We’ve been talking about it for a long time, but perhaps technology is finally maturing to help the messy and time consuming process of collecting client information at the point of business.
I’ve just changed my central heating boiler service company and was recently impressed by the sort of technology the engineer was using – he was able to describe my boiler in detail from the definitive manufacturer’s manuals, show me a couple of pieces of guidance from the local building regulations and then take me through the sign-up process of the initial inspection. Once I was happy with the information, I was able to sign on the forms we were discussing, as was he.
Now, the sort of technology was not new, a Toshiba Tablet PC running Microsoft Windows XP Tablet Edition, but I wondered why this approach has not got further within Financial Services, although a number of solutions’ suppliers have tinkered with it over the past few years without much success.
Devices that support gestures, technically known as haptics, are pretty common now – from Apple iPhones to touch-screen kiosks, they’re in wide use – what they don’t seem to be used for within our industry is easing the complex data capture processes needed for activities like fact finds, application forms etc.
With companies like Microsoft investing significant sums in activities such as Windows 7 Touch, then hopefully the solution providers will be able to move towards a more natural and robust way of data collection. One of the most significant barriers our clients continue to describe is the way that technology obstructs the client interview process – the opinion normally revolves around the way in which keyboard and screen interaction interferes with eye-to-eye interaction with the client.
With the use of a more natural interaction with the technology, through pointing, fingers and pens, similar to the approach I describe in another industry, then I’m convinced the use of technology at the point of data collection could be increased, thus enabling one-touch processing of the data, true straight-through-processing and reduced costs for everyone involved in the acqusition of new business.
