Buffalo, N.Y.-based M&T Bank Corp. is expecting to become at least 15% more efficient in its branches by implementing a new teller platform, according to Senior Vice President Mike Shryne.

The bank has recently implemented a branch software system released by Atlanta-based S1 Corp., which Shryne expects will help in reducing expenses and losses and increasing sales through referrals. The upgrade is part of M&T's ongoing system revamping in its 700 plus branches.

"While this is a huge undertaking, we knew that the potential benefits could be enormous - including significant increases in fee income, productivity, cross-sell ratios, as well as a reduction in losses," Shryne says.

S1 recently released a new version of its Enterprise Teller 3.5 software on Feb. 16, which aims at simplifying the basic transactional process for tellers, so they can focus on providing better customer service and selling new products and services. It reduces the average number of keystrokes for each teller job by as much as 60%, which helps shorten transaction time and simplify teller training, says Chris Watson, vice president of marketing.

"Everybody is looking for ways to increase the productivity of the teller," Watson says. "The biggest hurdle that banks face is the limitations of the people behind the counter."

Increasing tellers' output and giving front-line workers more time to sell are increasingly important issues, Watson adds, as banks strive to turn their "tellers into sellers."

Eighty percent of the most common teller tasks are laid out on the software's initial launch screen, which has a more graphical look than is typical in the industry. This enables a teller to conduct a typical task, like stopping a payment on a check, more easily and in less time, Watson says. Combined with the reduced keystrokes, this enables tellers to spend less time going through basic transactions and more time with customers, he adds.

The software also prompts tellers with targeted marketing messages and scripts aimed at the individual needs and preferences of the customer with whom they're dealing, Watson says. Bank clients pay a software license fee and a per-seat (or per-teller) subscription fee, Watson adds, although she declines to provide specifics.

By using a previous iteration of S1's new teller platform, M&T was able to reduce its teller training time from three days to one-half a day, Watson says.

For more about training issues in retail banking, please see "What Do Your Employees Need to Learn and What Will It Cost?" in the January/February issue of Banking Strategies.

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