Financial services and banking in particular are facing unique challenges. To begin with, banking became an important component of financial globalization. Multinational enterprises explore the rapidly growing emerging markets which place new demands on international banks. Another important aspect is the pressure to evolve the business models and shift to decentralized structures. How do banks cope with this trend of globalization? By taking their banking analytics to the next level. That’s where geographic information systems (GIS) are becoming increasingly helpful.
GIS interprets and makes the geographic data actionable so that finance professionals can easily capture the data needed for their specific banking analytics projects. To make the task easier, GIS systems make use of the publicly available geographic data, since many countries make GIS datasets accessible for use. This opens a whole new scope of possibilities for using GIS in finance. For example, a business analyst of a certain bank can open a map of Savannah, Georgia, and choose datasets from the U.S. Census Bureau which enable additional layers displaying employment status, income, residential status of residents, and a lot more. What else can you achieve by using GIS systems in finance?
Boost customer analytics
Banking is becoming more personalized and targeted. No longer people are treated as faceless account numbers. GIS software enables financial institutions to recognize their customers as real-life assets that have unique expectations and preferences. Forward-thinking financial organizations can use these insights to develop and introduce new services and products. Armed with geographical analytics financial organizations can assign additional resources to better meet their clients’ expectations.
Gain more timely and accurate market insights
GIS in finance takes customer segmentation to the next level. By merging several layers of data on a single map, GIS-based marketing approaches enable the creation of ultra-targeted personas that have unique financial requirements and preferences. This allows the financial organization to reach a new level of personalization as they are able to offer exactly the finance products and services their customers are lacking. GIS-powered banking analytics ties together service demand and supply to precise geographic locations. For example, the marketing department can create specific marketing programs for each of the segments in a certain branch market area. The content of the campaign should focus on the financial products that are preferred by the customers. This is how GIS delivers the next level of business and marketing intelligence.
Improve performance management
Finance-focused GIS applications help analyze and monitor the performance of bank physical locations and identify strengths and weaknesses, both those of the bank and the competition. Based on the local data, a bank can make a decision on performance improvement and even identify new services that are not offered by competitors.
Enable better asset management
GIS platforms transform the way banks operate, maintain, and upgrade their assets. From mortgaged properties location and cost to online tracking of cash status in bank machines, various layers of geographical data in bank GIS will make asset management cost-efficient and accurate.
Become more close and personal with clients
In their quest to offer the most sought-after financial products for a particular area, be it a new mobile office or a walk-in branch, a new mobile application, or a mortgage product, financial organizations use GIS platforms to precisely match their customer needs.
Financial institutions started adopting GIS and spatial technologies a long time ago. It’s time to take GIS-powered business analytics to a new level. Learn more about how your financial organization benefits from GIS technology.
