I tiSflNMOVATI

The telephone is still an essential channel of communicationfor many people to conduct their financial affairs and thisaward recognises recent innovations in this field.

finalists

Intelligent Finance - A New Way of Banking

HSBC - Intelligent Call Routing

First Independent Direct - The Personal Touch Online

Barclays - PAML-IVR Project

Bank of Cyprus - VoIP

Winner

First Independent DirectThe Personal Touch Online

-^ fIndependent financial advisors, First Independent Direct launched acompliant online advice service, but the challenge was to getcustomers to trust advice online. An innovative technologytransformed the offering, so that the client simply has to enter aURL address, plus the online quotation page of the website. Theadvisor explains the product with a personalised on-screenpresentation, which can simultaneously be altered or annotatedin real time, as if the customer was viewing a TV set. The latestinnovation is a 'call me back' button that enables the customer

^ to have an on-demand, virtual, face-to-face advice meetingwith an advisor.

"An excellent idea." Sandy Meiison

. "An innovative service of value to customers, ft widens th.

sco-Powered Network

"These presentations over the Internet are a much simple

way of doing things, while proving to he more cos

"fififeetive tor the «ompany sntiel the <Jient.**

Melanie Bien

F S T M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 0 2 feature!9

Prizenight

- David Adams reviews a great night out atthe Financial Sector Technology Awards

n glorious evening was had by

all at the FST awards on 28

February. Even those

attendees who didn't go home with

^one of our dangerous-looking glass

trophies were able to enjoy adelightful champagne reception,

courteous of pre-dinner awards

sponsor Comunica, dinner in the

sumptuous surroundings of the

Dorchester Hotel ballroom,—excellent music from The jazz

Connection and entertainment from

our host for the evening, Clive.._ Anderson. "FST, it's a fine magazine.

1 never miss it," began Clive, and what

better, more heartfelt endorsement

of our publication could we ask for?Clive's performance was enjoyed

by an audience of 300 IT specialists

from companies across the financial

•—sector. The best represented was the

Royal Bank of Scotland, with a

large contingent spread across several

tables in the middle of the ballroom.

They were there because of the

bank's achievement in being

ihortlisted in no fewer than six award

categories. While it didn't win all six

awards, the bank did end up being

he biggest winner on the night,

- winning three awards for systems

integration and telecommunications

trategies and the overall prize for

he best use of IT in retail banking.

First Independent Direct won

he first award of the evening, for

Jest use of new media in

customer-facing environmentsror the development of the First

idependent Direct Advice System

• i,FIDAS).The system combines

telephone and Internet channels to

xplain complex financial products to

ustomers much more clearly,

and in a more personalised way than

would be possible if contact was

taking place through only the

phone or the Internet. FIDAS has

also helped raise the conversion

rate for web-generated leads to

sales from 14 to 75 per cent. Theaward was presented by one of the

fSr Awards judges, Stephen

*y*r~~ Kingsley, managing partner for the

global financial services industry atAndersen Consulting. He withstoodmanfully some shredding machine

related banter from Clive Anderson.

The next award presented was for

the Best use of business tobusiness ecommerce. It went to

Bondscape, for the bondscape.nel

service, an online bond tradinginitiative for professional investment

advisers, co-ordinated by Barclaysand Winterflood Securities. Mark

Raeburn, of Context Information

Security, presented the awards onbehalf of another judge, Sean

Leviseur, principal consultant at the

security consultancy. The judges

chose bondscape.net because it is an

innovative solution with the potential

to accelerate the development of

bond trading. The solution is an

example of the progress that can be

made when industry members work

together to improve business

processes through the use of IT.

The third award of the evening was

for the Data management

strategy of the year. It was

presented by another judge, Ann

Brown, senior lecturer in

information management at the City

University Business School, to

Skandia.The insurer won for its

implementation of document

management technology from

ActionPoint that transports and

manages documents in digital form

across Skandia's infrastructure and

e-business systems.

The judges gave the award to

Skandia in recognition of the businessbenefits and efficiency savings it

delivers across the company,

automating and easing the passage of

documents and other business

information to wherever they are

needed in the business, in flexible

and secure formats.

Cabling conquestsThe award for the Networking/cabling strategy of the year wasvery closely fought, with someoutstanding entries from the RoyalBank of Scotland and HSBC. But theaward went to Merrill Lynch, forthe construction of a Category 6structured cabling networkinfrastructure at its new Europeanheadquarters and financial centre inthe City of London, designed andimplemented in partnership withCableship.The award was presentedto the bank bv Stuart Beattie, senior

feature F S T M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 0 2

It was a good night for theRoyal Bank of Scotland.Nominated in six categories,winners of three, for thetelecommunications strategy(left) and systems integrationproject (top right) categories,and for the best use of IT inretail banking (bottom)

marketing manager at the categorysponsor Sniffer Technologies.

The judges felt that the challengesof this particular project, includingthe difficulties inherent in building amulti-site infrastructure, and themission-critical nature of the systemsdependent upon it, gave it an edgeover the other entries.

!t has been completed on time —which certainly makes it unusual inprojects of this type and size — and

the state of the artinfrastructure shouldensure that MerrillLynch has a reliablefoundation on which

to base its operations for many yearsto come.

Rewarding initiativeThe next award presented was thatfor the Most innovative use ofCRM. It was presented to theAlliance & Leicester by TonyO'Halloran, UK managing directorot the category sponsor Fineos.TheAlliance & Leicester won the awardfor the CRM strategy underpinningits Key Life Event initiatives,including movingimproving.com, aproject also shortlisted in the Bestuse of IT in retail banking category.

The Alliance & Leicester won theaward because it has succeeded inbuilding a strategy that goes further .than the purely application-basedapproaches that have given CRM abad name. Instead, it has transformedCRM from a buzzword into abusiness process that can establishvaluable relationships with customersmoving house or undertaking home

improvements.The award for the

Security strategy of theyear was won deservedlyby the in-house securityteam at Egg.

The judges chose Egg inrecognition ot thecompany's multi-layered,holistic and professionalapproach to security. Egghas put its commitment tosecurity at the heart of itsbusiness, gaining the trust

o c

of its customers. Theaward was presented byBarry Walker, VP andgeneral manager of theUK, Ireland and SouthAfrica at the categorysponsor McAfee.

Fat editor on stageAs the only one of the judges whohas ever worked in a call centre, I feltit appropriate that I should be theperson to present the next award, for •the Best use of contact centres.

Lg It was collected by First . j/"Independent Direct, a second ~>\

award of the evening for the FirstIndependent Direct Advice System(FIDAS). During a miserable, mostlyunsuccessful and thankfully briefperiod as an insurance salesperson, I

\ and my customers would definitelyhave appreciated a solution likeFIDAS, which allows contact centreagents to interact with customersover telephone and Internet channelsat the same time. ^^^ The last of our judges, DavidHarrington, director general ofthe Communications Managers

D

Association, presented the award forthe Best telecommunicationsstrategy of the year. This was thefirst of the Royal Bank ofScotland's three awards, and theannouncement that they had won it,having lost in three previouscategories was greeted rapturouslyby the Scottish contingent, some ofwhom must have started to wonder ifthe journey had been worthwhile.

The bank won the award for theintegration of the Royal Bank andNatWest's multiple networks Thiswas a huge project, involving theintegration and upgrading of thetelecommunications networks of twolarge companies. The judges wantedto reward the Group'stelecommunications team for theirefforts and the fact that their work isalready bringing the group significant-cost savings.

This, and other integrationprojects involved in knitting together

•