Tag: Digital Transformation

Over the past couple of months, every business, regardless of industry, has had to quickly find its bearings. This level of disruption is unprecedented; we may never see anything of this magnitude again in our lifetime. While urgent, the immediate needs created in the wake of the global pandemic shouldn’t be met with one-and-done solutions. It’s imperative that the solutions you offer not only enable your customers to manage the immediate crisis but also help you support them as they assimilate into the “new normal.” There’s therefore this added pressure for businesses to equip their teams with the necessary tools and knowledge to continue serving customers in a dynamic environment. It doesn’t take long to get left behind with new solutions, and new challenges, emerging on a regular basis. You have to keep up with the times so you can adapt your response to whatever is necessary and retain your value to your customers. How do you upskill your teams when traditional training is not an option? As Plato put it well before the Covid-19 pandemic turned our world upside down, a need or problem encourages creative efforts to overcome the challenge it presents. Recent research shows that companies that may have deferred their intended investment in training, are now resuming that commitment in order to meet new demands in this increasingly digital ecosystem: In an ILX Group survey, 51 percent of HR decision-makers said that ongoing digital learning has a direct effect on boosting employee morale, satisfaction, and longevity. ​ A study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology found that microlearning makes learning 17 percent more effective, and Software Advice reports that microlearning engages over 50 percent of participants. ​ A study conducted by Brandon Hall found that digital learning requires 40 to 60 percent less employee time than classroom training. ​ The Research Institute of America reports that learning retention rates improve from 8 to 10 percent for face-to-face training to 25 to 60 percent for digital learning. ​ IBM research found that for every dollar you invest in digital learning, the result is $30 in productivity, mostly because employees save a lot of time through online learning and are able to resume work and apply the new skills faster. ​ Taking advantage of technology to make knowledge accessible at the point of need As with the majority of our day-to-day activities, learning solutions now must be facilitated outside of a physical environment, such as the workplace or classroom. Having access to digital knowledge and training resources gives your teams enhanced flexibility to keep their skills up to date at their own pace, whether they are at home or in the office. Over the years, we’ve seen that offering learners training in multiple formats improves the overall success of the training, including enabling greater flexibility – offering different modalities is more likely to meet learner’s preferences - work clarity and job satisfaction. While your business may still be operating in a fog of uncertainty, ensuring access to the right tools and knowledge would give your team higher confidence in their ability to be of service, minimizing business disruption during this turbulent time.

Unlike your typical recession caused by a steady decrease in demand, today’s downturn was induced by the immediate mass closure of non-essential businesses. The frenzied pace that government and regulatory bodies have responded to reduce the impact on consumers with payment forgiveness or deferment programs has put a tremendous amount of pressure on lenders. It’s difficult to quickly understand the changes in credit profile of a previous solvent customer and to mobilize their operations teams to service these at-risk customers. Most companies but especially banks have been very proactive in digitally communicating with customers. They’ve been contacting consumers through email and posting messages to your accounts online offering to help. The problem will be when people start to experience financial difficulty, how do you support those consumers especially the vulnerable? Generally, the number of consumers who manage their debt month to month with low to no savings is the norm, that coupled with overall credit lines and debt utilization rates being at an all-time high creates somewhat of a perfect storm. With consumers facing unemployment or furlough at record numbers, the volume of people seeking hardship applications from their lender will skyrocket. According to the International Labour Organization, an estimated 2.7 billion workers, representing 81% of the world’s workforce, has been impacted leaving millions of workers vulnerable to income loss and layoffs. This rapid increase in demand is and will continue to overload Call Center operations who are already under strain and operating at a lower capacity. And really, aren’t we all? Call centers are staffed with people like you and me – working remotely or socially distancing, all the while juggling the needs of their families and communities.  And if it’s a lender who hadn’t yet made the digital transformation leap, these lenders could be putting additional pressure on systems that are difficult to access with a remote workforce. Implementing new software and operating rhythms in times of crisis is not ideal. Yet businesses don’t have the luxury of time and will need to evaluate their options and implement now. Here are 3 considerations for taking those first steps: Prioritize on-demand or cloud-first solutions for faster implementation Look for “as-a-service” options delivered in days versus months to help more customers faster Find operational efficiencies that support your employees and customers when it’s needed most Experian is helping businesses manage their at-risk customers whether they’re already in arrears or showing signs of payment stress for the first time. By linking digital communications channels to a collections platform and integrated decisioning environment, we’re helping address the significant increase in hardship demand with end to end treatment automation as a service. From the point of application, consumers drive the self-service interaction allowing businesses to quickly receive, accept/decline and process applications. Augmented with analytical insights for affordability and various types of propensity, businesses will better understand the actual financial position of a customer and be able to create a tailored treatment approach that’s sustainable. Whether short-term forbearance or true hardship is required, this can help reach more customers and free up call center teams to focus on more complex cases. It’s unlikely the economy will return to its pre-Covid conditions as rapidly as its declining, but your customers will trust your business if you were there for them in their greatest time of need.  We can help you stay connected with your customer while supporting them in a meaningful way through this especially difficult period.

The year 2020 will go down in history. That much is certain. Businesses are acting quickly to revise strategic and operational plans that seemed perfectly valid in January – now almost impossible to imagine, just a few months later.   However, predictions around fraud trends still stand. The opportunistic nature of hackers means that a global crisis can create the perfect breeding ground for fraudulent activity, and with users increasingly seeking solace and communication via digital means, businesses and consumers need to be even more vigilant.       Here’s what we found earlier in the year. Investment in fraud prevention is on the rise. According to our 2020 Global Identity & Fraud report, 84% of businesses say they are either investing more or maintaining the same budgets when it comes to identity-related fraud prevention. But with a complex digital landscape, rapid changes in consumer behavior, and customer experience playing a central role, how can businesses be sure that they are investing in the right place? We identified the top 5 global fraud trends to watch out for in 2020: 1. Authorized push (or wire transfer) payment fraud In the past 12 months, the most common fraud attack encountered by businesses were authorized push or wire transfer payment fraud (41%). Set to continue into 2020, authorized push payment fraud (or APP) is where victims are tricked into authorizing a payment from their own account to another account which is being controlled by a criminal. Fraudsters can socially engineer consumers or intercept communications, changing key information such as account details, leaving victims believing that they are authorizing a legitimate transaction when in fact they are making a payment into a criminal's account. Validation is crucial in tackling APP fraud Push payment fraud can be prevented with a validation exercise which carries out real-time checks, dramatically reducing the chances of payment fraud and error. It can be used to confirm that the beneficiary of a payment owns the bank account to which a payment needs to be sent to. As with many fraud prevention methods, one layer of verification is rarely enough so it's important that techniques like real-time validation sit within a wider fraud prevention and authentication strategy. 2. Account takeover fraud Next in line is account takeover fraud (37%), which is expected to significantly increase in light of the recent global pandemic. This is when a fraudster gains access to an account that doesn't belong to them and makes unauthorized transactions, sometimes changing key credentials of the account such as the rightful account owner's personal information or log-in details. This type of attack often involves phishing attempts to compromise customer data is much more likely in light of various government assistance programs due to the crisis. In recent years, fraudsters have done a great job of taking over bank login credentials, getting access to a user's account, then calling that account holder to inform them a fraudulent transfer is being attempted from their account. Since customers know that banks typically send SMS one-time-passwords for customers to verify transactions, the attackers use that layer against the account holder. Know Your Customer (KYC), Customer Identification Program (CIP), use of passwords and physical biometrics make up the top solutions currently used by businesses to detect and protect against fraud based on regulatory requirements. Although businesses seem confident in the ability of their existing solutions used to detect and protect against fraud, they are reporting 57% higher losses associated with account takeover fraud, so what's going wrong? Businesses must confidently engage customers using holistic and advanced, risk-based identity and device authentication, as well as targeted, knowledge-based authentication that allows good customers to move throughout the process and frustrate fraudsters. 3. Account opening fraud The third key fraud trend to watch out for in 2020 is account opening fraud. This takes place when criminals use stolen personal information to open new accounts for fraudulent activity such as borrowing money in another person's name. Identity verification is often the easiest control to bypass because so much identity data is compromised. Averting account opening risk requires strong identity authentication, proving that the person applying for the account (often digitally) is indeed the legitimate consumer. Acquiring legitimate customers from the beginning, whilst balancing a seamless customer experience is the challenge businesses face when it comes to account opening fraud. By improving the application process and identity-based authentication measures, businesses can decrease customer acquisition costs, reduce false positive rates, and save manual reviews for when they're really needed. 4. Transaction payment fraud Transactional payment fraud is any unauthorized transaction using stolen payment details or data. Fraudsters involved in this kind of criminal activity can range from small-scale amateurs to large-scale cyber-criminal rings. Criminals access stolen details in many ways, including phishing emails, and even direct contact with the victim. The key to combatting transactional payment fraud is the ability for businesses to quickly detect irregular activity, and then distinguish between legitimate and fraudulent transactions in real-time. In transactional fraud, strong fraud machine learning models and pattern and anomaly detection logic are key passive controls, with step-up challenge layers requiring customers to provide additional identity authentication when trying to complete high-risk activities or anomalous transfers. 5. Synthetic identity fraud (also known as fictitious identity fraud) One of the newest types of fraud, synthetic identity fraud uses a blend of fake information and real data to create brand new fake identities that expert-level criminals use to establish and build up an online credit history. Businesses can invest time and money in chasing people that turn out to not even exist. Synthetic identity fraud is an insight into the evolving world of fraud, and a reflection of how the criminal world reacts to sophisticated fraud prevention by becoming ever more sophisticated themselves. The role of advanced analytics The deployment of robust link analysis that monitors over time the use of identity elements such as name and Social Security/National Insurance, plus many other forms of personal information is paramount in tackling fraud. The ability to detect when identity elements look to be used inconsistently or at high velocities can be an indication of larger identity compromises or synthetics. Businesses should also utilize device intelligence to monitor common access points through which more organized fraud schemes may be occurring. In some instances, synthetic identity detection scores can also make up identity verification and fraud prevention layers, providing businesses with a separate synthetic identity score with each account opening event. This is because synthetic identity is difficult to detect with traditional verification controls or risk models. The good news is that the strategy to protect your customers and your business from these different trending types of fraud is similar - organizations need a strong layered series of defenses to both to recognise legitimate customers and to quickly pinpoint attackers if they want to combat fraudsters. New research available: The global impact of Covid-19 on businesses and consumers - September/October 2020  

Businesses can leverage technological advances in process optimisation, automation, data analysis and cognitive science to put customers first and truly understand and address their needs.