We’re hearing many healthcare and financial services organizations asking: What is modern CCM? Most of these companies are struggling with legacy systems that have been cobbled together through multiple acquisitions, and they simply need something better.

They’re hearing there is something new out there and they’re all hoping the answer lies at the end of the question: What is modern CCM? We’ve found if you tune out the noise there are six core elements that separate modern CCM solutions from legacy solutions.

Advanced Personalization

CCM has been about personalization since its early days. The ability to create statements and correspondence that addresses the individual and provides account and status information are at the heart of what CCM has been and continues to be.

What is advanced personalization? Today’s modern CCM solutions are taking personalization to a whole new level. Every aspect of communications are being tailored to the individual. Take for instance the imaging on a communication. Imaging is being tailored to the demographics of the recipient. If the recipient is a 55-year-old Asian female, the imaging will represent her, her family and friends or at least some statistical facsimile of them. Any offers will also be tailored to the demographic.

The point is every aspect of the message is designed to help the consumer relate to it and to make it more impactful. 

Omni-Channel

The last decade saw an effort to create a common brand presentation across all communications in all channels. That’s what we called multi-channel communications. Brands are now focused on what’s being called omni-channel communications.

Omni-channel is customer centric, meaning no matter where/how the customer engages a customized, relevant message is presented. As the customer moves through their buyer’s journey data is updated and messaging is refined with what’s been learned about the customer’s interest all the way through to purchase.

Interactive

Where in the past outgoing communications were disconnected from incoming communications, Interactive brings them together in real-time. Interactive communications are a real-time, or near real-time, exchange of information with the customer.

The challenge with interactive communications lies in staffing and consistency. How do you staff for peak periods and how do you get all those people to communicate consistently? The answer lies in building a knowledgebase of questions and answers that can be served up on demand, ideally by bots.

Using AI technology bots can answer common questions with pre-configured answers which addresses both the staffing and consistency issues. Interactive communications are a big part of the next generation of modern CCM.

Modern CCM is Configurable

Most legacy CCM solutions have been cobbled together through multiple acquisitions. Each application brought an integration and customization of the platform. The more of this that occurred the harder it got to make changes.

Modern CCM solutions come with the ability to build and maintain business rules and develop workflows without writing custom code. No more going back to the vendor every time a change is required. With modern CCM business users are taking control.

Modern CCM Scales on Demand

Most highly regulated businesses also have periods of seasonal or peak demand. Whether it is an annual enrollment period or a significant change in the market modern CCM solutions need to be able to scale up on demand.

Today’s modern CCM platforms need to be agile and adaptable. This is why leading vendors have moved to the Cloud where platforms are infinitely scalable. Cloud infrastructure not only enables you to scale up on demand, but also cost optimize in slow periods. It’s really the best of all worlds.

Connects to Other Business Systems

Last, but not least, modern CCM solutions need to connect to internal and external data sources to be effective. This means they need to be designed to be connected. This is where APIs come in to play.

An application program interface (API) is a set of procedures, rules, and tools for connecting diverse systems. Basically, an API specifies how two systems talk to each other. Modern CCM solutions offer APIs to ensure they can be easily integrated with internal and external systems that have data critical to effective communications.

What is Modern CCM? It is a fresh Cloud based platform that easily scales on-demand, connect to other systems, is business user configurable and supports the latest communication methods.