Norwichunion.com, the recently launched online financial planning arm of UK insurance outfit Norwich Union, is using business integration technology from California-based CrossWorld to provide services across telephone, Web and e-mail delivery channels
The Web site's initial offerings include a range of free interactive financial planning tools and impartial money guides, including a "60-second wealth check" for visitors to assess which areas of their finances are in need of attention; and an online income and expenditure management system providing investment tracking. Later in the year, a supermarket of investment funds and share dealing service will be introduced, as will the first in a range of banking products.
"We have developed norwichunion.com to appeal to everyone who wants to take a more active role in managing their money, not just the financially sophisticated or an elite segment of high net worth individuals," says Nicholas Smith, managing director, norwichunion.com.
Future phases of the project will complete the integration of back-end reconciliation systems to third party suppliers, existing application systems, Oracle databases, a customer relationship management (CRM) system, and XML documents, to create a single view of customers across the enterprise. This will automate the synchronisation of customer data, billing and customer statements, and provide cross-selling capabilities for the company's growing range of financial products.