Case Study: Best Practices Development

A Midwest-based Financial Services Organization wanted to produce consolidated detail statements for its customers. Before launching into the initiative, the organization looked to Madison Advisors to assure that consolidated statements would be valuable to customers, and to identify cost-effective practices for production. The organization conducts business in all 50 states and serves over three million customers. Its numerous offerings range from banking and investments to insurance and annuities.

Strategic Issues
The Financial Services Organization wanted an expert assessment of its current practices for statement production, and guidance around the process for moving toward consolidated statement production. With 37.3 million internally produced statement images annually, production of consolidated detail statements was a significant IT undertaking. As could be expected, there were challenges between the organization's system architects and business managers on the best infrastructure for the initiative. In addition, the organization faced tight deadlines due to regulatory requirements around the production launch of Universal Life and Variable Universal Life products.

The Solution
Madison Advisors conducted a variety of services for the Financial Services Organization, including our Best Practices Analysis of its existing systems and processes for statement production. We spent several days onsite, conducing facility tours and interviews with the business and IT personnel responsible for the initiative. We conducted a thorough assessment of the organization's vision and plan for the production of consolidated detail statements, including the planned architecture. We also conducted a competitive market analysis on the practices and strategies of other financial organizations that provide consolidated statements to their customers.

We identified the organization's existing production strengths that should be leveraged as part of consolidated detail statement production. Similarly, we identified areas of strength within its vision and plan for the initiative. We then identified potential issues, concerns, and risks with the organization's current capabilities, system architecture, and long-term plans. We provided detailed recommendations for improved practices in these areas.