Diversifying risk and improving Customer Service

Organisations are increasingly looking for methods to decrease and eliminate risk in the critical parts of their business. This has lead to a greater focus on dual vendor strategies, particularly where the organisation’s communications infrastructure is concerned.

According to Ted Wood, vertical head of banking, financial sector and insurance within Neotel’s Enterprise business unit, this is particularly the case when it comes to the banking industry. “The financial services industry has an inherent need for resiliency, which has led to the adoption of a multiple vendor strategy,” says Wood. “While there have been alternatives from wireless suppliers, they have to date not had access to alternative large-scale, dedicated IP networks – a need we now fulfill.”

Wood believes that converged next generation networks will pave the way for financial institutions to streamline their processes and provide the end customer with increased services based on advanced new technologies. “Financial institutions are dependent on delivering high quality services to customers, which is forcing the adoption of new technologies to replace legacy systems,” says Wood. These new technologies are aimed at avoiding potential risks such as errors between disparate network systems, fraud, latency and other threats, but require network improvements in order to be effective. “This is precisely what the converged network is developed for,” he says.

Business is measured on return on equity and with the current interest rates and legislation impact on financial institutions growth has slowed down, which means they are looking to bring costs down. “When one analyses the cost of running multiple systems, it becomes evident that utilizing a single technology or a converged communications solution will save the organization on their costs.” A converged communications solution addresses all communications requirements through one service – effectively one “pipe”. “These institutions now have access to scalable voice, data and internet services through one interface, which immediately brings down the costs of running their communications,” he says.

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