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IT, Integration, and an Identity Crisis

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DQI Bureau
New Update

In

a Douglas Adams book, detective Dirk Gently checks his post. A threatening

letter from Amex, about unpaid card dues. Next: a special offer from Amex to

become a privileged card member. Next: …

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Gently must have felt an identity crisis coming on. I did, last month. My

Amex card statement showed 70,000 reward points and thanked me for being an old,

valued, gold card member. Next: a letter from Amex rejecting my "credit

card application" due to my payment record. (A sales rep got me to sign up

for a free "pre-approved" card.) Third: a letter offering me a

platinum card, due to my "outstanding record". Fourth: a call selling

me a charge card. "All different departments," a call center exec

patiently explained.

A month earlier, I had a letter from ICICI, saying that I had skipped a home

loan repayment. A call followed. Oh, yes, they had taken post-dated cheques, but

maybe one was missing? I checked on ICICI NetBanking. Payment debited on

schedule. "Oh… can you ask the bank to fax you the statement, so you can

fax it to us?" Wait, I said. Our bank is ICICI. You’re ICICI. Same

company. Can’t you sort it out? "Sorry, sir." And so it was.

Another colleague tried to get repayments auto-debited through standing

instructions with his bank — both companies are with the HDFC group. Sorry,

sir. We can do that with MTNL and BSES bills, but not with our own housing

finance company…

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Wait a minute. These are enterprises at the cutting edge of IT deployment.

They set the standards, even among the IT-savvy banking segment. And they’re

yet to really use IT to leverage their own customer base.

Apply for a card or loan, and a giant form asks for your details. So they can

re-enter it into a new database that doesn’t talk to the old one which already

has all your details…

You’d think a bank would want to convert customers to other products. A

colleague applied online three times for a credit card to her bank. Response:

"We will forward your request to that division." Three months passed.

She bought another card.

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Of course, almost all other companies are even worse off.

And let’s not even talk about the government, which has five agencies

separately compiling citizen databases that do not talk to each other, wasting

thousands of crores. The Census Bureau, Election Commission, Income Tax Office,

Food and Civil Supplies, Home Ministry... And the taxpayer pays.

Just as when your bank wastes money through inefficiencies, you pay.

Here’s the challenge for enterprises — to integrate their IT strategies

enough to leverage their customer base. To present one face to a customer. To

create happier, and loyal, customers.

Prasanto K Roy

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