Saggezza
Big Data and Advanced Analytics for Banks

Saggezza has created an analytics product that levels the playing field for small and midsize banks. How? Through clear analytics that show what big banks have known for years—who their most profitable customers are, what to sell them next, and how to retain them.

“Today, the big banks are getting bigger by using sophisticated analytics to effectively target the customers of smaller banks,” says Steven D. Simpson, SVP-Financial Institution Solutions, Saggezza. And smaller banks have been left playing catch up.

Simpson cited Gartner’s 2014 report on CIO spending priorities for banking business intelligence, showing that advanced analytics and validation are the strategic initiatives banks should implement in order to increase profit.
Saggezza, a Chicago-based technology solutions provider, opened its first technology center in 2006. It was founded with a simple mission: delivering real business outcomes for its customers through intelligent use of the latest technologies—like Big Data. “Today, our next-generation data analytics product turns banks into data-driven enterprises and helps them drive profitability,” adds Simpson.

With more than 26 years of experience in the banking sector, Simpson believes a main reason the U.S. is such an economic powerhouse can be directly linked to the nation’s more than 7,000 financial institutions—particularly those serving Main Street. “These small and midsize banks provide much needed loans to ‘the small guy’ and power a lot of start ups,” Simpson says. “I’m proud to be creating a product that makes banks more efficient, more profitable, and become stronger, better employers that can give back to their communities. We can help make that happen.”

Saggezza’s flagship offering is a proprietary Big Data analytics product with a customizable, user-friendly dashboard.

It makes it easier to ingest, correlate, compute, store, and visualize customer information. As a result, Simpson says banks get timely, trustworthy, and relevant insights that enable them to make better and faster decisions.

The modules attached to the product focus on enhancing customer knowledge at banks, creating more informed decisions and improving profit. Saggezza’s 360-degree dashboard module is the main user-interface to view a customer’s loan, deposit, brokerage, insurance, and profit data. A loyalty measure module quantifies how strong the link is between customer and bank and provides a warning when a customer may be leaving. In addition, Saggezza’s Value Finder module identifies tactical action that will lift profitability.

“More than being a vendor, we intend to be a partner to the banks—delivering affordable analytics products that empower financial institutions to make better, faster, more profitable decisions. That kind of knowledge is priceless,” claims Simpson. Though Saggezza is partnered with many tech providers, Saggezza also delivers internally developed intellectual property with no license fees to other vendors, offering a high level of value. In addition, Saggezza adds a human element to their high-tech solutions. “We assign an analyst or data scientist to each client, where they conduct routine calls with the branch managers, regional managers, and loan officers. Through our solutions, we enable our clients to make more informed decisions,” adds Simpson.

Furthermore, Saggezza’s range of services pay attention to the compliance, risk management, and comprehensive customer support challenges by bringing together Big Data from multiple legacy systems in a way that makes sense to each business unit. “We can also help with the new challenges related to risk management and social fraud,” says Simpson. “In the coming years, Saggezza will continue focusing on the consultative side of the business while delivering more solutions based on our own industry leading IP.”