- Consumer Activity Based Spatial Interaction Modelling Applied to an Alternative Approach to Delivery Planning

By Wayne Cardwell

The financial services industry is becoming more competitive and thus it is becoming more difficult for organizations to maintain historical revenue levels.  Many organizations are executing branch closure strategies as a means to reduce operating costs and maintain profit levels.  Branch closure has been only marginally successful to date as the reduction in consumer access points has exaggerated the competitiveness problem and further contributed to reduced revenues.  The purpose of this paper is to define and evaluate an alternative to branch closure, defined as 'Functional Reconfiguration', in respect to its ability to redevelop an existing financial services delivery network into one which is more cost effective.  The concept of functional reconfiguration is based on the removal of under-utilized services from a delivery network in respect to existing consumer usage.