Card Product Development

CG plays key role in the design and delivery of new card system functionality that delivers $600 million in new revenues annually 

Business Challenge: Improve it or lose it

This Fortune 10 banking client had recently acquired a large consumer bank and was in the process of consolidating both credit card portfolios onto the acquired bank’s card system. Realizing that the acquired bank’s card system was missing key features and functionality that were necessary to maintain competitive offerings – including the ability to offer multiple concurrent promotions, tiered pricing of new accounts, and hybrid pricing strategies – the client sought a way to deploy them into the acquired system. Incorporating these features would be a huge undertaking, but the cost of doing nothing was even greater: suppressed revenue growth and eventual loss of card market share. The business case was clearly in favor of moving forward. The question was, “How?”

The CG Solution: A big-picture perspective, coupled with a focus on results, drives success of massive effort

CG initially was selected to play a key role in the design phase of this massive initiative because of its credit card industry experience and its thorough understanding of the client’s business, operations, and technology systems. Based on the firm’s outstanding contributions, CG’s role in what would ultimately become a $200 million dollar initiative grew to include project management and delivery of the most pressing and strategic pieces of the project.

Management Consulting & System Design: During the first two months, CG worked closely with the project’s key stakeholders – client executives, as well as a consortium of project partners and resources – to define the requirements, initiate design of the new system platform, and create the roadmap for all stages of its implementation.

Program & Project Management: Because of its success driving results at the strategic planning level, CG was engaged by the client to provide its much-needed project management expertise. CG’s experienced project managers helped the client designate and assign each piece of the project, matching requirements with resources and skill sets to ensure a timely and high-quality delivery of results.

Delivery: Again recognizing the value of CG’s expertise, the client asked CG to take on the development, testing, implementation, and post-implementation responsibilities for the most time-sensitive and business focused pieces of the overall initiative. CG continually stepped up to the challenges of this massive and high profile project – taking on more and more responsibility to help the client achieve its goals. CG ultimately delivered approximately 15% of the project components, which spanned two years, $200 million dollars, more than 2 million man-hours, and thousands of moving pieces.

Result: An improved card system that delivers on its promise

CG’s lead role in the system design; its project management of roadmap resources, partners, and  timelines; and its rapid implementation of strategic project components helped  the client successfully deliver a best-in-class card system that delivered the following results:

        Success Metrics

• Created an immediate revenue stream that generated $600 million annually.
• Delivered full ROI in four months.
• Delivered a direct impact to the client’s bottom line without increasing the cost of running the upgraded system.
• Enhanced the customer experience by providing more multiple product and promotional options, such as interest rate reductions and bonus offers.