking occurs seamlessly while the customer conducts their normal transactions on the kiosk.
If the same customer subsequently visits another delivery channel, ChannelExpert has already used its rules and tracking capabilities to deliver a different message based on previous reactions and any changes in their profile. If the first loan opportunity failed to garner a response, a different offer, perhaps a customer satisfaction survey or high-yield money market offer, would then be made. ChannelExpert enables the financial institution to repeat offers at a chosen frequency, with each delivery channel, to maximize response and keep the financial institution's approach and product line consistent and continuously relevant to their customer.
ChannelExpert is currently in final development stages and a generally available version of the system is expected during the first quarter of 2001. Connectivity of ChannelExpert with North Communications AURORA software and kiosks is currently being established in conjunction with the development effort.
About Harland
Atlanta-based John H. Harland Company
is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "JH." Harland is a leading provider of software, printed products and consulting services to the financial institution market. Scantron Corporation ,a wholly owned subsidiary, is a leading provider of software services and systems for the collection, management and interpretation of data to the educational market.About North Communications
Since 1987,
North Communicationshas been designing secure transactional public access kiosk applications for financial and government institutions across four continents. Every day, around the world, people use North Communications software to access information, conduct financial transactions, and complete online forms.-end-
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