Conferencing
Credit union cashes in on UC
Centralized call center features help improve member service and ensure calls are answered quickly.
Tony Hildesheim, vice president of IT at Washington State Employees Credit Union, realized the credit union’s need for a state-of-the-art unified communications system.
Employees at Washington
State Employees Credit Union (WSECU)
understand that handling every call smoothly
and effectively every day is vital to
WSECU’s success as a member-owned financial
cooperative. Across its 19 statewide
branches, WSECU receives more than 180,000
calls a month, and boasts a membership of
more than 150,000 with $1.4 billion in
assets. Faced with further growth and new
business initiatives to provide members with
remote, real-time access to transactions,
and to deliver high-tech, high-touch member
service, Tony Hildesheim, vice president of
IT at WSECU, realized the credit union’s
need for a state-of-the-art unified
communications (UC) system.
"Our previous phone
system consisted of a patchwork of
independent branch systems that was becoming
unreliable, antiquated and unable to adapt
to new technology," Hildesheim explains.
"This meant that employees had to learn how
to use the phone system from one branch to
the next. Additionally, upgrades could not
be rolled out to every branch, and
supporting the network was time-consuming
and costly. To improve internal and external
member services and flexibility, we required
a unified system that would offer redundancy
for business resumption needs, and one that
could evolve into the future, as WSECU
continues to grow."
Hildesheim was
particularly interested in new features and
functionality that would support and enhance
the core of the credit union’s brand and
enable each call to be tracked through the
system, providing a consistent member
experience across the entire network. WSECU
was already using voice-over-IP (VoIP)
systems at two branches, and since the
acceptance and quick adoption of these
IP-based PBX systems was successful,
Hildesheim and a cross-divisional team of
business leaders focused on conducting a
full assessment of this technology. The
assessment included developing a business
case, establishing core values and goals,
and engaging a consultant to help with
gathering requirements.
"The benefit of an
IP-based PBX is its use of existing data
infrastructure, reducing cost for
implementation, management and expansion,"
Hildesheim says. "Plus, integration into
other applications is significantly
simplified, allowing for process improvement
and better call-management features."
Once the assessment was
complete and the decision to deploy a UC
system was finalized, the team sent an RFP
to nine vendors. The list of finalists was
then shortened to three.
Shoretel system selected
"Although some of our old
equipment was from the other vendors,
ShoreTel really outshone the others during
the presentation phase for their commitment
to customer satisfaction," Hildesheim
explains. "ShoreTel and its reseller TriTec
took a very member-centric approach to
working with us and, in a short time, were
able to demonstrate a UC system that could
meet our current and long-term needs."
While most of the feature
sets of each vendor’s solution were similar,
Hildesheim says he was particularly
impressed with the distributed architecture
of the ShoreTel UC system. "With the
distributed architecture, each switch is
survivable, which helps ensure
dependability, even during peak times," he
says. "This level of performance,
reliability and ease of management is
essential for service and satisfaction."
During the evaluation,
ShoreTel came out ahead for its reliability,
ease of management, support and costs. As a
result, the team decided to purchase the
ShoreTel IP Unified Communications (UC)
system, and performed a network assessment
to help streamline the implementation of a
large VoIP system with existing data
systems. As a result, they decided to use
power-over-Ethernet (PoE) injectors at the
network switch level, which proved more
cost-effective than replacing existing
switches with PoE switches.
Deploying the ShoreTel UC
system enabled WSECU to centralize
communications and use several feature-rich
applications, including ShoreWare Enterprise
Contact Center (ECC) to establish multiple
call centers–a primary call center for
members, and smaller call centers for
internal departments, such as the loan
center and member solutions.
ShoreWare ECC is designed
to meet the requirements of modern
multimedia contact centers. Routing and
multiple service options allow customization
of the caller experience and provide the
tools to deliver calls to the proper agents.
Additionally, the credit union took
advantage of the built-in workgroup
capabilities of the system to provide call
center functionality to internal support
departments like facilities and the IT help
desk.
The system purchase also
included 400 ShorePhone IP telephones. By
standardizing on the 230 model, all
employees are trained to use any phone in
any branch throughout the state. Because the
phone is easy to deploy, adds, moves and
changes are quick and easy.
Simple branch integration
Integration with other
applications and systems has also been
straightforward for Hildesheim and his team.
"We wanted to enable individual branches to
support the primary call center during peak
times by taking specific skills-based
calls," Hildesheim says. "Our branches use
Citrix, and with very minimal programming
and branch staff training, we were able to
create call center queues for overflow
traffic and special, skills-based calls."
This level of flexibility
helps the credit union call center ensure
service levels are met, even during peak
times, and requires no additional cost or
administrative resources. Furthermore, WSECU
is already seeing reduced maintenance and
support costs with the UC system, and
expects to see annual savings of around
$13,000 from the previous systems.
"Since ShoreTel is
deployed as a single image, the system is
easy to administer, maintain and expand from
any location," offers Hildesheim. "We no
longer have to send out a truck to change a
telephone at a cost of about $100 an hour.
Ease of use and advanced functionality also
mean we’re saving an estimated 117 staff
hours a month."
Skills-based routing
functionality in the ECC application is also
helping WSECU enhance member service. If a
caller needs an expert in home banking, the
call is quickly connected to the right
specialist, optimizing resources and saving
valuable time. Four-digit dialing also helps
users transfer member calls to any employee
in the credit union, without having to ask
them to hang up and dial a different number.
Plus, staff can contact one another quickly,
no matter where they are, leave voice mails,
press zero to speak to someone else in that
specific group, and see presence information
through ShoreWare Personal Call Manager.
"Another tool that has
helped improve usability is the ECC
supervisor console with a graphical display
that shows call center performance
statistics on large screens in the call
center," Hildesheim says. "Everyone feels
motivated by a quick visual check on how
well the call center is doing."
WSECU has already
implemented many ShoreTel features,
including Operator Call Manager for advanced
high-volume call handling, and Personal Call
Manager that integrates with Microsoft
Outlook and offers an intuitive interface
from which users can manage all
call-handling features, including looking up
associates from directories to minimize
response times to member queries.
Hildesheim and his team
are already looking for more ways to
maximize business agility on the ShoreTel
system. His IT support team is using a
ShoreTel softphone via a VPN connection to
provide after-hours support from home, and
he is working on integrating instant
messaging to help speed employee
communications and enhance productivity.
"The UC system’s ability
to integrate with business processes,
databases and other applications, and to
streamline the communications experience
will help us take advantage of future
innovations in member service," Hildesheim
says. "We’re working on integrating ShoreTel
with a number of financial applications,
including solutions from IBM and Verint to
improve our members’ experience."
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