For several years now, the Sindup platform has been used within Groupe BPCE by several entities, including Ludovic Markarian, Marketing Project Manager at Natixis Interépargne. He pilots the system, which focuses on competitive, market and CSR intelligence.
Ludovic Markarian is in charge of strategic intelligence (watch bulletins, competitive and pricing benchmarks), as well as the customer listening system. He is also in charge of studies, including competitive analysis, customer portfolio mapping and forecasting. Read his testimonial!
Could you tell us about Natixis Interépargne?
Natixis Interépargne belongs to the Natixis group, and more specifically to the BPCE group. Our business is the management of employee savings and pensions. We are one of the leaders in employee savings account management, with almost 3 million savers and nearly 77,000 corporate clients. Employee savings involve asset management, and we have 26 billion euros in assets under management, including a flagship product: the PERCO, dedicated to retirement. We are also leaders in socially responsible investment management.
Natixis has been in existence for just over 50 years, and stands out for its innovative approach and customer focus. We offer a range of tools to help investors manage their employee savings. The company employs just over 500 people. The employee savings and retirement schemes offered by companies to their employees enable them to build up their savings in a variety of ways. All these schemes feed into what is known as the retirement savings plan.
How does Natixis Interépargne organize its monitoring activities?
We have three main areas of activity:
- Competitive intelligence: This enables us to monitor our competitors in real time. We need to be reactive in order to detect their innovations, their communications and any other element likely to influence our environment.
- Market watch: This enables us to understand investor behavior and general trends in employee savings, particularly in relation to regulatory changes and the financial market.
- CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) watch: This covers sustainable development, green finance and ESG (environmental, social and governance) criteria. This information feeds a newsletter and contributes to the company's CSR strategy.
Where does the information you collect come from?
When we started with Sindup, we explored the more than 50 million available sources to refine our queries. We connected the information to the relevant sources, but that wasn't enough. In competitive intelligence, we need to monitor specific sites. That's why we set up packages of sources targeting the bank and the competition. This enables us to track updates to key pages, detect the latest financial news and other strategic themes.
How do you monitor your competitors?
When we monitor a competitor, speed is essential to react effectively and disseminate information. Sindup makes it possible to set up real-time alerts. When relevant information comes to light, I receive an alert. We use keywords coupled with sources, but that's not always enough. It's essential to keep a broader watch, in particular by monitoring updates on our competitors' sites. To make sure we don't miss anything, we use Boolean operators (advanced search) that alert us as soon as a change occurs on a strategic page. If a piece of information is crucial, I send an e-mail to the parties concerned with a link to it. If it's less important, I integrate it into the newsletter, a summary note or a monitoring report to disseminate the latest competitive trends.
Can you tell us about the monitoring you do on social networks, particularly X (formerly Twitter)?
Information on X can be scarce, as few publications use the hashtag #épargnesalariale. Conversely, depending on what's going on, we can receive a very large flow of information. We also monitor certain strategic accounts. The combination of a hashtag and monitoring of specific accounts enables us to achieve a relevant balance. Today, X accounts for around 10-15% of the information retained. This platform is essential, as some information is not relayed in the general or specialized press. When a customer expresses dissatisfaction on the market, it's crucial to understand whether this is an isolated case or part of a wider trend. This analysis is essential if we are to adjust our strategy and anticipate market trends.
