Press Release, July 23, 2003
Tigroup, winners of the Technology Executive Club "Best Technology Solution!"
On June 25, 2003, Tigroup and Harris Bank, a client of Tigroup's, entered the Technology Executive Club's competition event and won the award for Best Technology to Manage Security, Privacy & eBusiness Risk. There were over 30 case studies from other Chicagoland businesses that entered into this competition. This is a significant accomplishment and one we are pleased to have won.
An overview of the Tigroup winning solution follows below:
The Solution:
Managing Banking Customer Privacy Preferences
Description:
Harris Bank has utilized intranet technologies to record and monitor customer privacy preferences. This was necessary to comply with Federal privacy regulations governing sharing of information among affiliate legal entities as well as to honor customer do-not-solicit requests.
Business Problem/Opportunity:
Banks are required by Federal Regulations to offer their customers the right to opt-out of having information shared with third parties (required by Gramm-Leach-Bliley privacy regulations) and the right to opt-out of having certain information shared among affiliated legal entities (required by the Fair Credit Reporting Act). Harris Bank does not share customer information with third parties (except as permitted or required by law), and therefore, does not have to offer an opt-out for third party sharing. Because Harris Bank does share customer information among its affiliated financial services companies, an opt-out for this sharing must be offered. In its privacy policy, Harris Bank provides customers with the right to limit marketing solicitations by phone or mail.
There are no standards for how a financial institution must maintain preferences but the process must pass Federal audits. A centralized technical solution was desired because Harris Bank has multiple legal entities, lines of business and systems. There was an additional requirement to be able to easily deploy and maintain the tracking system.
Why was the solution desirable?
An intranet-based solution was chosen over a more tightly-coupled implementation within the Bank’s client/server legacy architecture. The intranet solution leveraged existing server(s), security modules, approved technologies, and allowed solution delivery in a rapid timeframe (less than 3 months from initial client contact to full production). It was deployed at half the cost of a legacy-integrated solution.
The process by which the solution was defined and delivered:
Solution definition was a collaborative effort between Tigroup and Harris Bank. Tigroup listened to the business need, and provided strategic and tactical advice regarding different technologies that could be used to solve the business problem. Tigroup evaluated the key business drivers (timeline, meeting Federal regulations), and proposed a solution that met the needs within the timeline and budget constraints.
The process used a combination of Tigroup’s software development methodology (a modified Rational Unified Process), and Harris Bank’s internal processes for project monitoring and internal regulatory review (Legal, Audit, Risk, Compliance and Information Security).
The solution integrated with Harris Bank’s data warehouse, and utilized Microsoft SiteServer, Active Server Pages (ASP), and Oracle. While preferences are recorded at the customer level, they can be applied at the household level because the solution leverage the data warehouse’s householding engine which is based on Trillium software. The solution can also ‘follow’ customers and accounts as they change locations, which ensures that customer privacy preferences are maintained throughout a customer’s lifecycle with the bank.
The metrics by which the success of the project was measured, and the performance of the final solution along these dimensions:
The key metrics for success included:
- Meet current Federal regulatory requirements within the required timeframe
- Ability to consistently and easily update and honor customer preferences
- Availability of the system to all designated personnel within the bank
- Delivery within budget
The final solution satisfied all of these criteria, with the additional benefit of leveraging existing hardware, intranet site, and re-using security components for user authentication. In addition, the system was designed with additional fields that could be utilized if privacy regulations change or if Harris Bank’s privacy policy changes. For example, fields were added to allow for recording of third party sharing and “opt-in” preferences if required.
Qualitative description of the system’s impact from the perspective of users and/or customer:
The system is transparent to the bank’s customers since it is only used by bank personnel (internal customers). Bank personnel state that the application is very user-friendly and intuitive to use; that it allows them to easily perform updates to customer privacy information per Harris Bank policies and Federal regulations. A most noteworthy feature is the search capability, which allows bank personnel to easily find customers using their first name, last name, social security number, or bank account number.
Privacy Office Analyst, Leana McDowell, who uses the solution daily, says “The system is very reliable. I’m able to update preferences ’real time’ and it is very easy to add and train new users of the system.”
Contact Information for Client and Vendor:
Vendor –
JoAnn Thompson, Director of Sales
Technology Integration Group, Inc.
4019 Cottonwood Court
Island Lake, IL 60042
847.331.2805
Client -
Johnna Koso, Privacy Officer
Harris Trust and Savings Bank
111 West Monroe, 21W
Chicago, IL 60603
Tigroup
Technology Integration Group (Tigroup) is an information technology consulting organization with a strong track record in building and integrating complex technology-based solutions. Our multi-disciplinary teams of consultants leverage the firm's best practices and experiences to help clients assess, design, build and implement ROI-based solutions for business problems. Contact: JoAnn Thompson at joann.Thompson@Tigroup-usa.com, 847.331.2805.
Harris Trust and Savings Bank
Harris Bank, with $28 billion in assets, is one of the largest community bank networks in Illinois, a premier Midwest mid-market corporate bank through Harris Nesbitt, and a nationally recognized provider of private client and personal trust services through The Harris, which includes Harrisdirect and Harris Private Bank. Harris has nearly 145 locations in Chicagoland, and 14 branches and private banking offices in Arizona and Florida. As a member of BMO Financial Group (NYSE, TSE: BMO), Canada's first bank, Harris Bank offers clients the range of services and depth of expertise of one of the largest financial networks in North America. BMO operates in more than 30 lines of business within its group of companies, including BMO Nesbitt Burns, one of Canada's largest full-service investment firms. For more information, please visit www.harrisbank.com.
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