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Business Intelligence Raises Performance
at Connecticut Mutual Holding Company
By: Carol Gaylord, Chief Information
Officer
Connecticut Mutual Holding Company,
Litchfield, CT
Information access is the lifeblood of
any bank, but for our holding company,
business intelligence has given us fresh
opportunities to increase efficiency,
instill best practices, and improve
overall performance.
Our goal in implementing a business
intelligence system was to centralize
and standardize information access
across our holding company. We knew this
would increase our efficiency because
staff would spend less time obtaining
critical business information.
Today’s business intelligence systems
are ideal for streamlining information
flows. The TotalVision system from our
technology provider, COCC, has provided
the functionality to accomplish our
goal. It can display information in
charts, graphs, even ‘dashboards’ to
focus management on areas that need
attention. More importantly, we can
produce these graphic displays
automatically, on the schedule we
select.
Our automatic scheduling feature is
textbook best practice. The report
specifications are agreed upon prior to
production and then locked into place.
At the scheduled time, our staff
receives fully formatted information via
email, which is immediately useful
without further manipulation.
Auditors appreciate the reduction in
‘post-processing’ information after it’s
delivered, and we know we have improved
our control over the information used to
make business decisions. We can also see
a complete audit trail to trace every
statistic back to its origin.
This level of control and automation has
enabled us to limit the number of staff
people who develop their own
information. This, too, has increased
our efficiency across the board.
Prior to our implementation of business
intelligence, each department would
write its own reports – many of which
were virtually identical to reports
written in other departments. With
business intelligence, we have
identified information that can
accommodate multiple departments
simultaneously. We produce it, send
exactly what people need, and save time
for everyone.
This approach has also helped our
holding company. We are able to apply
our business intelligence specifications
to any subsidiary, so we can examine the
same statistics in each and compare
apples to apples. When we add another
bank to our holding company, we will
apply our current specifications to
their information as well.
All of these features have improved our
ability to manage our holding company
and its subsidiaries. We have truly
centralized information access, provided
better information to our staff, and
used fewer resources to do it. At the
same time, we have expanded overall
business intelligence and implemented
best practices across the holding
company – a true home run for everyone
involved. |
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