Branch convergence from IBM and Avaya

The goal - Better supporting today’s banking needs

The key to improving branch and call center productivity lies in the ability of relationship managers and loan officers to easily collaborate. Accomplishing this would mean faster decisions, greater customer responsiveness and increased intelligence that can help boost revenue potential.

It sounds simple enough. But multiple disparate communications systems in various physical locations make this form of business continuity challenging, to say the least.

The advantage - Continuous communications for nonstop business

With the branch convergence solution from IBM and Avaya, integrate your contact center and branch environments to create a near seamless customer experience. Simply put, our solution can help your bank operate as a single enterprise, linking the intelligence and resources of the call centers, data centers and mobile workers with the branch, and the rest of your enterprise, regardless of geographic location.

Now individual branches can be linked together with consistent and transparent communications capabilities, effectively integrating experts and resources found across branches, contact centers and other bank locations. In that way, enterprise-wide, your employees can create more collaborative relationships with customers, independent of their physical locations. And branch employees and relationship managers can easily connect and access up-to-the-minute customer insight data, while routing the right person to serve customers in the best possible way.

The result is an advanced communications infrastructure and suite of communications applications that can provide clear operational efficiencies to your bottom line.

The benefits - Connect faster to work smarter and serve better

With the branch convergence solution from IBM and Avaya, create consistent and transparent communications across your banking channels. This new integrated channel can help enable the following benefits.

• Improved service by better matching customers to the agents that can best serve them.
• Improved agent effectiveness through immediate access to full customer information.
• Improved productivity by optimizing the availability and use of representatives with critical skill sets.
• Channel transparency to enhance branding and improve cross-selling.
• Interoperability with existing technology and applications.

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The goal - More effective communications across branches

Transform your branch and contact centers into a converged network of efficient and reliable banking. IBM and Avaya can link your contact center and branch environments together so you can deliver a near seamless customer experience, with access to core banking applications and customer insight data.

The advantage - Why IBM and Avaya?

Together, IBM and Avaya offer banks the unique ability to integrate and converge advanced communications capabilities together with headquarter applications, contact centers, branch office networks, Internet banking and mobile workers. We have experience in:

• Transforming disparate financial services distribution channels into a single integrated and flexible distribution channel.
• Designing, building and managing communications networks for more than 100 companies, including several of the Fortune 500.
• Broad spectrum of IP telephony and unified messaging capabilities.
• History of successful integrations within legacy voice environments.

The benefits - Collaboration and connectivity regardless of location

Designed to create a near seamless customer-facing experience, the branch convergence solution from IBM and Avaya is a result of combing key elements of several proven financial services solutions, including:

• Multichannel transformation from IBM.
• Enhanced enterprise communications from IBM.
• Enterprise branch connect from Avaya.

The result is a hybrid communications infrastructure and suite of communications applications that integrates disparate contact center and branch environments together into a single and flexible distribution channel. Whether it's your physical branch locations, contact centers or online banking, each of these channels can be transparent in nature.

Then your branch employees can view and access the same core banking applications and customer insight data as your contact center staff for greater operational efficiency and more selling opportunities. Customers benefit as well, by gaining a more personalized, consistent and efficient banking experience.

• Use mass personalization techniques to enhance the customer experience—based on customer value and preferences.
• Maintain customer service levels even in failover scenarios by rerouting communication networks to maintain business continuity.
• Integrate information gathered from Internet, ATM, branch and contact centers customer touch points to create a single view of the customer.
• Enhance sales and service across your channels with up-to-date, virtual real-time transaction information.
• Provide new options that help make it easier for customers to get the information they need when browsing their accounts on the Web, such as the ability to talk to customer service at the click of a button.
• Allow associates to match customer insight to call handling and routing.

The approach - Compelling results

Choosing IBM and Avaya for a converged communications solution, means your bank chooses a reliable, security-rich network, which facilitates positive customer relationships, enhances productivity and maximizes profitability.

We can design, build, deploy and manage a branch and contact center communications network, which allows real time personalized dialogue with customers across multiple channels.

Build a dynamic networked environment with the branch convergence solution from IBM and Avaya, enabling your personnel to collaborate and communication faster and more effectively. Then you can transform contact management into a business advantage.

The financial advantage - Maximize revenue opportunities

The branch convergence solution from IBM and Avaya can help your bank:

• Achieve higher levels of customer satisfaction—protecting revenue— through comprehensive, integrated communication solutions.
• Reduce operating costs by leveraging communications channels and by providing consistent, efficient customer interactions.
• Achieve greater return on investment through effective use of IP technology.
• Increase revenue by identifying cross-sell and up-sell opportunities during customer interactions.

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The issues - Cost-effective multichannel branch convergence

The branch convergence solution from IBM and Avaya delivers benefits your line of business managers want—integration of contact center and branch customer service channels for real-time collaboration. Extend IP-enabled functionality, while continuing to utilize your voice infrastructure, protecting your existing assets through a simplified, staged migration process.

The benchmark - Count on industry leaders

Rely on IBM and Avaya to drive the convergence of voice and data communications, and leverage both existing and new investments in ways that can enhance your bank's business performance.

Our advantage is clear.

• IBM and Avaya deliver comprehensive CRM solutions for the financial services institutions by combining Avaya's leading applications with IBM's experience, technology, consulting and implementation services.
• Avaya is a leader in communication, contact centers, enterprise voice and IP telephony, providing communications solutions that can enable businesses to achieve superior results.
• IBM offers flexible financing terms with customized payment structures through IBM Global Financing.

The components - Create a collaborative networked services channel

IBM and Avaya's banking clients can gain a cohesive approach to bring voice and data elements into their branch banking environment. Together, our consulting services offer a single point of contact from initial assessment through implementation and maintenance support.

This solution may include:

• IBM WebSphere® Everyplace® Access—a single platform for mobile access to data and enterprise applications.
• IBM WebSphere Voice Response—a scalable voice response system that supports industry standard VoiceXML 2.0 for voice application development.
• IBM WebSphere Voice Server—provides voice recognition and text-to-speech enablement in several languages.
• IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment—distributed workload management, dynamic caching and performance management.
• IBM WebSphere Voice Application Access—a voice portal framework for delivery of information to mobile employees using voice as the interface.

Avaya components can include:

• Avaya Interaction Center—elevates call priority, automatically routes calls the most appropriate person and provides relevant information regarding customers.
• Avaya Unified Messaging Center—provides mobile, collaborative and management associates with a unified interface to information and communications tools.
• Avaya Modular Messaging—an IP- and standards-based voice and fax messaging platform designed for single- or multisite global enterprises.
• Avaya Unified Messenger—Lotus® Domino® Configuration helps mobile workers stay connected by enabling them to manage their messages remotely.
• Contact center integration—call center and customer relationship management applications including predictive dialing, self-service applications such as speech access, and cont ext-driven intelligent routing.
• IP telephony components:
  • IP audio and video conferencing
  • IP-enabled smart phones

The implementation - Effectively handle mixed voice and data

Choosing IBM and Avaya for a converged communications solution, means your bank chooses a reliable, security-rich network, which facilitates positive customer relationships, enhances productivity and maximizes profitability.

We can design, build, deploy and manage a branch and contact center communications network, which allows virtual real-time personalized dialogue with customers across multiple channels.

With the branch convergence solution from IBM and Avaya build a dynamic networked environment, enabling your personnel to collaborate and communicate faster and more effectively. Integrate with a proven infrastructure which supports business objectives by transforming contact management into an advantage.

The cost of ownership - Scalable network communications for the future

Together, IBM and Avaya can help deliver a lower cost of ownership through:

• Communications solutions that function with existing multivendor technologies and applications.
• Joint services support that reduces risk and streamlines accountability.
• Migration strategies for investment protection of existing assets.
• Security-rich functionality, resiliency and redundancy without business disruption.
• IBM Global Financing, which offers competitive rates, flexible terms, better management of assets and more options at end of life or end of lease.

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