Today, enterprises are increasingly seeking ways to leverage previously untapped resources and assets, like data, using AI. They are looking to use the data that businesses generate to make more intelligent decisions. In Matt Beck’s role as Vice President of Global Professional Services at FICO, it is his job to help some of the largest financial institutions in the world effectively implement FICO Platform to do just that.

FICO Platform is an incredibly flexible and comprehensive set of capabilities that takes data and transforms it—using AI, machine learning and advanced analytic techniques—into actionable insights. The value of data isn’t in the capture, storage, structure, and control of data at rest, but in recognizing and harnessing its value when it is first placed in motion.

Matt shares, “This is where FICO Platform can really help. It has a real-time and contextual understanding of every customer’s latest interaction, which allows us to apply analytics and machine learning to derive intent. This enables businesses to efficiently manage vast amounts of operational data and determine the most optimal next-best action in real-time, ensuring that every touchpoint is informed by the most up-to-date understanding of each individual customer’s intent.”

Game Changer: Operationalizing Data and Analytics

Along with his team of 700-plus talented professionals from FICO’s business, analytics, and technical consulting groups, Matt focuses his time helping clients convert data, AI and advanced analytics into actions that deliver tangible results.

Matt noted, “My team concentrates on enabling a flexible and adaptable solution that unlocks value from each client’s own data, and at the same time, effectively uses third party services or data to augment their knowledge.”

By being able to plug into third party solutions easily, FICO’s clients can test alternative data sources and services to determine what data or processes add incremental value in their specific situation. This can be done without a rip-and-replace project, or it can be done for a portion of the business, utilizing a champion/challenger approach to be able to measure the business impact.

FICO’s approach to analytics and automation helps businesses redefine their customer engagement strategies to deliver hyper-personalized interactions. Hyper-personalization enhances customer experiences by treating each customer as an individual with a cohesive experience rather than separate stages. With FICO Platform, enterprises can create a truly 1:1 relationship between a customer and a business. This method fosters loyalty and trust through meaningful interactions, focusing on nurturing perpetual business relationships rather than merely selling products.

Shedding light on FICO’s distinctive attribute, Matt shares, “FICO’s decades of experience developing actionable customer profiles is a valuable differentiator for our clients.

Being able to determine which characteristics are most predictive of consumer behavior and making those attributes available in the moment our clients need to make a business decision sets us apart.”

Additionally, FICO Platform creates an environment for continuous feedback and outcome augmentation, allowing businesses to refine and optimize their strategies based on real-time data and insights. This ensures that every touchpoint is informed by the most up-to-date understanding of the customer’s intent.

Simulation also plays a crucial role in helping banks and financial services firms adapt to new market demands by providing a powerful tool for scenario-based decision-making.

With FICO Platform, banks can leverage a combination of historical, synthetic and hypothetical data into a Digital Twin, enabling them to conduct scenario-based decision-making at any operational level. This process acts as a sandbox for iterative learning, empowering business leaders to forecast outcomes, test hypotheses and optimize strategies in ways that were previously impractical. By leveraging large-scale simulation, banks can connect the dots and dial into market trends.

Matt has many examples of leading global financial services firms that leverage the advanced analytics, AI and ML in FICO Platform to gain real-time insights and drive data-driven decision making. He adds, “With the power to constantly learn and capitalizing on new opportunities, the firms we work with are able to quickly expand into new customer segments and increase the profitability of existing relationships.”

Matt also has some strategic advice he and his team share with clients who want to integrate advanced analytics so they can optimize customer interactions and decision making.

First, foster a culture that embraces data-driven decision-making and ensure that the necessary infrastructure and workflows are in place. Having a team that cares about process efficiency and trusts data-driven decisioning over manual review is crucial. Next, a willingness to change business processes to facilitate and increase automation. The use of business rules, predictive analytics and optimization has proven to be a successful approach for many FICO clients.

Global Leadership Focused on Speed and Quality

A crucial element of Matt’s leadership approach is keeping the timeliness and quality of the FICO Professional Services work for its customers at the highest priority. Matt is also focused on helping FICO’s Global Systems Integrator partners become certified on FICO Platform, as well as creating accelerators that will make the implementation work easier for customers and partners.

Matt is keenly aware that his team also needs to maintain a balance between strategic vision, execution, and personal well-being. He shares, “Operating in a post-pandemic business environment with a global team of over 700 professionals is challenging. To tap into the innovative ideas that my team generates, I set aside as much face-to-face interaction time as possible.”

As Matt leads a global team, his staff start working in Sydney, Australia, and the day comes to an end in San Jose, California. He shares, “To manage my personal wellbeing, I’m invested in ensuring that my team understands our Software Business strategy, our Professional Services strategy and ‘the why’ behind both. By making that investment, I’ve empowered my leaders to act with confidence in real-time, to resolve customer issues and to take initiative to progress business in their workday.”

Looking at Matt’s travel schedule, it is obvious that he finds himself in airports frequently. However, he sees significant value in that effort. Matt strives to foster a collaborative and respectful atmosphere that promotes knowledge sharing within and across teams. Frequently, he finds that amazingly innovative ideas come from some of the least tenured employees, often over an ad-hoc lunch.

However, with the market for advanced data analytics, AI and ML expanding at a rapid pace, Matt and his team underline the fact that they will need many more resources who are qualified to implement FICO software. “This approach will help FICO continue to lead in the Intelligence Revolution and support its clients in adapting to new market demands,” he concludes.