Add-On Features Add Productivity

Internet Protocol (IP) telephony does not appear to offer the killer application likely to change the nature of banking. However, a variety of relatively small features may add to the technology's overall appeal by making employees more productive.

"The new call technology is more flexible in dealing with both opportunities and burdens in an expanding company," says Joseph R. Ficalora, president and CEO of Westbury-based New York Community Bancorp, a $24 billion-asset institution that has installed IP telephony in its headquarters and in 19 of 140 branches. For example, IP telephony moves the bank steps closer to being able to distribute video presentations to its employees, which Ficalora says will improve internal communications about new product features or policies and procedures.

Others cite what the telecom world calls "unified messaging" — that is, combining e-mail and voice mail onto a single system, which employees can access on their phones, desktop computers or personal digital assistant devices. The notice of a voice mail looks the same as a text message in a user's inbox. Clicking on a voice mail file opens sound-generating software and plays the message. Then the user can reply with e-mail if that's more convenient than returning a call.

"You spread that over 1,000 employees five days a week and that little efficiency adds up to real dollars," says John Studdard, senior vice president and chief information officer at Lydian Trust Co., based in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

Another attractive feature, he says, is an online directory that's always accurate, because it's based on programming that keeps users on the system. "You don't have to look at an outdated sheet tacked up on your cube or go digging through your e-mail to find phone numbers," Studdard says. And, most systems initiate calls when the user clicks on a name in the online directory.

Harris Bank in Chicago is using this technology in an entirely different way, to provide voice communications to customers while they're at the bank's Web site and want to have a conversation with a banker. "We're deploying it to enhance the client experience," says Hilde Betts, senior vice president for e-channels services.

Other potential useful features of VoIP or IP telephony include easy transference of data along with a call. For example, a call center agent with a screen full of customer account information can forward all that information when referring the caller to another agent. It's also easier to re-route calls in an emergency, providing improved disaster preparedness.

IP technology's ability to link people into the company network from remote locations could have huge implications for the organization and management of call centers. "People could work from home," says Steven Walsh, executive vice president for relationship management with First Merrit Corp. in Akron, Ohio. "That opens up a labor pool to you that you might not otherwise be able to access."

Indeed, nearly all the senior executives with Boston-based OneUnited Bank work at least part of the time at home, with the same phone number they use in the office "and no one even knows it," says Jim Berry, the bank's chief information officer. OneUnited, which has assets of $465 million and bills itself as the largest African-American-owned bank, began implementing IP telephony in 2002. With 10 branches spread between Boston, Los Angeles and South Florida, OneUnited had been running up monthly long-distance bills of $10,000. That expense has been largely eliminated, Berry says.

IP technology also supports employees who work out of multiple offices during a given day, such as mortgage and investment officers. Instead of asking the customer to try multiple phone numbers, a worker can have all calls forwarded to one number.

"Let's say that you didn't know where your mortgage officer was and you had to make eight or 10 calls to track him down. Would that be significant to you?" asks Dan Ellis, chief financial officer with American Community Bancshares Inc. in Charlotte.

Perhaps the most attractive aspect of IP telephony is its versatility. New York Community Bancorp, for example, had to deal with the problem of published numbers for a call center that had been closed. Forwarding the calls from the old center to a new one over a public carrier's lines would have cost the bank about $30,000 a year. With IP telephony, the calls can be forwarded over the company's data network at no cost.

"A dumb old phone doesn't get any better," Ficalora says.

— Bill Stoneman