Tag: decisioning

As we enter the beginning of the end of this global crisis, the role of data, analytics, and credit risk decisioning takes on even greater significance than before. Consumers face uneven roads to recovery, with some ready to spend again and others still mired in pandemic-related financial stress. And businesses of all sizes report their operations are recovering but there’s still a way to go. A key difference we saw is that companies that adapted to serve customer needs digitally are faring much better. Our 2021 Global Decisioning eBook, Navigating a new era of credit risk decisioning, looks at how consumers are stabilizing their finances and how businesses are returning to growth. A recent survey among 9,000 consumers and 2,700 businesses across ten countries worldwide reveals the importance of lenders prioritizing digital transformation, and the role of advanced data and analytics in enhancing the customer experience. The pandemic fall-out is impacting everyone differently: 1 in 3 consumers remains concerned about their finances – paying bills and managing credit Whereas high-income households are no longer reducing their discretionary spending Navigating this varied credit landscape requires a deep understanding of customer needs on both ends of the spectrum. However, business confidence in the consumer credit risk management analytics models dropped over the past year from 71 percent to 61 percent. Smaller lenders with revenues ranging from $10M to $49M have seen the sharpest decline from 72 percent to 57 percent in the past six months. Adapting data and analytics to a rapidly changing customer base: Almost 50% of businesses surveyed said their dedicate more resources to enhance analytics One-third of businesses are planning to re-build their models from scratch Recalibrating credit models is one thing, but lenders also need to rethink their data sources to better understand current customer profiles. The data inputs generated by the pandemic have impacted credit risk models and machine learning applications in unexpected ways. For example, widespread payment holidays and government stimulus programs may be masking customers’ true financial circumstances. According to Recovery Insights, a separate study published by Experian North America: Delinquency prior to the pandemic is a strong indicator of future risk. Accounts exiting an accommodation period are 2x more likely to become delinquent than are accounts that never received an accommodation. Payment on debt during accommodation indicated a reduced risk for subsequent delinquency. Amidst the pandemic lockdown, consumers turned online to manage finances and connect with lenders – including older consumers.  And while the pandemic pushed consumers online out of necessity, now that they’re there – it’s become a preference – as overall digital gains are holding above pre-pandemic levels. Lenders have a new digital imperative to meet consumers’ evolving needs for continued digital engagement. Consumer expectations of digital experiences 55% of consumers have higher expectations of their digital experience since Covid-19 began 43% of consumers surveyed age 70+ reported digital banking throughout the pandemic 14% of consumers surveyed age 60-69 applied for a new loan or card online The importance of a digital-first approach has revealed itself and many companies have put a digital customer journey in place since Covid-19 began. The future, however, is more than providing online services. It’s about knowing your customers well enough to anticipate their credit needs and using tools to automate the process and reduce risk. Adapt or lose customers 9 in 10 businesses have a digital customer journey in place 1 in 4 consumers have taken their business elsewhere because a company didn’t adapt to their digital needs Online customer experience and credit risk management are more connected than ever before. And, businesses need technology that supports the entire customer journey, from onboarding to customer management to collections. Five digital investments businesses are prioritizing the new era of credit risk management: Implement new machine learning models for customer decisions Increase digital acquisitions and engagement Understand their customer base (affordability, value, behavior) Automate customer decisions Increase value of existing customers Access the report here to get more consumer trends and find out what the future of decisioning means for businesses looking to return to growth. Stay in the know with our latest insights:

In our first episode of the Women Making Waves in Tech podcast series, we hear from Shobana Balasundaram, Director of Product Management at Experian Global Decision Analytics. Shobana leads the product roadmap for PowerCurve Suite, Experian’s award-winning decisioning software platform. Shobana’s passion for introducing new solutions and product features is contagious: “During my time managing this collection of software solutions, I have had the chance to bring some advanced analytics and machine learning features to market. Indeed, some of the new product features that I have launched have driven nearly half of our revenue growth in the past few years, which confirms that decisioning software is a growing area. And I love my job!” Blending business strategy and tech advancements Shobana discusses what it takes to bring business strategy to life by applying the latest tech advancements. “It’s all about transforming an idea into a product and putting it in the hands of a client so they can deliver value to their customers,” explains Shobana. In her current role with the global product management team for decisioning software, Shobana is responsible for thinking about what kind of features to build into the product and forecasting the level of growth it will generate. That also involves addressing the market’s and competition’s reactions. But for her, the part she enjoys the most is “taking an idea, thinking about what is the possible problem you're solving and turning that into a product feature. Getting that idea-turned-into-a-solution in the hands of a client is a very satisfying experience, end-to-end.” Access all episodes of Insights in Action on Soundcloud, Spotify, Google Podcasts

At Experian, we have a long history of driving positive change in society. For example, our founder Si Ramo was one of the original thinkers around a cashless society much like the one that we are headed to today.   Indeed, everything we do today as a company is built upon a foundation of data and information technology and anchored on the mission of giving consumers access to the financial products and financial information that they deserve. All of that while enabling consumers to protect their identities and to help businesses achieve their outcomes.   Experian Decision Analytics’ mission is taking the complexity out of decision-making, enabling businesses to drive meaningful outcomes for consumers in moments that matter. We achieve that by making sense of that data, by applying advanced analytics and technology in ways that help businesses better serve their customers.   Cloud-based technology helps make smarter, quicker customer decisions  We are committed to extending our expertise and capabilities to businesses of all sizes so they can take advantage of a range of simple, affordable, and configurable solutions. That means that what was once only available to very large businesses is available to all, and that’s better for consumers.    For us, helping businesses serve the needs of more customer segments, with confidence, is paramount. Leveraging decisioning software, rich data sets, advanced analytics, and cloud-based technology, we empower customers to make great risk-based decisions quickly, easily, and safely. That translates into innovation at scale, a lower total cost of ownership for clients, and greater access to the most effective fraud protection methods.  We do this to help businesses lend more effectively, minimize and detect fraud losses, and comply with regulatory and privacy requirements. But, more importantly, we do this to help them deliver great experiences to their customers. Ultimately, all of that work helps society to flourish.   More resources on digital transformation and automated decision management:  Fair and explainable artificial intelligence is accelerating industry transformation How digital transformation is defining a new way to do business Automating Fairness: Using Analytics to Help Consumers in Pandemic Era

Experian is honored to be recognized as a winner of the Artificial Intelligence AI Excellence Award by Business Intelligence Group. Experian was recognized for its credit and collections decisioning solution, PowerCurve, which features intelligent agent-customer assist that processes complex, regulated, and subjective interactions with customers, revolutionizing how they digitally interact, on their terms, with lenders. This AI virtual assistant offers customers 24/7 access to support from their credit provider - on a financially sensitive transaction such as collections. We embedded over 30 years of collections knowledge and experience delivered to major clients across the globe into a credit risk decision management solution that delivers this domain expertise, data, analytics, decisioning, and workflow to clients of all sizes via cloud technology. Harnessing the power of AI has enabled lenders to easily connect with customers on their terms in a fair and transparent way, and to recover losses in an operationally efficient way but also improve customer satisfaction. When’s the last time you heard a customer share a positive story about collections?  This digital self-service channel allows customers to engage with a lender on their terms and allows the lender to fulfill key objectives for quickly recovering losses, using the company’s strategic parameters for segmentation and treatment paths. The intelligent agent customer-assist feature within PowerCurve continuously learns which distinguishes it from the traditional decision-tree structure of a chatbot. It remembers interactions and learns from them, has short-term and long-term conversation goals, and recognizes small talk. It treats customers fairly and transparently. The result feels more empathetic and allows for an always-on and real-time consumer interaction. It can also offer a future-forward benefit to lenders, by allowing their employees to strategically focus on other areas of the business, potentially increasing the capacity for more credit products and services innovation. This Business Intelligence Group awards program sets out to recognize those organizations, products and people who bring Artificial Intelligence (AI) to life and apply it to solve real problems. Related stories: Going the last mile: Improving the End-to-End Digital Customer Journey Technology today: Focus on innovation drives award-winning, AI-powered consumer lending Podcast: Driving product vision with the customer front and center, a software architect’s view

Given market dynamics, technology today is an important topic for businesses to track — whether beginning a technology transformation journey or looking to continuously improve by understanding the latest advancements available — including AI-powered consumer lending. With innovation at the forefront of practices, our experts help power important topics around this subject — and fuel breakthrough technologies. Recently, this focus on innovation was acknowledged, with Ascend Intelligence Services™, winning both honors from The CIO 100 Awards and The FinTech Breakthrough Awards, premiere and notable programs that recognize breakthrough technology worldwide. ML technology helps drive customer satisfaction and increased bookings The CIO 100 Awards recognized Atlas Credit, a midsized lender headquartered in Texas for their use of the Experian Ascend Intelligence Platform. The platform enabled them to double loan application acceptance rates while reducing credit losses by up to 20 percent. Atlas Credit uses the tools and data to make instant decisions, resulting in improved customer satisfaction and higher booking rates. Using Ascend Intelligence Services, Experian data scientists rapidly built a machine learning (ML) custom credit risk model, optimized a decision strategy, and deployed the model in production, reducing time to impact by six months. “Winners are chosen by a team of external judges, many of them former CIOs, on their use of leading-edge IT practices that produce measurable results. The award is an acknowledged mark of enterprise excellence. This year's honorees exemplify what it means to deliver business value through the innovative use of technology. This elite group is creating competitive advantage in their organizations, improving business processes, enabling growth and improving relationships with customers," according to CIO 100 2021 winners. The CIO 100 awards are presented by IDG's CIO — the executive-level IT media brand providing insight into business technology leadership, each year, CIO recognizes the premier organizations and executives driving IT innovation with these prestigious awards. Honorees are inspiring examples of how IT leadership, business partnerships, and customer engagement are reshaping the future. Atlas Credit was the recipient of the Optimal Loan Underwriting with Machine Learning for Underserved Consumers project. Better results, delivered faster to help power FinTech evolution Experian's Ascend Intelligence Services was also selected as a winner of The FinTech Breakthrough Honors, which recognizes Standout FinTech Companies and Solutions in 2021. Ascend Intelligence Services was recognized as the FinTech Breakthrough Award winner in the Consumer Lending Innovation Award category. The FinTech Breakthrough Awards is the premier awards program founded to recognize the FinTech innovators, leaders, and visionaries from around the world in a range of categories, including Digital Banking, Personal Finance, Lending, Payments, Wealth Management, Investments, RegTech, InsurTech, and many more. The 2021 FinTech Breakthrough Award program attracted more than 3,850 nominations from across the globe. "This past year has been unlike any time period ever seen before for FinTech growth and disruption, with FinTechs maturing to become respected, global players throughout the financial services value chain," said James Johnson, Managing Director, FinTech Breakthrough. "FinTech is a digital force that has clearly entered a new phase of its evolution, moving out of niche use cases to operate at scale, and we are thrilled to recognize the 'breakthrough' FinTech innovators in this market evolution for our fifth annual FinTech Breakthrough Awards program." Ascend Intelligence Services is a fully managed analytics service delivered digitally by Experian data scientists. It helps lenders leverage advanced technology, utilizing AI to deliver better results up to 5x faster, accelerating time-to-market all while allowing them to make sound business decisions. Related stories: Insights in Action Podcast: Identifying the core capabilities your business needs to get MLOps right Fair and explainable artificial intelligence is accelerating industry transformation Going the last mile: Improving the End-to-End Digital Customer Journey

  In honor of International Women's Day, we've curated a list of our top stories from over the past year authored by women leading change in the data, analytics, and technology industry. Right offer, right time: What organizations really need from digital decisioning software By Donna DePasquale, executive vice president, Global Decisioning Software The true potential of digital decisioning brings to mind the intrinsic reward of talking with someone that really gets you. It’s that “aha” moment when they say just what you needed to hear or offer the help you wanted—without you having to ask. The rise of digital decisioning software enables organizations to scale a similar level of personalization, offering customers what they need at the exact right time. And organizations that do it well dramatically improve the customer experience and drive loyalty and revenue in the process. But realizing this promise takes the right tools. The most effective decisioning platforms include a powerful combination of data, analytics, and technology. Equally important, the software must allow non-technical users to update and change strategies to better meet customer and organization needs without burdening IT.  …Read more   Consumer demand for digital will persist and the customer journey will be redefined By Stacy Schulman, senior director of marketing, Global Decision Analytics With the turn of a new year, there’s positive news that a vaccine is making its way to local communities. As businesses set their goals and strategic agendas, a top question comes to mind: what consumer trends are here to stay post-pandemic. While it’s difficult to predict the future, we believe many of the digital behaviors and expectations observed in the past year will persist, calling upon businesses to do more with their data, analytics, and technology to bridge online and offline customer experiences. For over the past year of the pandemic, we’ve conducted a study that looks at the impact of Covid-19 on consumer digital banking and shopping behaviors and businesses’ strategies and priorities to support their customers. …Read more   Insights into Action podcast: Present and future of digital identity with Nick Maynard and David Britton By Angela Gonzalez-Rodrigues, podcast host and marketing manager, Global Decision Analytics The concept of digital identity and the ways it can be applied has been discussed for many years. While this has traditionally been more of a philosophical discussion, this notion has beginning to shape over the past twelve months, making waves across markets and driving, making many in the industry wonder what has changed to prompt that shift. In a recent episode of the Insights in Action series, Nick Maynard from Juniper Research and David Britton from Experian Decision Analytics explored the pandemic’s transformative effect on the prospects of digital identity. Over the past year, reliance on e-commerce has increased significantly increased globally, boosted by new consumer and business needs and efforts to observe social distancing and cope with the side-effects of lockdowns. …Have a listen   Has my data lake turned into a data swamp? By Andrea Nighswander, senior manager of solution strategy, Global Identity & Fraud In many respects, the explosion in the type and volume of customer data businesses gather to facilitate security, ensure a convenient, user-friendly approach to customer interactions, and personalize interactions is a double-edged sword. In an era when businesses are awash in data, customers’ expectations regarding its use continue to grow. Nonetheless, when it comes time to recognize a consumer by utilizing the data, there is a disconnect between how confident businesses are in their ability to recognize the consumer and the consumer’s confidence in businesses’ ability to do the same. According to our global research, 95% of businesses say they can recognize their customers yet 45% of consumers don’t feel recognized. …Read more   Biometrics as the catalyst for trust in a socially distanced world By Gena Boutin, vice president platform go-to-market success, Global Identity & Fraud According to our global research, 81% of consumers view physical biometrics as the more secure form of identity verification Conversely, as user IDs and passwords become more exposed to fraudsters, various organizations across industries are using biometrics to develop next-generation identification controls that combat fraud, make transactions more secure, and create trusted enhanced customer experiences. Driving adoption is certainly key to effect change. The good news is that biometric authentication is already part of our daily lives. Facial recognition to unlock mobile devices and fingerprint scanners to facilitate purchases are only a couple of examples of how engrained biometrics already are in our daily lives.  …Read more   Other related stories: Women Making Waves in Tech, a podcast series Game changers: Women in AI Video interview of Marika Vilen at Experian on identity verification 

The world is still grappling with the mental, emotional, and financial toll of the Covid-19 pandemic but there are clear signs of hope and resolution ahead. Consumer concerns about their personal finances have started to ease for the first time since June 2020. And there’s a groundswell of opportunity for businesses to serve the growing ranks of “connected customers”—putting the consumer truly at the heart of the relationship. Download Global Insights Report – January/February 2021 issue Key insights: 60% of consumers are using a universal mobile wallet - for online and/or in-person contactless transactions Top 2 activities among consumers online are personal banking (58%) and ordering groceries and takeout food (56%) 90% of businesses have a strategy in place related to the digital customer journey; 47% of businesses put this strategy into place since Covid-19 41% of businesses intend to use AI to acquire and onboard new customers 55% of consumers say security is the most important factor in their digital experience – this is highest in the UK (65%), followed by Japan (64%) Fraud is the biggest challenge among businesses; 55% of businesses plan to increase fraud management budgets In this report, we continue our examination of consumer behavior and business strategy throughout the pandemic. For our third wave of insights, we surveyed 3,000 consumers and 900 businesses in January 2021. Our respondents span 10 countries, including Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Japan, Singapore, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Over the past 12 months, we’ve observed consumer demand for the digital channel increase at a rate that few could have predicted. The most recent survey shows that these trends are persisting. Looking ahead, we expect that as people get more comfortable with the security and convenience of the digital channel, it will become the preferred—if not permanent—way to bank and shop. Part of what’s driving the continued demand: Positive digital experiences. Most consumers report they’ve been satisfied with their online transactions, especially when they secure and their financial information is protected. This is remarkable, given the challenges businesses faced to meet online demand while simultaneously adapting their employee and customer operations to the crisis. Businesses rose to the occasion and there’s opportunity ahead. Our latest report reveals that consumer expectations for digital experiences continue to rise. For example, even as consumers enjoy the ease of online banking and shopping, security is top-of-mind. In response, businesses are renewing their focus on preventing and mitigating account takeover fraud, transactional fraud, and digital takeaway fraud (e.g. buy online and pick up in-store). And they’re looking for solutions they can use throughout the digital customer journey, not just account opening. Consumers are also looking for greater customer support across digital channels. For example, when a customer is engaging with a business digitally, access to customer service is essential. It’s also an area where many businesses are falling short. However, businesses have made redefining the customer journey a priority and they're investing in capabilities, such as artificial intelligence and automation, to deliver on customer expectations. Consumers and businesses have embraced the digital channel— and the promise it offers is only growing. Now as we move toward a new, post-pandemic era, organizations that re-imagine the customer journey and create digital experiences that place customers at the center stand to win. find out what businesses are using to help improve the customer journey across digital channels, as they prepare for post-Covid customer engagements.

In a world drastically and constantly changing, industries and technologies are being transformed at a rate never before experienced. Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with Roy Schulte, Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner, about trends in the evolving world of big data, advanced analytics, and decision intelligence — trends that are powered by advancements in cloud technology, machine learning, and real-time streaming. Below, I will share a summary of key highlights. The growth of decision management More businesses are implementing decision management. They want to make more automated decisions to accelerate outcomes while improving applicability. In tandem, decisions are becoming more complicated with regulators increasingly expecting decisions to be explainable and with audit trails built-in. Equally, the combination of machine learning and decision management has placed greater focus on the importance of avoiding bias. Bringing all of this together promises continuous decision improvement; updating models and strategies in days or even hours rather than weeks and months. Essential in responding to the rapidly changing environments, none more so than the impact of Covid-19. As businesses are implementing decision management, they are putting the new systems into the cloud. Based on a Gartner survey in mid-2020, 67% of respondents said their digital business platform will be cloud-native application architecture. It’s the primary criteria for the architecture of many of these new systems. Migrating to the cloud The reason decision management is going to the cloud is the same reason other areas of business are taking this step. Organizations are highly motivated not to run their own systems. There is no competitive advantage to doing so. They want to entrust it to others so they can focus on what the business does best. The migration will continue gradually to the cloud, with a current acceleration based on Covid-19. In a recent Gartner survey, 65% of respondents said the pandemic accelerated their plans and funding for doing digital business. Most models and strategies will be built in the cloud, and the actual runtime decisions will be distributed with some on the cloud, some on-premise in a data center, and some out in the edge in a mobile device. Real-time streaming In the past, traditional business information was done on static, snaps of data from the past. Today, much of this is going real-time, depending on the kind of decision that is being made. For example, when a customer is visiting a website, there are mere seconds to generate the next best offer. This is a real-time decision. However, some decisions do not require real-time, such as the strategic decision to acquire another company or not. That is why it’s important to align the decision speed and cadence with the actual business problem. If real-time data will be used, such as for an e-commerce situation, some of it must be streaming data. With the increase in factors taken into account when making decisions, you need data that is connected, contextual and continuous. The data must come for your entire ecosystem, not a single department, but across your company, business partners, your customers, or market data. Streaming examples for e-commerce might include location, what the person has been doing on the web recently (clickstreams), and records of contact with your business such as calls and emails. A real-time lookup is involved with inventory and external factors like credit rating through an API, and customer data will include historical and real-time. With these factors, real-time decisions for e-commerce will be more effective, with higher yield rates and lower fraud rates. Machine learning in model building and execution Machine learning (ML) is making predictions, not decisions. When a prediction is made and a score is provided, a rule must be applied to determine outcomes based on the score. If considering rules or analytics, the truth is that in most cases, both are needed. The goal of ML in decision management is to have applications that are easier to develop, faster to develop, and lead to more accurate outcomes. To achieve this objective, a process covering all stages of a decision cycle is needed — Observe: Getting connected, contextual, continuous intelligence. Governance is key at this step to know where data is coming from and that it will be used in authorized ways. ML models and strategies must avoid bias and alternative data sources and lending criteria should be considered to expand the business without incurring increased risk. Orient: The next step is putting the data in context. When dealing with models at scale, it’s important to be able to track outcomes through tools such as performance dashboards. Eventually, this will lead to the hyper-personalization of models. Decide: Once models are built, strategy, rule authoring, and approvals are needed. Workflow and collaboration mechanisms help manage the process and accelerate the pace of developing new decisions. Act: Next comes the deployment of models. Using logic to make decisions across multiple applications accelerates deployment, often referred to as centralized management or reuse of decision factors. Feedback: Finally, continuous logging of decisions and effects of decisions. Tracking provides the ability to audit past decisions, explain what was done, and accurately post hoc remediate. Ongoing feedback also enables continuous decision improvement at an accelerated pace. The future of decision management includes decision intelligence In summary, there are five considerations for the future of decision management — A systematic approach to decision making, including a lot more automation and decision intelligence, is clearly on its way. Migration to the cloud is well underway with acceleration thanks to Covid-19. Equilibrium will be reached where some decisions are made at run time at other locations, but most of the development of decision-making, modeling, and strategies will be based on cloud platforms. Data science ML vendors have not focused on decisions. Some may come to realize the reason you do analytics is decisions and broaden the scope of what they do, or they may stay focused and instead partner with other vendors to enable end-to-end decision making. For certain kinds of logic, graph databases and graph analytics can be very powerful. Likely this will become a big part of decision intelligence going forward. Finally, there is huge untapped potential in optimization technology to improve decisions either at development time or even at run time by applying optimization techniques. This could lead to achieving the full vision of artificial intelligence. Related stories Insights in Action Podcast: Identifying the core capabilities your business needs to get MLOps right New Tech Talks Daily Podcast: Machine learning and AI in business — investment trends pre- and post-pandemic In digital transformation, small wins lead to big outcomes

Consumer demand has shaped the way businesses worldwide have adjusted or intend to adjust operations and investments throughout the pandemic. Businesses that have struggled to meet the new expectations of consumers will need to meet ever-changing conditions with careful investment and data-driven analyses. Experian’s latest Global Insights Report shows two-thirds of consumers globally have remained loyal to their favorite brands during the pandemic. Brand loyalty was found to be the highest in India, at 80%, and lowest in France, with a bit more than half, at 57%. However, loyalty may not be a given going forward. Competitive differentiation is founded on how you engage customers, at every interaction. Our research shows that loyalty is intrinsically linked to trust, security and convenience. Payment system providers, such as PayPal, have retained the top spot for customer loyalty for three years in a row, but there continues to be movement among the remaining top five industries. This fluctuation, indicative of consumer preferences and behaviors, is fueled by the varying speed at which businesses globally are transforming front- and back-end systems. Particularly, this holds true for the pace of digitization of credit risk and fraud risk operations.   Leverage data to retain loyalty Consumers have higher expectations than ever before, and businesses need to meet or exceed these expectations by adapting to correlate with the dynamic nature of the customer journey throughout the continuing pandemic. The report also found that 60% of people have higher expectations of their digital experience than before Covid-19, increasing the need for businesses to make sure that they are leveraging data to benefit their customers, providing secure and convenient digital experiences. Although most customers have shifted to digital and prefer the conveniences of online, mobile and contactless transactions, concerns over data security remain. In response, businesses need to carefully navigate customer experiences to ease apprehension. A great example is the trust, and therefore loyalty, that can be established by using customer data for identity authentication.  Customers gain protection while enjoying a hassle-free experience that is non-threatening and transparent. Some businesses recognize these needs, with 40% reporting they are doing a better job communicating how customer data is used to enhance the customer experience, protect consumer information and personalize products and services. Integrating data, analytics and technology Our survey also found that only 24% of businesses are deliberately making changes to their digital customer journey. However, many of them have intentions of making changes and are increasing their budgets in order to do so. Three of the top five solutions businesses are using to help improve the customer journey are designed for driving insights into faster customer decisions. Of these top five solutions, the use of AI to improve customer decisions ranks first amongst banks, payment providers, and retailers ranks first. Companies who are, or plan to, accelerate the implementation of AI can make faster, smarter data-driven decisions to better serve consumers. The key to better serving customers lies in a business’s ability to integrate data and decisioning technology to deliver fast and relevant products and services. In fact, the study found that one in three consumers are only willing to wait 30 seconds or less before abandoning an online transaction, including accessing their bank accounts. With such a short window to keep the customer engaged, faster decision making is imperative to not only retaining a customer’s loyalty on a long-term basis but getting them to commit to a transaction once. Businesses, particularly retailers and financial services who implement the necessary technologies will help move economies from sustainability mode towards a future of growth but cannot do so without continued consumer demand. While customer loyalty does remain, it is up to businesses to adapt and accommodate to retain, and potentially increase the impact of these adjustments. Regardless of where they’re transacting, consumers expect a secure, convenient experience—and they’ll quickly abandon transactions if they’re let down. So, businesses must keep their focus on transformation. Discover more insights from our longitudinal study of the impact of Covid-19 on businesses and consumers.

In this episode of Insights in Action, Mark Spiteri, SVP of Software Engineering, and Mariyan Dichev, Manager of Software Engineering, cover what it takes to build award-winning technology teams. They explore the dynamics of their work and how the ability to automate the decision-making process alongside the customer journey has become paramount in today’s dynamic environment. Mark and Mariyan walk us through their own transformational journey to enable organizations of all sizes to gain direct access to advanced tools and actionable insights. They give background on Experian Global Decision Analytics Technology Team winning AIBEST's Project of the Year 2020 Award in recognition of the strides they have made to enable quick, accurate, and effective credit decisions. Some of the topics discussed in this 20-minute podcast: Practical advice to get industry recognition for outstanding information technology processes and results. How to navigate the IT talent crisis successfully. What IT executives should look for when hiring for their teams. Tips on identifying the right fit: 3 types of people every award-winning engineering and software development team needs. How to manage and grow high-performing technology teams.

In the not so distant past, consumers mostly interacted with their banks in person. Retail customers, for instance, waited in line to make a deposit or talk to a banker. And though the branch may have been busy, a moving line gave comfort to customers that the wait wouldn't be much longer. However, customer expectations in the digital era are dramatically different. According to Experian's new research, one in three customers will abandon a transaction if they have to wait more than 30 seconds, especially when accessing bank accounts. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. When it comes to the digital experience, consumers increasingly want seamless service at every point of their journey. Now, as the Covid-19 crisis continues to accelerate digital demand, financial institutions face more and more customers with similar if not greater expectations. Expectations for things like personalized products, contextual lending decisions, and offline-online seamlessness. And those organizations that understand these evolving needs and deploy cloud-based decision management to ensure they meet them will likely be the winners in this new world. Right here, right now Banking digital transformation was already underway before the pandemic began. Most retail banks provided some customer-facing app. In efforts to automate and streamline business processes, many organizations have also started to migrate their backend infrastructure from on-premise software to the cloud. The pandemic, though, ramped up the demand for everything digital seemingly overnight. Consider that consumer adoption of mobile wallets has jumped 11% since July, largely due to increased contactless in-payments. In the height of the crisis, customers turned to online platforms for financial assistance, from federal loans and grants to mortgage relief and credit applications to small business loans. Businesses that had already migrated to cloud-based solutions were able to scale their response to meet that growth. But that those hadn't? They faced the combined challenge of needing to scale existing services to serve the influx of online customers while simultaneously adding new digital capabilities. As a result, some organizations have ended up playing catch up with their digital offerings. Experian research shows, though, that it's a race worth finishing. Sixty percent of customers say they have higher expectations of their digital experience now than they did before the pandemic. To be sure, the crisis will end. Those expectations, however, are here to stay. A glimpse of the future Banks may see fewer customers in person, but that doesn't mean their service can't be personal. The data analytics features of cloud-based decision management software allow businesses to know more about their customers, providing personalized offers and services right when customers need them most. One bank we work with in India provides an ideal example. They've leveraged deep analytics and decisioning solutions to accelerate their online loan approval process from days down to seconds. They're no longer turning people away who are good candidates for loans. And they've increased their lending without having to take on additional risk. It's a win-win that reveals how organizations can leverage technology to satisfy customer expectations during the height of a crisis and continue to in a post-Covid reality. With cloud-based solutions, organizations can become 100% customer-centric, both in convenience and personalization. The data gives financial institutions a holistic view of their customers, enabling them to anticipate needs and tailor solutions to the individual. Transformation and soon No organization is going to digitally transform overnight. But given the urgency of the demand, there are proven ways to improve their digital customer experience sooner rather than later. Small-to-mid-sized organizations, for instance, should consider out-of-the-box Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions. These offer pre-determined, high-demand use cases such as online eligibility checks and customer acquisition tools. Organizations can modify these solutions to meet specific market needs while saving time on ramping up a fully custom solution. Additionally, even with the imperative to meet the digital demand, it's important to remember that proper planning leads to successful cloud migrations. Consider all the possibilities of what could go wrong and right in terms of incident management, customer service, links to data sources, and more. Rehearse your transition as much as feasible. The preparation may add a bit of time on the front end, but you'll decrease the likelihood of significant disruption when you do migrate and that's worth the effort. The march toward an increasingly digital customer experience only moves in one direction: forward. The pandemic may have pushed financial institutions to speed up their transition to cloud-based decision management, perhaps a bit earlier than some anticipated. But the outcome of a proactive, data-driven organization centered on serving customers promises to be better for everyone. Related stories: New research available: The continued impact of Covid-19 on consumer behaviors and business strategies  Automating fairness: Using analytics to help consumers in a pandemic era In digital transformation, small wins lead to big outcomes 

As the world faces another resurgence of the coronavirus, businesses will again be tested on their response—but this time consumer expectations will be much higher. In the beginning of the pandemic, businesses scrambled to set up remote workforces and new ways to support customers as everything locked down. In the short-term, many consumers stayed loyal to businesses they frequented before Covid-19. However, our recent research shows that loyalty may not be a given going forward. Download Global Insights Report – September/October edition Key insights: 1 out of 3 consumers is only willing to wait up to 30 seconds before abandoning an online transaction, especially when accessing their bank accounts. Half of the businesses surveyed have either mostly or completely resumed operations since Covid-19 began but only 24% are deliberately making changes to their digital customer journey. 60% of people have higher expectations of their digital experience than before Covid-19. In mid-September 2020, we surveyed 3,000 consumers and 900 businesses in 10 countries, including Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Japan, Singapore, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This report is the second of three in a longitudinal study exploring the major shifts in consumer behavior and business strategy pre- and post-Covid-19. Our first report in the sequence, published in  July/August, can be found here: Global Insights Report – July/August edition. Though businesses worldwide have started to see their operations stabilize, moving from survival mode toward sustainability, growth still presents a challenge. High expectations for security and convenience compounded by the increased demand for online payments, banking and shopping are pushing businesses to re-imagine the customer journey—and the investments they make to drive future growth. Top 5 initiatives amongst banks, payments, and retailers that have been accelerated by Covid-19: Use of AI to improve customer decisions Strengthening the security of mobile and digital channels Increasing digital acquisition and improving engagement Automating customer decisions Understanding customer profiles (e.g. affordability, preferences, behaviors) Most consumers reported a positive experience in their sudden shift to the digital channel and plan to increase their online transactions. The pandemic has also accelerated the move toward contactless payments for when shopping in-person is essential. The result has been a merging of consumers’ online and offline worlds calling upon businesses to create a fluidity between cross-channel interactions. 61% of people surveyed now regularly order groceries or food delivery online. This is a 7-point increase in this type of online payment since July. Adoption of mobile wallets has jumped +11% since July as consumers continue to increase their online activities and contactless in-person transactions. 70% of businesses have a plan to move customers out of Covid-induced collections but the implications of that impact on the balance sheet and future provisions are not yet clear. Regardless of where they’re transacting, consumers expect a secure, convenient experience—and they’ll quickly abandon financial transactions if they’re let down. Are businesses adapting the customer journey as quickly as customers are expecting more from their digital experience? Keeping up with consumer expectations: 77% of people said they feel most secure when using physical biometrics, and 62% of people said it improves their customer experience when managing finances or payments online. Consumers are most concerned about protecting their financial data over other types of information (e.g. personal, contact, web history). The concern is highest in France (46%) and Japan (43%). For the past 3 years, consumers trust payment system providers (e.g. PayPal, WePay, Apply Pay) the most for consistently providing a secure and convenient digital customer experience. Find out what top 3 solutions businesses are using to help improve the customer journey.