It may be called CommSee but for nearly 5000 staff the Commonwealth Bank"s latest attempt at customer relationship management (CRM) is a must-see, with thousands of bank staff required to sit mandatory exams on the new technology.

Commonwealth Bank group executive for retail banking services, Hugh Harley, said a key factor for success of the A$1.4 billion (US$1 billion) Which New Bank overhaul of IT at the CBA is to ensure staff not only feel empowered by technology, but that new data translates directly into service improvements for customers. Internally developed by the bank, the new platform aims to provide a single view of customers across multiple products.

"At CBA we have made this massive investment in new, front-end technology - but the real challenge is embedding it. Everyone [employees using CommSee] will have to be formally accredited in this. It will be pass or fail," Harley said.

Part of the new approach at CBA appears to have stemmed from lessons learnt during the tenure of the CBA"s recently departed CEO and technology sceptic David Murray.

"CBA - notwithstanding the fact that it has the largest customer base - has put a disproportionate amount of energy and resource [into customer] acquisition rather than retention and understanding the customers" needs.