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A true believer in Internet banking and commerce, Marshall & Ilsley Corp. not only seeks to replicate its banking services on-line but the immediacy of a branch and even a neighborly environment in Cyberspace where customers can talk with one another.
M&I's own banking Web site has all the bells and whistles provided to the banking clients of its technology outsourcing arm, M&I Data Services, as well as the clients of Security First Technologies, the providers of the cutting-edge Internet banking software. What differentiates M&I's site, however, is its effort to build an on-line community. The bank sees its Web site as a means to get to know its customers better, rather than simply replicating services on-line and cutting down on customer contact.
A year-old program has given 10,000 bank customers their own home pages that can be accessed through the bank's Web site, a process Garry McCann, manager of on-line banking for M&I Corp., described as "the start of building an on-line community with customers like you would at a branch level." And, although it might seem the point of the Internet is to bring all customers the same level of service, the bank plans to roll out its first site for an individual branch by the end of the year.
"The virtual branch will take them (bankers) down to a level where the customer is communicating with their...