Deutsche Bank looks to Russia for 'Six Degrees' of CRM

Investment bank Deutsche Bank (DB) has set up a complex client relationship management system to handle sensitive data and allow for increased regulatory scrutiny.

Work on the system began four years ago and has since involved outsourcing most development to Russian IT services outfit Luxoft.

More than 100 Luxoft developers now work on the Deutsche Bank Client First system, the company winning the business over existing partners based in places such as India because of a focus on innovation. The system currently serves more than 5,000 Deutsche Bank employees across Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.

The bank "owns the IP 100 per cent", said Deutsche Bank COO of technology, Daniel Marovitz. "They don't have access to the production system."

Luxoft was chosen because of its ability to innovate and work on a project that started out small, with pretty interesting technology but a "roadmap that wasn't crystal clear".

Deutsche Bank has worked with software from New York-based Thinkmap to create a 'visual thesaurus', to link together the various relationships its bankers have.

The idea behind such a 'six degrees of separation' approach is that in an organisation of DB's size it's quite likely there's always an expert in a certain field or someone who knows a key contact - possibly a potential client - well. The problem is in knowing who knows whom.

Luxoft was chosen because of its ability to innovate and work on a project that started out small, with pretty interesting technology but a "roadmap that wasn't crystal clear", said Marovitz.

The client system covers areas such as which bankers cover a particular company, details of meetings, copies of documents and the amount of money lent.

And getting the details right is critical.

Marovitz added, by way of an example: "Twice in the last three years we've had the Japanese regulators in."

As a result of the success of the project, Deutsche Bank has now extended its relationship with Luxoft and the two companies will work together to further develop the Client First CRM system and market it to other organisations worldwide.