Banks have demanded the best accounting solutions for as long as they've been m existence, either writing the code themselves or using extremely specialised solution providers. Banking as an industry has recently seen many changes and upheavals, from new regulatory compliance legislation such as FICA to, most recently, the new national Credit Act. It is no longer simply enough to manage the database of client information. Increasingly, it is becoming important, perhaps even vital, for banking enterprises to utilise the power of client analytics to mature the organisation. Augustine Makhoni, product manager Financial Intelligence, SAS South Africa, says that using analytics can help banks to better service clients, respond more proactively to client feedback, provide clients with solutions tailored specifically to their individual needs, and, in turn, gain market share. "Keeping customers happy is the key to ensuring they stay loyal and do not take their business elsewhere," he says. "An analytical capability with regard to client information and feedback, as well as other data within your organisation, can also help you to analyse market trends and keep ahead of changes in the global environment. This means that no longer do you have to react to changing scenarios in the market: you can forecast the trends and adapt before or as they happen. Client analytics allows you to have all of the necessary information available at your fingertips, enabling you to make better and faster decisions for your enterprise, based on fact rather than guesswork or supposition, and following that, to optimise strategy and sales execution." Client analytics for banking involves four main components: understanding client information so banks can target the right customers with campaigns; identifying client groups to get the best clustering results; profiling the client groups according to the clustering results; and from all of this, predict or forecast future customer behaviour. "Once all of these components are in place your can start to benefit from a client analytics system in real and tangible ways. Not only can you keep customers happier, you can identify additional potential in existing clients, save time and money by targeting campaigns to the right customers increase sales rates and fully support the client experience."

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