"Financial firms are scrambling to hire companies such as EMC Corp., Oracle Corp., Compaq Corp., Veritas Software Co. and International Business Machines Corp. to create storage and retrieval systems that can manage the tons of information received each day and make it usable in an instant, 24 hours a day seven days a week. This focus on data mining started to gain momentum among financial companies five years ago, consultants say, but it has accelerated significantly in the past 12 to 18 months.

"The goal is to have what's known as a 360-degree view of a customer, so that anyone -- or any machine -- that interacts with a client knows everything there is to know about that person. The systems are so sophisticated that before company representatives pick up a ringing phone, for example, a computer display can tell them who is calling and, given that caller's history with the company, churn out a statistical prediction of what he or she might want -- to raise a credit limit, check an account balance or verify that a payment has been received."

redux [04.12.00]
The Standard From Selling Goods to Commodifying Relationships

"Instead of thinking of products as fixed items with set features and a one-time sales value, companies now think of them as "platforms" for all sorts of upgrades and value-added services. In the Age of Access services and upgrades are what count. The platform is merely the vessel to which these services are added.

In a sense, the product becomes more of a cost of doing business than an item in itself. The idea is to use the platform as a beachhead, as a way of establishing a physical presence in the customer's home or place of business. That presence allows the vendor to begin an ongoing "relationship" with the customer."

redux [03.30.00]
BusinessWeek Weblining

"You may think that getting graded A, B, or C ended with graduate school. Try getting Sanwa Bank to waive its $20 fee on your bounced check. Customer reps are trained to treat everyone politely. But your luck will depend on a little letter that pops up on a screen as soon as your name is punched into a computer, or when your e-mail arrives at Sanwa's server. If that letter is a ''C,'' customer reps don't exactly hustle on your behalf. That's because machines whirring at Net-speed have lumped you--often in seconds flat--with other customers whose accounts don't make much money for the bank. But if you score an ''A,'' you're right up there with the cream: Customers who generate hefty profits get bounced-check waivers, no questions asked. And B's? They're harder calls. They actually get to negotiate with the rep before their case is decided."

"Scientific or not, high-powered computing increases the incentive for businesses to Webline customers by making human behavior appear predictable. Visa International, for example, is using neural networks to build up elaborate behavioral profiles. Over months, these systems--which emulate the learning power of the brain--track a person's behavior online and off, then match it against models of similar personality and behavior types to predict how people will act in the future. The initial incentive was to recognize and thwart fraud. Now Visa is testing the software with 12 member banks in an effort to anticipate loan defaults. ''This gives us smarter data, and with Web-based technology, we can get that to our member banks in real time,'' says Martin Izenson, a director in Visa's risk management and security group."