Bringing financial documents to life: improve how information is shared, consumed and managed

Challenges to information management abound
Structured data and unstructured content are the basis for both back office processes and front office relationships. But as a result of departmental and divisional technology investments and growth through mergers and acquisitions, information is literally everywhere – locked up in isolated databases and repositories. The vast distribution of information across physically isolated systems is one of the most significant challenges for financial institutions today, leading to the potential for massive duplications of effort, lack of customer intimacy, manual processes that are painfully inefficient, and inaccurate and inconsistent reporting and communications to customers, employees and regulators.

Data and documents: two worlds divided
But physical deployment barriers and structural isolation of information is only part of the challenge. Equally daunting is the wide diversity of information formats. Financial institutions are fueled by both transactional and relational data and more unstructured formats like documents, images, reports and web content. Traditionally, the domains of documents and other unstructured content and traditional structured data have been isolated from one another. Data is stored in relational database, mainframe systems and data warehouses. Documents are kept in content management systems, shared file servers and local drives. Typically, structured data is focused on the “what” of a business – transactions, account data, etc. Documents are typically focused on the “why” and the “how” – manuals, policies, reports, analysis, etc. Data is structured and empirical. Documents are unstructured and contextual. The reality is that business is done at the intersection of “what,” “why” and “how” – where fact meets context. Many financial institutions now recognize this artificial separation and are seeking ways to unify these two worlds.

XML: bridging worlds divided
The good news is that the advent and adoption of XML (Extensible Markup Language) has gone a long way toward breaking down information barriers – both physical barriers created by disparate systems and interoperability barriers created by disparate formats. XML has now become a fundamental technology building block for financial services organizations looking to be more precise in how they create, grow, manage and serve a broader client base. It delivers significant improvements in content quality and efficiency, reduces risk, streamlines operations and differentiates their products and services. What’s more, it makes unstructured content look and act more like structured data, allowing these two worlds to come together in powerful new ways.

XML enables companies to organize content and data into recognizable objects that can be understood by financial systems and other software applications. Modularizing information with XML makes it possible to customize products and services on-the-fly, and deliver up-to-the-minute information to employees across regions or lines of business. It allows companies to configure products and services to individual customer needs and preferences, ultimately gaining new business, maintaining loyalty and increasing profits. In addition, financial industry XML standards, such as XBRL (extensible business reporting language) provide major benefits in the preparation, analysis and communication of business information. It offers cost savings, greater efficiency and improved accuracy and reliability to all those involved in supplying or using financial data.

But before we examine how XML makes it possible for financial services organizations to introduce new efficiencies, let’s consider some of the factors and trends that can impact success.

Delays in information publishing
Delays in new product introduction can mean forgone revenue and missed opportunity to win new customers. And because financial products are subject to frequent change – as institutions respond to competitors and adapt to changing market conditions – information must be authored and published based on a structure that accommodates change. Institutions who publish information that isn’t “designed for change” will find themselves paralyzed by the enormous cost and complexity associated with managing information over time. Information about new products must be immediately available at the fingertips of frontline sales and customer service representatives, while also accessible online and electronic channels such as intranets, public Web sites, extranets, automatic teller machines and kiosks. And to accommodate local languages and/or regulatory requirements, information must be translated and localized, which can create additional delays, costing institutions valuable days in information availability.

Inaccurate, inconsistent or out-of-date information
Isolated or stale information can cause financial institutions to make costly mistakes, fail to adequately serve customers, and incur unnecessary costs from inefficient processes and manual reconciliation and validation of information contained within reports and other documents. If an investment bank publishes a report that incorrectly cites annual revenues for a company, loss of credibility is the least of its worries. In this case, lawsuits are likely, both from the misrepresented company and from misinformed investors.

Worse still is a buy, sell or hold recommendation based on information that’s out of date. Financial markets face increasing scrutiny and rigorous compliance mandates on how information is reported and communicated to regulators, customers and the market at large. For companies without adequate tools and processes in place, fulfilling on these requirements can become prohibitively expensive. But the cost of noncompliance is certain to be even higher, as errors and inconsistencies can become millions upon millions in fines, penalties, lost revenue and damage to brand and goodwill. Given the risks involved, the rate of error in financial services information remains surprisingly common. For example, product descriptions on banking and insurance company Web sites often differ from descriptions in printed brochures, fact sheets and newsletters.

Inefficient back-office processes
The goal for any financial institution is straight through processing (STP) – deconstructing manual document-based processes into a set of transactions that can be handled automatically by back-office systems and can leverage XML Financial Industry standards such as XBRL. STP is always the target, but the reality is that many processes require human intervention; while aspects of a loan application of a trade settlement can be automated, people need to get involved at various points in the process. The problem is that these manual “gaps” between automated process flows are often very inefficient, involving rekeying of information, manual reconciliation and validation and searching for supporting documents and other artifacts. This can easily erase the efficiency gains realized by automation of other areas of the process, leading to processing delays, excessive costs, lost revenue opportunity and eroded customer goodwill.

Financial institutions are in a position to mitigate these risks. The combination of XML and the availability of commercial technologies from leading vendors like JustSystems allow financial institutions to reduce delay in information publishing and maintenance; dramatically improve information access, reuse and collaboration; and transform document-centric processes from slow and error-prone to integrated phases of automated process flows, helping to reduce cycle times and increase process throughput rates.

Many of today’s financial institutions rely on JustSystems to accelerate the creation and improve the quality of the information they publish and to break down barriers between data and content. JustSystems products include:

JustSystems XMetaL, the leading solution for structured authoring and publishing. With XMetaL, technical and non-technical authors can easily create structured content with no knowledge of XML. XMetal improves accuracy and quality of information, eliminates duplication of effort, and dramatically reduces the cost of content creation, localization, publishing and maintenance.

JustSystems xfy (pronounced “x-fie”) is powerful document-based, composite application framework that allows organizations to rapidly unify content and data in a single dynamic document. Many business processes rely on the rich context, persistence and collaborative nature of a document. xfy brings together these qualities of a document with the live data and interactive user experience of a traditional business application. Business users can rapidly create documents that come to life, providing business insight for decision making and helping to streamline business processes.

JustSystems XMetaL and xfy enable four key areas with the potential to transform how financial service institutions create, publish, access and work with content and data across the enterprise:

• Structured authoring and publishing
• Information sharing and collaboration
• Document process transformation

Structured authoring and publishing
JustSystems solutions allow both technical authors and business contributors to easily create valid XML to accelerate the creation, simplify the maintenance and improve the quality of content found in policy documents, marketing materials, pitch books, and any other content-based products, services or communications vehicles. Structured authoring provides the basis for conversion, reuse, localization and multi-channel publishing of business critical content. For example:

Information sharing and collaboration
JustSystems solutions allow financial institutions to bring together disparate, distributed data and content and combine it in a single “dynamic document” that is always up to date. These dynamic documents ensure that the information they contain is always accurate, which is particularly critical in areas where there is an exceptionally high cost of introducing inaccurate information into a process. Financial services organizations often use these dynamic documents to publish live policy information that is always up to date, and as a basis for deal team collaboration, minimizing the need for information re-entry, and eliminating the manual reconciliation and validation of data in static documents. For example:

Document process transformation

In many back-office processes, there are manual gaps between isolated “silos of automation.” These manual gaps are typically the document-centric phases of a process. JustSystems solutions help to streamline business processes by bridging the gap between automated transactional workflows and more human-centric document-based workflows. JustSystems allows organizations to automatically capture transactional information and pull it into dynamic documents for human review and analysis. Likewise, information within documents can be automatically processed by back-office systems without manual rekeying or scanning of information. For example:

Put information to work

For any financial service institution, trust, loyalty and regulatory compliance are absolutely vital to growth and survival. But the reality is that financial institutions face extreme challenges in managing and making use of the information assets that fuel their processes, inform their customers and employees, and keep regulators apprised of business operations and compliance with regulations. JustSystems can help. Call 1-866-793-1542, visit www.justsystems.com or send e-mail to sales@justsystems.com to learn more about JustSystems and its award-winning information management solutions.

About JustSystems

JustSystems is a leading global software provider with a 27-year history of successful innovation in office productivity, information management, and consumer and enterprise software. With over 2,500 customers worldwide and annual revenues over $110M, the company is continuing a global expansion strategy that includes the launch of its new enterprise software offering called xfy (pronounced 'x-fie'), and XMetaL content lifecycle solutions. JustSystems has worldwide office locations including global headquarters in Tokyo, and regional offices in New York, Palo Alto, Vancouver, and London. The company currently employs over 1,000 people. Major strategic partnerships include IBM, BearingPoint and EMC.