Technology as a medium for good customer delivery in pension Administration- Odunze Reginald C

Image credited to wisegeek

 

The need for a robust information technology cannot be over emphasized and as the Head Surveillance,M Y. Datti of National Pension Commission in the 2011 circular in raising the minimum share  capital requirement of Pension Fund Administrators to 1 billion Naira stated that as part of its oversight function observed that “the minimum share capital of 150 million naira was no longer adequate to meet the operation expenses of PFA business, given its intensive IT nature and average gestation period of 5 years.

From the presentation of Datti, it is very glaring that IT plays a prominent role in pension management, having an adequate technology infrastructure will go a long way in ensuring customer satisfaction.

There is urgent need to ensure a proper safeguard customer data against intruders, like hackers, identity theft, password sniffers, web crammers, spoofing, data kidnappers, software piracy, cyber squatting and unlawful interceptions.

The need for these safeguards are coming as a result of recent development in the world, I cloud issues, and as Scott Cornell in his article “ Effect of computer hacking on an organization  will say “ It's common for businesses to install security systems to keep their properties safe and to purchase insurance in the event of a disaster or robbery. Arguably, though, a security system feature that is of equal importance is one that business owners can implement to protect company computers from hackers and viruses. Hacking on the whole costs businesses billions of dollars each year. But there's more than just money at stake if your business were ever to encounter a computer hacker”

But technology is an expensive project and requires large chunk of money for its implementation and will definitely involves  a larger chunk of money for its safe guarding and protection, more recently we have read cases of nude pictures of celebrity being leaked on line as a result of hacking of I cloud, if people can hack naked pictures of women, then it is left for anyone’s imagination to ascertain what other areas it can hack into.

Technology is a paramount necessity in all spheres of business life and pension cannot be an exception, issues to pertaining to customer service delivery are also a great concern as far as technology is concerned.  All Pension Fund Administrators are geared towards market deepening, and market deepening comes with it a large customer base waiting to be serviced on a regular bases .But be as it may ,the servicing of these customers requires a robust IT infrastructure.

Market deepening comes with increase in pension assets and large investible funds for growth of the economy and also these are being driven for a good IT infrastructure.

What then do organization is keeping an effective and robust IT, though expensive, organizations should run a back up.

When they are migrating to another platform, is it soft ware, etc, it is always good to run the two systems concurrently in case of system failure of the new system deployed.

It is always to run what others are running that has survived over the years than to pick a new system that has not been test run by other organizations.

The impact of good and robust IT infrastructure cannot be over emphasized as the world has become a global village, issues of customer services are brought to bare on the social networks like Twitter, Facebook etc. you can’t imagined how far that can impact on the fortune of the organization.

It can also trend, go viral and impact negatively on the organization. Just yesterday, the CEO of Facebook noted that its network has hit the first 1 billion within 24 hours. He went on say that it was the first; I billion people are online at the same time though the network is about 1.5 billion monthly. Analyzing Mark expresses his gratitude for the Facebook community. What is the implication of this? Its implication is that imagine if an organization has issues with its network that impact negatively on customer service, and that particular customer has  large follower and likes in Facebook,  and Twitter and decide to post , will it be good for the organization.

The need for this becomes important as pension fund administrators awaits the National Pension Commission window on transfer, the defining determinant will be the level of customer service rendered to the Retirement Savings Account holders.

The world has become a global village and we are in the period of hyper globalization, technology therefore becomes an essential ingredient in driving the scheme to a profitable base even as the pension assets hit 4.6 Trillion Naira.

Odunze Reginald is the Lead Consultant, Chareg Consulting, a management and marketing consultant a social media and social marketing consultant, you can visit our twitter anchor @regydunze, find us on Facebook @ Reginald odunze and reginaldodunze.com, at google+ @ Reginald Odunze and on LinkedIn @ Reginald odunze.