Beta Test of Fair, Isaac's New Customer Data Integration Service Puts Compass Bank's CRM Capability into Overdrive

Business Wire, Dec 11, 2001

Business Editors

NCDM Winter 2001 Conference

NEW ORLEANS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--December 11, 2001

Fair, Isaac SmartLink service, powered by Equifax,

places Compass on fast track to most comprehensive,

accurate customer view available today

As the first leading financial institution to deploy Fair, Isaac and Company's (NYSE:FIC) new customer data integration (CDI) service, Compass Bank is about to put its customer relationship management (CRM) capability into overdrive. In an announcement today at the NCDM Winter 2001 Conference, Fair, Isaac said that Compass, one of the nation's top 40 lenders, has become the first beta client to test its new Fair, Isaac SmartLink(SM) customer data integration service -- and gain fast access to the most comprehensive and reliable view of their debit and credit customer relationships available on the market today. SmartLink represents a new standard in CDI and is the first in a new generation of CDI solutions offered by Fair, Isaac.

Powered by Equifax's (NYSE:EFX) robust linking technology and Fair, Isaac and Equifax's jointly developed proprietary matching algorithm, SmartLink offers companies a consistent and reliable way to persistently identify, track and consolidate a consumer's actions and behavior throughout their enterprise. This encompasses interactions across all product lines and touchpoints including customer service centers, Web sites, stores, branches, ATMs, direct mail, telemarketing, and credit activity. Through Equifax's identifier -- a unique number that is assigned to each customer -- the company can track an individual's evolving relationship and transactions with them, updating that information anytime they choose. The "unique, persistent identifier" travels with the individual, making it easy to maintain a current and accurate view of the entire scope of that customer relationship, rather than the typical "silo" view organized by individual products.

For Compass, SmartLink is a critical building block in the lender's CRM strategy, providing the ability to quickly see and evaluate all of the financial relationships that its debit and credit customers have with them -- and then offer appropriate products based on that unique view and the insights it affords. Through Fair, Isaac's analytics, SmartLink has the capacity to transform Compass's information about its customers into insight and, ultimately, action.

Tom Grudnowski, CEO of Fair, Isaac, sees Compass as gaining a distinct market advantage with SmartLink: "One of the biggest hurdles facing companies in CRM is the need to break down product silos within their organizations and recreate the landscape from the customer viewpoint," he said. "With SmartLink, Compass will have fast access to a complete snapshot of each customer relationship. We also have the capacity to run 'anytime updates,' so that at any point in time, Compass is guaranteed that the picture they see is completely current. That's a big advantage in the market and one that we're pleased we can help Compass achieve," he said.

Peter Lotz, senior vice president at Compass Bank, explained how Fair, Isaac is helping Compass deliver on its mission. "We recognize that today, more than ever, it is critically important to understand and serve the very specific financial needs of individual customers. Until now, it's been difficult to get a clear picture of an individual's special needs and situation. Fair, Isaac has helped us overcome this challenge -- and we expect this to significantly help us build long-term loyalty among our valued customers," he explained.

SmartLink MarketSmart = More Power, Ease and Relevance of Data

At Compass, SmartLink is being deployed as part of Fair, Isaac MarketSmart Decision System(R), which the lender has utilized since February. MarketSmart is Fair, Isaac's premier multi-channel marketing solution that facilitates more profitable customer relationships by seamlessly integrating all of the components of CRM. SmartLink will bring increased functionality and horsepower to MarketSmart by enabling a faster, easier and more comprehensive data integration process from multiple sources. The net result will be a horizontal view of the customer across all relationships rather than a vertical picture of accounts.

For Compass, this will translate into a faster, more accurate and more cost-effective process for merging, integrating and updating customer data -- enabling Compass to spend less time and money on these back-office functions, and more on the actual process of developing winning business strategies to build their customer relationships.

While the initial beta test will focus on Compass's credit and debit portfolios, SmartLink -- especially when integrated with MarketSmart -- enables data integration from other disparate sources easily and quickly. This represents a significant advantage in CRM, as companies are challenged to effectively manage and interpret an ever-expanding volume of information about their customers.

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