By Leslie Chaffer, VP Product Management
Digital banking users generate a vast amount of data. If your financial institution’s goal is to use this data to drive personalized experiences for digital banking consumers, you can choose from a multitude of data analytics tools to make this happen. But incorporating business-focused personalization into your digital banking platform can be challenging.
Small and mid-size businesses require robust business banking processes and cash management tools to run their operations. In fact, when small businesses were surveyed about the importance of cashflow services in this recent Aite-Novarica and Apiture survey, 61 percent said they would like to see their financial institution offer more digital tools to manage cash flow. Unfortunately for small businesses, data available from many digital banking platforms often does not provide a complete picture of their financial position or cash flow, and the digital tools available to them don’t deliver the information they need.
A consolidated view of data from multiple sources may better serve your small business clients, even if you are their primary financial institution. By consolidating traditional banking system data with ancillary data — such as general ledger data from businesses’ accounting software — you can deliver a wealth of relevant information to help businesses run their operations more effectively.
While consolidated data will help meet your small business clients’ financial health needs, your institution can also reap the rewards of business-focused data analytics. For example, an analytics tool focused on commercial clients can serve up insights to show whether a business has excess cash compared to their expenses, if the business is healthy, or if it already has a sizable number of loans. Ultimately, this type of data makes it possible for small banks and credit unions to offer a more customized experience for business clients.
Armed with data insights about small business clients, you can use the resulting information to target businesses with appropriate product offerings. For example, if a business has excess cash, your institution can recommend ways to better use this cash. Or, based on intel gathered through a planning feature of the analytics tool, your institution can see when a business client is about to invest in new equipment or expand to another location and offer them an attractive rate on an appropriate loan instrument.
Contact us to learn more about how Business Insights, available in Apiture’s Business Banking solution, can enable you to personalize the banking experience for your business clients. Insights from this tool will enable you to make important lending decisions and offer the right products at the right time to small business clients, deepening loyalty from this vital segment of customers.