Implementing the knowledge support systems TAPS in a retail bank: a case study

The authors describe how Midland Bank, one of the big four UK clearing banks, adopted the knowledge support systems TAPS (targeted allocation of promotional spend) as a group decision-support aid for sizing, allocation, and targeting of its promotional spend across its full range of products and media types. Given the large size of this spend and the essentially judgemental basis on which decisions were made in this area, TAPS provided a very useful structured framework for this area of decision making. The authors outline the TAPS approach and describe how initial skepticism of key managers was gradually overcome so that TAPS is now an integral part of the planning process of the bank and provides significant input for the spend decisions. The critical factors in this technology transfer process that enabled success to be achieved are highlighted