The banking and insurance industries are subject to profound change. These industries are under pressure to create shareholder value amidst competing demands for globalization and consolidation. Technological advancements also drive the need for change. E-business and direct services are opening up the banks and insures to previously unseen competition and new found consumer power, driving up the need for improved service, reduction in costs and a dynamic approach to new service and consumer initiatives.

Many leading financial service companies have used WITNESS solutions to undertake strategic business "what if" analyses to brainstorm new ideas and to reduce the risk inherent in introducing radical change in the business. Every conceivable business process can be modeled.

WITNESS models take into account real-life constraints such as the need for different skills at different stages in the insurance claims handling process, the fact that more than one person must be involved with each claim for the purpose of fraud prevention, and the fact that the value of each claim impacts not only the process but the grade of staff who must be involved. Factors such as these are impossible to take account of using static methods such as spreadsheet models; WITNESS models incorporate these real-life constraints, just like the real-life process.

Typical benefits from the use of WITNESS simulation include: