Many bankers we speak with are interested in enterprise case management software, but some have trouble getting the project funded. Here are seven justifications that we've seen in successful business cases at other institutions that led to the purchase and installation of enterprise case management software.

1. Your regulator tells you to upgrade

Nothing brings immediate action like a concern raised by a regulator or an audit. And regulators are stepping up the pressure on financial institutions because they're seeing that criminals know that financial institutions fight crime in silos. The recent SAR form overhaul is evidence of this point -- banks and credit unions now need a cross-departmental view to stay compliant with SAR filing requirements. Engage your regulators in a conversation about the best practices they've seen in other banks and credit unions. Take note, though, that a negative regulatory or audit recommendation may not by itself be enough to justify an investment (unless it rises to the level of a formal finding).

2. Acquisitions, mergers, and major reorganizations

Times of dramatic change may be the perfect opportunity to introduce enterprise case management software. You may need additional automation to handle increased volume without adds-to-staff, or you may now be working in an organization that's more enthusiastic about automating manual processes. The key here is to do some thinking and business case development before the dramatic change, as these changes can often happen quickly and without much warning. Big change can often bring big funding, plus in many acquisitions you may find the acquired institution has software that can be leveraged or expanded.

3. Operational efficiency

Over time, most fraud, AML and security teams have built a large number of manual processes. Usually it's in response to a big fraud attack or an audit, and these manual processes add up to big dollars and big headcount. Even worse, the same manual process may be performed by multiple teams across an organization. If that's the case for your organization, a robust case management system can deliver big savings, as it can automate processes and allow those staff members to be redeployed towards preventing losses and crime.

4. Enterprise intelligence with departmental segregation

The best case management software products will give you the best of both worlds. They'll give a select group of people insight across all areas of crime, but they'll also give you the ability to segregate certain types of alerts and cases (e.g., money laundering, insider fraud) as needed to satisfy privacy and legal requirements. This allows the fraud, AML, information security, and physical security teams to get their individual needs met while still working on a common platform.

5. Storage Costs

Don't underestimate how much it costs to print, store, and retrieve investigations files for 7 years (or whatever is required by your record retention policy).

Those costs add up, and can be significantly reduced by enterprise case management software. Good case management systems will give you the ability to store nearly unlimited numbers and types of documents, images, and files. Plus, you can have much tighter security and access control on electronic records.

6. Avoid lawsuits

Financial institutions are increasingly getting sued by customers for failures in their fraud prevention and money laundering processes. Many times, these lawsuits come down to information that was discovered by one department (i.e., AML) that was not shared with another department (i.e., Fraud). Customers and lawyers don't care about the distinction between departments, though, and they're successfully using this point in lawsuits.

7. Big data and information sharing

While this won't stand alone as a business case reason, most companies are taking a "big data" approach to security and financial crime. As your company brings in more data sources spanning fraud, AML, information security, and physical security, you'll need a place to aggregate the data, add intelligence and decisions, and share the outputs both internally and, eventually, externally. As you look at this within your company, don't neglect the operational piece of what happens after the "big data" engines are done processing.