USAA Technology Innovative at Its Best

USAA TECHNOLOGY INNOVATIVE AT ITS BEST
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INTRODUCTION
Background
The United Services Automobile Association is a major company that provides financial services mainly to current and serving members of the military and their families. This company was founded by a group of army officers in 1922 with the main aim of insuring their personal vehicles, and has thus so far grown to provide other services. The main areas of business include: auto insurance, property insurance, life insurance, investments, banking services, financial planning and advice. The company has its headquarters in San Antonio, Texas with other regional offices throughout the United States and Europe.
Business strategy
The technology strategy adopted by USAA is to automate the insurance environment, automated insurance environment (AIE). The company has therefore invested quite heavily in automating insurance policy writing, claims, member inquiries, billing and other services. The company therefore built a computerized database to achieve this strategy (USAA Website).
Mission statement
The mission of the association is to facilitate the financial security of its members, associates, and their families through provision of a full range of highly competitive financial products and services; in so doing, USAA seeks to be the provider of choice for the military community (USAA Company History, 2004))
Five Key Elements of USAA Deployment
* Timing
The company provides real time product and service feedback by use of social media sites (Strothkamp, 2010). This is achieved by giving product managers direct access to members` questions, requests and comments. The process is achieved by following certain criteria adopted by the company (Strothkamp, 2010).
* Licensing and Compatibility
First, USAA ensures that the reviews are from actual members by requiring that all reviewers are registered with the website. This is to guarantee authenticity and hence credibility and usefulness of this information is enhanced. Secondly, the USAA has automated filters that are run on these reviews for obvious issues. The reviews are then categorized so as to ensure that those that require follow up are tagged. Finally, those reviews that require customer notification are marked and the customers are contacted on that issue.
* Marketing
Promotions are placed in member newsletters that highlight new services so as to carry out marketing that encourages member participation. The company also encouraged member participation by providing reviews. Online marketing effectiveness is enhanced through the use of authentic voice. The company uses member ratings and reviews to ensure that the online marketing effectiveness is enhanced (Schilling, 2010). The shoppers are therefore able to see the various products and their ratings.
* Pricing
The company has ensured that its rates and cheap and affordable. This is because the company uses true reports and posts them on their website thus customers can get the right prices at a glance. For instance, USAA uses new car pricing reports from leading car pricing websites and thus giving shoppers direct access to prices others pay for in those areas where the data is available (Strothkamp, 2010).
* Distribution
Most of the products and services provided by the company are distributed to cater for the needs of the customers. They are diversified so that all individuals can get what suits their needs. In addition, the company has other regional offices that enable facilitate the operations of the company. In addition, the customer care representatives are distributed across all these sectors so that the customers get the required information from the right specialists.
USAA organizational and industry core technological competencies
USAA conducts its businesses mainly by mail and telephone and hence the employees to do not necessarily have to meet the customers face to face (Strothkamp, 2010). The quality of service to these customers is therefore gauged by the efficiency of these technologies. The information and telecommunication systems therefore form major elements in the operations of this company. The success and overall growth of this company is pegged on these two elements.
Representative technology based Service Provided
One of the major services provided by USAA is banking. This sector is one that has embraced the use of modern forms of technology in provision of its services. These services are provided to military officers and their families in a more convenient and affordable manner. A wide variety of services are offered by the banking sector of USAA (Meara, 2010). First, all account holders get free nationwide ATM use to carry out various transactions. The use of e-banking enables members to carry out deposits at home and mobile deposits if they are registered. In addition, customers are able to carry out fund transfers to any bank in the US and at the same time be able to pay their bills electronically. In addition, the bank provides lending services to its members, like mortgages and personal loans. In addition, special services like the USSA car buying service are provided to customers (Meara, 2010).
In addition to these services, the USAA banking sector has a well established customer call centre to fully cater for the needs of its customers. This is because most of customers are located in various parts of the world and provision of branch banking proved a challenge. Therefore, most of the transactions are carried out by mail.
Basic Technologies that underline the banking sector
The rise in the need for personal computing and cell phone usage are the main technologies that drive this sector. Most of the USAA customers, for instance, owned mobile phones and hence this played a critical role in the adoption of mobile banking. In addition, the development of the internet is also a major technological advantage towards e-banking. For instance, scanned documents can be sent to the bank for processing and vice versa (USAA Website). This has provided the platform on which transactions are carried out between the bank and its customers (Meara, 2010). This led to the launching of the baking website, online statements and mobile deposit. For instance, the Deposit@Home remote deposit capacity and Deposit@Mobile RDC for iphone and Android were launched in 2007 and 2009 respectively (Bills, 2009). Therefore, the notable applications of ICT by USAA in the banking sector include: use of ATMs (Automated Teller Machines), Internet banking, SMS & Telephone banking and payment of bills electronically. This has led to the provision of secure, convenient and diversified banking services. A majority of transactions of the USAA are carried out by mobile and online. The use of computer and electronic equipments is also accompanied by the development of relevant software that will manage these technologies.
Core Competencies of USAA
The company has invested heavily in ‘intelligent routing` technology in their call centers and also redesigning of their websites to cater for the needs of their customers. The routing technology, mainly provided by Cisco, enables callers to de redirected to the relevant personnel who will address their concerns. The intelligent systems on the other hand are capable of recognizing voice but also picking up key phrases and terms. The company has also invested in mobile phone technology thereby giving customers access to a full range of services and products on a smart phone (Bills, 2009).
The use of remote technology is one of the major competencies of the company. It serves millions of customers through this platform, given the nature of these customers who are often deployed to various regions in the world. For instance, video conferencing is well established so as to enable their customers` link to the advisors.
To adequately serve customers using these platforms, the company has also trained and retrained its staff to understand the use of these modern technologies. This automation of services generally, has enabled the company handle large groups of customers more effectively and at a relatively low cost (USAA Website).
USAA dynamics of technological innovation
In order to successfully lay down proper foundations in IT, the company has had to partner with a number of other companies to provide these services.
Targeted Group USAA Participates With
One of the major investments of the company was its network infrastructure, and hence Cisco Systems was a major partner in the upgrading process. This was important in handling the millions of transactions processed daily. In addition, the company also partners with IBM (International Business Machines Corporation). This firm mainly deals with the manufacture of computer hardware and software and also offering infrastructure services. These partnerships with such firms are beneficial to both companies (Bills, 2009). In addition, the company has also entered into partnerships with institutions of higher learning to enhance technological innovations. For instance, the company created an alliance with University of Texas at Austin to enhance productivity and innovations. The company also encourages customer participation and hence has partnerships with social media networks, like facebook. This is important in strengthening the relationships with the customers.
Key Competitor`s USAA Faces
The company faces completion from other companies that offer more or less similar services. the State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company is one of such. This company provides auto insurance services as well as home insurance. It mainly markets its products in the US and Canada. The Armed Services Mutual Benefit Association is also a major competitor, which is a non profit organization that [provides insurance coverage to military personnel and their families (Strothkomp, 2010). The Uniformed Services Benefit Association is also another non profit organization that provides low cost life insurance plans and other financial services for active and retired military members and their families. The Securian Financial Group is also a competitor in the US that offers life insurance protection. The Navy Federal Credit Union is another competitor that provides most account services like savings accounts and checking accounts. It also located in the United States offers its members with loans, mortgages and credit cards among other services (Schilling, 2010). American Express is also a major competitor which is located in New York. It is mainly known for credit card, charge card and traveler`s cheque businesses. It is one of the highly ranked financial services companies in America...