Standard Life Delivers Financial Services Catered to the Unique Needs of 3.8 million UK Customers with IBM

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May 18, 2016, 06:00 ET

ARMONK, N.Y. and TAMPA, Fla., May 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that Standard Life, an investment company with over 190 years' experience, is personalizing financial services capabilities to each of its 3.8 million UK customers. Working with IBM, Standard Life is addressing the real-time financial needs of its diverse customer base as they plan and invest in their future.

According to a study by the IBM Institute for Business Value, "Banking Redefined: Disruption, transformation and the next-generation bank," only 30 percent of customers believe they are receiving a personalized customer experiences, despite the fact that 45 percent of bankers indicate they think they are delivering on that promise. In many cases, this lack of execution is driven by IT roadblocks and legacy technology, which make delivering relevancy, especially on a global scale and across multiple channels, challenging.

Today IBM Commerce is enabling Standard Life to serve the unique financial needs of its UK customers along their journey with the brand. Using powerful analytics from IBM, Standard Life can now accurately track a person's interactions across different screens and devices by examining both structured and unstructured data that previously was left untapped.

"Financial planning is such an important part of our future," said Harriet Green, General Manager, Watson IoT, Commerce and Education, IBM. "Customers need to know that businesses not only see their unique needs and priorities but are able to adapt to each one, giving confidence they are making the right choices."

Using IBM Campaign and Interact, Standard Life can then turn these insights into a unique customer snapshot that helps illustrate each person's financial needs and long-term aspirations. Employees can then more effectively prescribe the appropriate action, all in near real-time. Standard Life is also able to deliver this level of personalization across multiple channels whether they are online, on their mobile device or live with consultants from the contact center where the company has already seen significant and immediate return on investment.

Customer consultants now have live, personalized messages to refer to when talking with a customer, all built on the predictive models and analytical technology. Today inbound offers presented have seen an uplift of eight percent. At the same time, this insight also helps Standard Life maintain the ongoing loyalty of each customer.

"Today we are truly working towards a segment of one and as a result, our customer communications must be personalized at a depth unimaginable just a few years ago, said Stephen Ingledew, the Managing Director of Marketing for Standard Life in the UK. "In just a short period of time, IBM has allowed us to get to know our customers and their needs on an entirely new level, so in the end we are presenting exactly the right products and services at exactly the right time and achieving the highest level of engagement as a result."

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About Standard Life

Standard Life is an investment company with over 190 years' experience of helping people invest and manage their money.
Standard Life employs around 6,500 people internationally - through businesses in the UK, Europe, North America, Asia and Australia.
Around 4.5 million customers and clients across 46 countries trust Standard Life with their financial future and Standard Life is responsible for the administration of over £300 billion of their assets. Standard Life also supports over 25 million customers through Indian and Chinese associate and joint venture businesses.
Standard Life Investments actively manages over £253 billion worldwide, offering global asset management expertise with strong investment capabilities and performance.
Standard Life plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange with around 1.2 million individual shareholders and is one of the top 500 companies worldwide, by revenue, as listed in the 2015 Fortune Global 500.
Wherever Standard Life operates in the world, it is motivated by a sense of responsibility. That is what has helped it be a sustainable business over the long term. Standard Life is proud to be listed as a leader for corporate sustainability in its industry in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI World and DJSI Europe).
You can follow Standard Life on www.twitter.com/StandardLifeplc