Financial Firms Lack Measurement For Their New Internet Initiatives

Financial services firms continue to funnel money into new online initiatives even though most lack the proper devices to adequately measure existing ones, according to analysts at Mainspring.

Mainspring’s November Business Impact Study found that online project managers do not yet give adequate attention to the need for measurement. In addition, these managers do not know precisely what should be measured during the planning stages and throughout the life cycles of their initiatives, the study found.

Examples in the report include:

• Only one of the top 10 US banks offering Internet-based cash management has performed a cost justification, and none measure the cost of support, customer satisfaction, or Internet response time at the customer’s end.
• Managers at four of the 10 leading online discount brokerages do not know whether they are getting a return on investment (ROI) in their firms’ Net initiatives, but say they “think so.”
• Web executives at at two of the securities trading firms surveyed could comfortably state they achieve a measurable ROI.

“Managers are launching new projects much faster than they can adequately measure existing ones. Even worse, those that do measure their products often measure the wrong things, or fail to capture all the information they could,” said Patricia McGinnis, managing director of Mainspring’s financial services research group.