USAA Chooses Chordiant To Create "Single-Service Processing View"

After a nine-month product evaluation process, USAA (San Antonio)—a carrier that services 4.7 million members of the US military and their families—has licensed Chordiant Software's (Cupertino, CA) Chordiant 5 Enterprise Platform. The Chordiant 5 suite of products, which is based on open standards (J2EE, XML and SOAP), will integrate customer data from USAA's business systems into a thin-client solution for USAA customer service representatives.

Deployment of the Chordiant solution suite reportedly will enable USAA—already renowned for its enterprisewide commitment to providing a high level of customer service—to move from a business-oriented view of customers to what the organization describes as a "single-service processing view." Chordiant currently is beginning the rollout of its applications across USAA's business units.

The Chordiant solution was selected by a USAA team composed of more than 30 members, reflecting business and information technology representation, who also were advised by external consultancies. The evaluation of products recommended to the team took place onsite at USAA over a period of six to 10 weeks, reports Rob Mullen, senior vice president and general manager, Chordiant Software. Detailed technical and business-case evaluations were conducted as part of the selection process.

In addition to onsite testing, USAA's team made visits to the sites of vendors that it was evaluating to ensure the maturity of an organization and the quality of its processes, says Mullen.