"iRise was instrumental in helping us visualize a radical new way to conduct online banking and get it to market incredibly fast."

– First Vice President, eCommerce, Banking Leader

Background
This customer is the sixth largest retail bank in the United States, operating more than 2,600 consumer and small business banking stores throughout the nation and employing an estimated 60,000 people. In order to fulfill their mission to "deliver products and services that offer great value and friendly service," the bank sought to streamline their consumer online checking account application process.

Challenge
Prior to the new system, the average time for a new customer to open a checking account online was 10 days. Although the account opening process was initiated via the Internet, the bank could not authorize the account without the receipt of a traditional signature card mailed by the consumer. The challenge was to design and launch an online account opening application that eliminated the off-line process and was incredibly easy to use for banking customers. Text-based specifications for such an innovative system were difficult to visualize for business stakeholders and did not elicit useful feedback on usability. This customer turned to iRise as a way to present a visual mock-up of the proposed application to stakeholders who had to buy-in to the new approach. iRise simulations were then used to quickly iterate new designs and workflow directly with customers in a special usability lab – all before any coding was started. This new process provided developers with invaluable usability information and opportunities for extensive specification refinement. Early legal and compliance reviews of the simulation paved the way for the development of new authentication technology, eliminating the need for paper signature cards.

Result
Use of iRise accelerated the new online checking account application development by 25%, with virtually no rework. This customer launched the paperless account process in April 2006 as the first online-only application in the banking industry. The average time to complete an application and open an account is now a mere six minutes, down from 10 days. The new process has driven millions of dollars of new revenue to the bank from thousands of new customers. Currently, the bank accepts over 700 online applications per day, and according to Comscore, it has the second highest conversion in the industry; the highest conversion when factoring in the lack of an off-line signature card process. This customer’s paperless checking account has received multiple awards, including the Change Sciences 1st place ranking for a new customer process and registered a jump in the bank’s Keynote rank from 10th place to 5th.