Telling it like it is – DIRECT Magazine

Few industries have better data on their customers than the financial sector. Banks, insurance companies and share registries enjoy an ongoing and important relationship with their clients. Communication is essential and it must be accurate; there is no room for error when you are dealing with someone’s money. Computershare is an industry leader in this sophisticated one-to-one communication and direct mail sector. Peter Milburn, Managing Director, Computershare Communication Services, Australia, (pictured right)  talks with Patrick Howard about the business of getting the right message to the right person at the right time.

Businesses today, are moving more and more of their essential communications away from physical mail and into the digital arena. The numbers are growing at an exponential rate, more than doubling every year. It is a watershed shift towards the communication matrix of the future, one that Peter Milburn has tracked for more than two decades. In his opinion it is an irreversible trend and within another decade he predicts the mailed invoice, bank statement and utility bill will be the exception rather than the rule.

It is also a shift that he approves of, mainly for environmental reasons, ironic when you learn that Computershare mails out over a billion pieces of essential mail to Australian recipients every year.

Computershare began life as a registry service in Melbourne over 30 years ago. Since then, it has grown to be a publicly listed US$1.6 billion global organisation with operations in North America, Asia, Europe and Africa.

Computershare’s Communication Services business provides communications for the investor services industry (shareholder trading platform, annual reports, IPO documentation, dividend declarations and the like) as well as for the broader financial & insurance industries, government and utilities. “Computershare can assist any business that needs to communicate with its stakeholders in a meaningful and relevant way,” said Peter Milburn.

In the beginning…

The depth of technology behind Computershare’s Communication Services business belies its origins 20 years ago as a specialist laser printing company in Melbourne. The then founders recognised that the ability to customise chequebooks contained the seed for a whole matrix of personalised communication for financial enterprises. At a time when the internet had yet to burst upon the world, the company managers saw this as a point for differentiation. Recognising its potential, Computershare acquired the company, an obvious supplement to their share registry business that would provide an additional service to their existing customer base. It then took the business global.

According to Milburn, the Computershare philosophy had a number of things going for it, not least the understanding that every piece of paper had a value. Initially the company developed an open and transparent system where a customer could log in and track the progress of vital mail communications, having absolute confidence that it would arrive on time, to the right people.

Another attribute was the appreciation for the value and power of data. Computershare encouraged its customers early on to develop data segmentation to better achieve corporate objectives; the desire to grow the business, retain current customers or sell more products.

These qualities may seem commonplace in today’s data-driven world but in the 1990s, they provided the visionary head start that allowed Computershare to initially grow in the world of financial communications.

Today, Computershare’s Communication Services* business in Australia has grown to see revenues in excess of $140 million per annum and employs 650 people. Globally, Computershare has over 11,000 employees.

No legacy loyalty to paper

Despite its origins as a specialist laser printing company—Peter Milburn himself is a trained offset printer—Computershare also offers a multi-channel platform where clients’ customers can choose to receive their essential mail via post or online (plus fax or SMS). Through a co-operative program with Landcare Australia, Computershare established eTree, an initiative that encourages shareholders to register for electronic communications. For every registration, Landcare gets a $2 donation on their behalf to support reforestation projects across Australia. So far, Computershare has raised in excess of $2 million.

“Eventually, it is likely that most essential mail will move to the web,” said Milburn. “It’s not something we’re specifically driving as such, as it depends on individual customer preferences, but it is inevitable. In 20 years time there is likely to be no legacy loyalty to printed material. Generations of recent times will have grown up accessing information via the web, so it is expected that most will elect to receive all communication in a digital format.

“There will always be a place for paper. Books will still be around. Personally, I love books, the tactile experience, dog-eared on the shelf but the convenience of electronic communication cannot be over estimated. Every day, we are interacting more and more with web-based material.

He indicates that the number of Computershare customers in Australia choosing to receive their statements electronically is doubling every year. Representation at present is five per cent annually (12 million electronic communications as opposed to 250 million mail packs) but it is growing exponentially.

Data is king

The key to Computershare’s business lies in its ability to coordinate print and online jobs using the one software system. It could even involve a complete re-design of a customer’s communication documents, building new architecture to deliver information via a multi-channel approach.

“Our job is to listen, interpret and design a dynamic and robust outcome. We are in the business of designing flexible applications that are manageable and adaptable for future use,” said Milburn.

As a company, it attracts innovative expertise to focus on the development of technology applications suitable for today’s need for instant and mobile communication. Milburn sees data to be an integral part of an evolving industry, essential in being able to provide personal and relevant direct mail for clients’ customers. “It has evolved very quickly. Much of what we are seeing today was not in existence 30 years ago. It seems like a new business every 12 months. I’ve been here for more than seventeen years but I still find it an exciting challenge, it still gives me an adrenaline rush,” said Milburn.

He recognises that direct mail campaigns can only be as good as the data provided. Much of the problem lies in the way organisations are constructed. IT, finance and marketing often operate as separate silos. He tells of being at client meetings to discuss Computershare’s solutions where the IT manager and marketing manager meet for the first time.

“Every customer has different needs. We are there because they have problems they don’t know how to solve. Early on, it is important to identify the problem, not to go in promoting a solution. It’s best to first discuss a customer’s business strategy with senior managers to then work through a suitable solution for the business problem,” said Milburn.

One way many communication service providers help customers is through transpromo. Computershare is taking this one step further with Precision Marketing. This provides relevant promotional offers to customer segments via essential mail pieces, as in transpromo, but it also enables personalised one-to-one communication by individual, driven by data analytics. This style of marketing is attractive to the financial sector but has applications to any industry where essential mail is utilised.