Big data is an “over-used” buzzword and superannuation funds need genuine business intelligence and predictive analytics to help build engagement among fund members, according to Financial Synergy.
Financial Synergy’s chief executive, Stephen Mackley, announced on Wednesday that his firm would embed OpenText’s big data analytics functionality into its Acurity platform to deliver a “predictive and more customer-centric environment” for its super fund clients.
“We are offering a powerfully flexible tool with which our clients can use strategic, predictive knowledge to create new, efficient business models. It will also enable deeper segmentation, to ‘market of one’ levels of customer service,” he said.
Big data for the Acurity platform was first touted in Financial’s Synergy expansion framework in November last year, as the company increased its consultancy and product development teams.
“One of the things we were looking at is: where do we go with business intelligence. We were looking around to see where the market is going,” Mackley said.
“We are growing quite strongly and we really did want something that would wow our clients.”
Mackley said that Financial Synergy will draw on OpenText’s columnar database technology to help drive what he affirms is “a revolution” in member engagement.
The columnar database will allow Financial Synergy to import data quickly into a client’s environment as well as allow users – including fund managers and business analysts – to get access to the data in “split-second response times”.
“Democratising data is no longer in the hands of IT, it’s putting data and the ability to analyse data in the hands of real users,” he said.
“This tool enables super funds to understand the data they have and understanding the reasons for [members] leaving [as well as] giving them access to information that’s out there in the wide world of the internet.”
