Fair Isaac Corp., known as FICO, has built a platform around the practice of using analytics in business applications to optimize customer engagement. This has become especially important in the banking world, as one of FICO’s customers recently discovered.

FICO’s Will Lansing talks with theCUBE about customer engagement during FICO World.

Bank of Montreal, known as BMO, leverages FICO’s decision management platform to help strengthen relationships with its diverse customer base.

“The decision management platform for us has been transformational,” said Liz Billyard (pictured, right), head of NA retail credit and chief risk officer for Canadian P&C banking at BMO. “Helping customers make real financial progress and that experience they have with us are absolutely critical to what we execute on. The platform has provided an opportunity for us to take data across many different segments internally … so that we can show that we really know them when we’re making credit decisions.”

Billyard spoke with theCUBE’s Rob Strechay at FICO World, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. She was joined by Will Lansing (left), chief executive officer of FICO, and they discussed the important role that decision management plays in the financial industry today. (* Disclosure below.)

Using data to support customer engagement

FICO’s platform is the result of years of investment in developing and improving decision management methodologies. The firm combines data, AI, decision rules, analytics and learning loop technologies to deliver solutions for clients across multiple industries, including financial services.

“In the last 10 years, what we figured out is it would be nice if we were much more flexible,” Lansing said. “We could bring any and all data from many and all sources … apply analytics, make a decision in real-time, feed it into a workflow so that when the bank talks to a customer, that interaction is optimized. We get exactly what we’re trying to achieve.”

FICO’s approach to decision management reflects a change in how the financial services industry analyzed customer relationships, according to Lansing. Instead of seeking to “typecast” an individual into a pre-selected consumer category, FICO seeks to understand the individual using precise data that offers a more complete picture of their preferences.

“The state of the art, as it was before we came along, was really segmentation — OK, you’re a soccer mom and we’re going to treat you like we treat soccer moms. FICO’s approach is completely different,” Lansing explained. “We’ve had 25 transactions with this individual over the last two years, we understand their brand proclivities. We understand what they care about and what they don’t care about.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of FICO World:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for FICO World. Neither FICO, the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE