Firm future-proofs its infrastructure: IP system provides credit union with collaboration and unified communications capabilities.

Central Florida-based Insight Financial Credit Union has been enjoying rapid growth in recent years but found that productivity and customer service were being hampered by an aging communications infrastructure. Faced with continued costly upgrades to keep its communications system afloat, Insight Financial decided to implement a solution to address its needs now and into the future.

Despite its 65-year history, most of Insight Financial's growth has come in the last eight years. Based in Orlando, the company serves more than 55,000 members-a number that has nearly tripled since 1999. Also in that time, its locations increased from four locations to 10 branches spread across seven large counties. The credit union also experienced three mergers, each of which added to its membership.

The credit union provides members with a wide range of products and services. As a result, Insight Financial knew it needed a better way for members to get information and to ensure business continuity. Because credit union membership is open to anyone living in the seven central Florida counties it serves, Insight Financial also needed a solution that would grow with it and support the anticipated continued growth resulting from central Florida's ongoing population boom.

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"Clearly, our growth outstripped our communications infrastructure capacity," says Jody Walls, Insight Financial's vice president of operations and chief operating officer. "What's more, the mergers created a patchwork of systems that was costly, not only in terms of maintenance and complexity, but also in terms of productivity, efficiency and, above all, how well we could respond to our members."

According to Walls, Insight Financial deter mined that its existing communications systems were not up to today's needs, much less tomorrow's. "We had to keep buying upgrades just to stay in place, plus our local phone company service left much to be desired," she explains. "For example, there is just one technician assigned to our seven-county service area and our farthest branches are 120 miles apart."

Contact center productivity and responsiveness were painful issues, as well, she says. Seventeen agents handled as many as 16,000 calls per month; abandon rates were as high as 12 percent. Due to a lack of reporting tools, the call abandon rate was the only metric Walls' team could track, but it spoke volumes about the need for a new solution.

Lastly, Insight Financial's central Florida operating footprint puts it at the crossroads of the region's notorious hurricanes. In fact, hurricanes come through the area from both the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, making it one of Florida's most vulnerable areas, and making business continuity a key requirement to ensure members have access to needed financial services as soon as possible after a storm roars through.

With its needs clear, but not yet well defined, Insight Financial began contacting various vendors, including its incumbent communications supplier. Another financial institution recommended Siemens, so Insight Financial asked Siemens to participate in the RFP.

"Siemens truly listened to our needs, from the sales process and research of our needs to installation, project management and ongoing support," says Walls. She adds that Siemens' expertise in the financial services market helped cinch the decision to award it the deal.

Once all of the requirements were clearly defined, Siemens provided the credit union with a comprehensive, all-IP solution based on the Siemens Open Communications architecture, as well as a detailed implementation project plan.

The solution comprised a Siemens HiPath 4000 Real-Time IP System as its core communications platform; HiPath Xpressions for multimedia-enabled unified communications; HiPath ProCenter Enterprise for contact center management; nine HiPath AP 3000 IP access points for interconnecting the branch locations; and a number of optiPoint 420 IP phones. The solution also included a Verint ULTRA Express Quality Monitoring System the credit union uses to record transactions and improve agent call handling.

Walls says that with this new infrastructure, employees are able to communicate and collaborate more effectively. With unified communications capabilities and presence awareness, she explains, employees are able to communicate more effectively in a timely manner.

From the start, Walls says, Insight Financial realized fast gains in its agent performance, more responsiveness to member calls and flexibility it never had before as a result of the advanced skills-based routing feature from HiPath ProCenter Enterprise. For example, call abandon rates dropped well below the goal of 2 percent from as high as 12 percent before installing the Siemens solution. Additionally, call service levels that were once less than 90 percent are now above 99 percent.

Insight Financial also uses the HiPath ProCenter Enterprise contact center software to improve its member support. "It's so easy to use, and with instant access to account information, our agent productivity has skyrocketed," Walls says. "It's also allowed cross-training between our loan and member services agents, something we couldn't do before. Overall, the stress levels in our contact center have been greatly reduced, so much so that it's helped reduce agent turnover for the first time ever."

She added that her team also takes advantage of ProCenter's reporting functions, and, as a result, her team can manage staff better. "With real-time reporting, we're able to shift employees around and use flex scheduling to accommodate our needs and theirs," she offers. "Before, we didn't know what our call volumes were until the next day. At best, we could only be reactive; now we're proactive."

Responding to needs as they arise and being able to anticipate those needs means that the contact center operates more smoothly than it did before, she adds.

As a part of this new IP-based system, the credit union has also bolstered its disaster-recovery strategy. In the event of a WAN failure, the HiPath 4000 Access Points can use their processors to re-route calls and keep the business going.

Walls expects the new system to carry the company forward for years to come. "The solution will allow us to easily expand as our member base grows, with the flexibility to add new capabilities at our own pace," she says.

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