Winning the battle for banking customers

With IP voice and data solutions driving communications, banks can attract a greater number of customers - and once they win them over, they can satisfy them with easy access and responsive service at every touch point. This is the true advantage that current IP systems have to offer.

Chris van Niekerk, country manager of 3Com, looks at how IP systems can enable financial institutions to succeed in today`s hotly contested banking environment.

Customers today are surrounded by an ever-increasing choice of banks with which to partner. In turn, these banks must provide fast, stress-free access to staff, account information, and transaction channels at key touch points - the branch office, the telephone and the Web.

They must also integrate their front- and back-office operations to give authorised staff, from loan officers to call centre agents, swift access to vital customer information. With this access, staff can proactively and quickly assist clients with their particular needs, such as funds transfers, e-billing, wealth management, mortgages, etc.

Without this level of access, communications suffer and uninformed, slow service threatens the bank/client relationship.

At present, many banks are using outdated voice and data infrastructures that handicap their ability to deliver the responsiveness they need to satisfy today`s customers. Fortunately, however, a mature generation of network-based IP systems now allows financial institutions to dramatically upgrade their services.

Below are some of the ways banks can use IP voice and data solutions to distinguish themselves from competitors and increase their profitability.

Years ago, banks were among the first businesses to replace their communications infrastructures in preparation for the Y2K rollover. However, this equipment is now at the end of its depreciation cycle, making it obsolete and expensive to run.

These unwieldy systems also limit efficiency and impinge on customer service. Traditional PBX voice systems typically buckle under increasing customer usage and drop calls, frustrating clients and, at worst, potentially driving them to the competition.

Similarly, legacy switches slow delivery of client data to staff desktops and impede online banking, further frustrating customers. Moreover, upkeep costs of PBXs alone hamstring even large banks so that, to simply add phones, IT departments must hire expensive contractors.

For these reasons, banks must put these legacy systems to rest. By integrating IP voice and data systems, banks can economically overcome their communications obstacles with a highly efficient solution.

Although it requires an initial investment in equipment, IP solutions offer a price/performance ratio and low total cost of ownership that expedites ROI (return on investment).

Compared to the effort and expense required to upgrade a 10-year-old PBX with hunt groups, for example, a feature-rich IP telephony system that is easy to use, reliable, and scalable is a simpler, more practical, and costs-effective alternative.

Right out of the box, IT departments save money by deploying IP phone solutions over existing data wiring and the ability to make system changes in just a few keystrokes without using costly service technicians.

Most importantly, though, the integration of IP voice platforms and high-speed switches offers myriad features banks can use to build stronger, more enduring bonds with customers.

Automated attendants and direct inward dialling (DID), for example, reduce customer on-hold times and ensure no call is missed.

This is especially valuable to banks that provide wealth management services. Automated attendants enable VIP clients to bypass call centres and quickly reach a select bank officer. If the officer is away from his or her desk, the IP-based, unified communications system`s automated attendants can direct callers to the officer`s beeper, cellphone, PDA, or assistants, ensuring these tier-one clients are attended to immediately.

The DID feature also allows callers to bypass the automated attendant and directly dial the desired party`s extension.

Unified messaging further speeds communications, permitting employees to easily retrieve voice and e-mails from a single contact management application.

Staff can also securely access their voice mails through the Internet and store, organise, and forward the messages as seamlessly as e-mails.

To reduce expenses and increase efficiencies further, banks can utilise dial plans and voice over IP (VOIP) to eliminate toll charges and encourage increased employee interaction for faster responses to client issues.

Computer telephony integration (CTI) also enhances productivity to lead to greater profitability. Brokers for instance, who make hundreds of client calls a day, can dial phone numbers right from their desktops. Furthermore, using CTI-enabled pop-up screens, call centre staff view incoming callers` banking histories on computer monitors to deliver personalised service.

For banks to compete, their communications systems must also support middleware applications that integrate customer information stored in multiple databases. Powered by a robust IP infrastructure, these profitability-enhancing applications can expedite staff access to data for anything from identifying up-selling opportunities to expediting credit card payments.

IP-driven middleware applications, for example, can transport customer relationship management (CRM) records from databases around the world to branch officers` desktops in hours as opposed to days.

This empowers staff to take advantage of revenue-generating opportunities as soon as they occur. An authorised employee can access combined deposit and lending services data, for instance, to see that the bank recently approved a loan for Ben Jones` new Jaguar. The next logical question could lead to new business - "Can we offer Ben car insurance or financial planning?"

Likewise, using middleware applications that provide access to customer credit card spending/payment histories, collections departments can take pre-emptive measures to improve collection methods, reduce payment defaults, and avoid expensive legal processes.

Network-powered applications can also link call centres with credit card data, allowing agents to answer calls with client-specific payment and response histories appearing in a CTI pop-up screen for more personalised service.

Ultra-fast, reliable IP networks additionally facilitate online banking that reduces hard-copy paper trails, accelerate service and reduce costs.

Voice and data systems should be affordable, reliable, user-friendly and scalable to stretch the value of banks` IP investments.

Additionally, solutions should provide 24/7, 99.999% reliability to ensure banks meet the access and response standards that today`s consumers expect. IP solutions must also comply with banking regulatory mandates that protect clients` confidential data and their own private information.

Banks can then create more flexible and responsive business models, giving telecommuters greater access to banking information via the Internet while working from home.

Lastly, an IP solution should be open-standards based to accommodate next-generation banking applications and integrate seamlessly with other networking solutions. Providing a vendor`s systems are compatible with another`s, banks can mix and match best-of-breed solutions.

Beware of a vendor that requires a package purchase of both its voice and data equipment. Such providers are apt to charge higher service and equipment costs while limiting the bank`s network design and ability to meet future communications needs.