At Volksbank, IP telephony cuts communications costs by 40%

23 Jun At Volksbank, IP telephony cuts communications costs by 40%

The third bank in the Romanian banking system communicates more efficiently and at a reduced cost, through the IP communications solution implemented by CRESCENDO the IT&C solution house.

Bucharest, June 23, 2009 CRESCENDO the IT&C solutions house announces that VOLKSBANK Romania, the third bank in the system at the end of 2008 with assets of over 5.3 billion euros and a market share of 6.79%, chosen Cisco IP Telephony in order to reduce the communications operational costs. The project was started by implementing the solution in several key locations of VOLKSBANK Romania and in a headquarters in Cyprus. The solution was conceived, modeled and implemented by the CRESCENDO team, together with bank specialists.

To support the bank’s development strategy, communication is vital. And the volume of communication determines that, from the structure of the operational costs, the telephony costs occupy a representative part. In this context, implementing a communications solution that streamlines bank staff and facilitates the sensible reduction of telephone and network administration costs has become a priority for VOLKSBANK.

“The implementation of Cisco IP Telephony in several locations was the beginning of the successful solving of the bank’s telephone costs problem. For these headquarters, move to IP telephony allowed a 40% reduction in communications costs,” says Daniel Oana, CIO VOLKSBANK.

Internal calls between headquarters and branch offices or between branches are now carried out over the IP network, with no costs for external network transfer. And for out-of-net calls, smart call routing causes a significant drop in costs. Even the temporary mixed solution, which also uses traditional PBX equipment, makes savings. Strengthening data and voice networks has reduced the cost of managing inherent changes to settings, due to adding, moving or changing user settings.

“For treasury agents, we opted for Zoom’s CallRec voice recording solution. Now, the orders for the sale / purchase of the currency, sent to the treasury, remain recorded in the clients’ history, eliminating the degree of risk of challenging them.” Daniel Oana.

In order to ensure a high level of IT & C security to prevent possible attacks, Crescendo specialists designed and implemented a security solution in line with the Bank’s policy. By centralizing security events, the administrators of the VOLKSBANK network now have an overview of network incidents, which has resulted in improved time and how to deal with them.

The entire project required a total budget of up to 100,000 Euros.

“Our goal is to gradually provide a consistent communications service throughout the organization. At the same time, the economic conjuncture forces us to reduce operating costs, centralize administration, and increase the level of security across the entire bank. After carefully analyzing the market, we chosed CRESCENDO the IT&C solution solutions, which help us to make our business more efficient and contribute significantly to ensuring our customers’ satisfaction and loyalty.” Daniel Oana.