To develop and implement a CRM solution to cover 600 branches in seven states, plus two call centers.
Done.
Unisys Customer Contact Solutions
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Client video (.wmv, 30 secs) |
Unifying a vast network
Sovereign Bancorp. Inc. is a $35 billion financial institution that has experienced exponential growth throughout the eastern United States. Through its many acquisitions, Sovereign Bank grew from 19 branches in 1987 to over 300 in 1998. Growth continued in September 1999, with the announcement that Sovereign would acquire an additional 281 branches (formerly part of FleetBoston), to form Sovereign Bank New England. This operation and BankBoston forming the largest branch divestiture of its kind in US Banking history – gave Sovereign the task of deploying a multi-channel customer relationship management solution spanning nearly 600 branches in seven states plus two call centers.
Meanwhile, Sovereign Bank was implementing a new division, 1st Webbank Direct.com, to provide banking products and services under a "private label" to colleges, universities, retailers, and other businesses using the Internet and call center. Assimilating the FleetBoston branches had to be accomplished within 10 months and Sovereign turned to Unisys for the total solution.
"The Sovereign plan is to achieve growth through acquisition," confirms Alan Gunnerson, Chief Information Officer at Sovereign Bank; "The natural trend in the industry is to grow to meet customers' objectives – more services and better services – and you need to scale to be competitive. The only way for us to grow this quickly was by using a number of key vendors including Unisys."
Gunnerson continues, "Over the years, Unisys has become more than a technology partner. They are a strategic business partner. Our relationship with them enables us to anticipate, understand, and address our customers' needs."
Unisys offers a total solution
To offer its solutions to a rapidly expanding customer base, Sovereign Bank needed to strengthen its networking and business capabilities. "Some vendors offered a networking solution, others addressed our operational concerns," says Gunnerson. "Only Unisys offered a solution that included technology, software and services – a total systems approach to our business and customer needs."
A key part of the Unisys total systems approach was Unisys Customer Contact Solutions, a multi-channel retail delivery solution. The solution offers an integrated suite of components to permit access to common customer information across multiple channels, providing a single view of the customer – wherever he or she touches the bank.
Customer Contact Solutions are customized for the Bank and work either alone or in combination. This enabled Sovereign to create a unique, competitive channel strategy for the Bank as well as for their Independent Internet Initiative, 1st Webbankdirect. "This channel strategy helps us manage our customer relationships as we become more of a commercial bank and less of a savings bank," says Gunnerson. "This new solution enhances these relationships by enabling us to provide product recommendations and offer customized client services, resulting in more loans and higher deposits." It also enables Sovereign to creatively gain new business through affinity partners.
Unisys is providing software and services to facilitate customer contact via the Internet and the contact center. But this is more than the technology that comprises most traditional call centers – and it's being deployed in a radically new way for banks and commercial businesses to compete and generate revenue with the Internet as a tool.
Meeting goals and saving money
In less than six months, 280 Sovereign branches were converted to the Customer Contact Solutions. Unisys provided full installation and integration services, including project management, customization, configuration, staging and more than 2,600 PC workstations, 300 servers, and over 1,400 printers to accommodate the Bank's extensive delivery channel requirements. According to Gunnerson, "Unisys created a solution that allowed us to use some of our existing equipment, saving us more than $500,000."
Sovereign embarked on rolling out the solution to the recently acquired 281 branches in New England and the two call centers with approximately 400 agents comprising an additional 3,700 workstations and 300 servers. Gunnerson is still amazed at the ambitious scale and success of the roll-out: "To go from a decision on March 31, 1998 to having 600 branches functioning at a service level of over 98% by the end of July 2000 is phenomenal."
This same solution, customized to meet the unique needs of 1st Webbank Direct.com, is delivering results by helping sell products and serve customers. For example, 1st Webbank Direct.com has entered into an affinity servicing agreement with AAA Southern New England. The agreement provides for customized, personalized financial services to be delivered to the 1.8 million members of AAA Southern New England through a tailor-made Web site. 1st Webbank Direct.com's unique e-commerce strategy provides customers with financial services, including real-time transaction processing, an integrated online bill payment feature and the ability to download statement data into personal financial management applications. The Unisys solution assists in establishing marketing strategies for the affinity relationship (another revenue opportunity and a differentiator for 1st Webbankdirect), sets sales objectives, generates leads and monitors the success of marketing campaigns.
Choosing a Microsoft Windows NT-based solution was "an easy decision," says Gunnerson "which has turned out to be an excellent decision. It all works, with this platform we have interoperability, scalability and security. And the partnership between Unisys and Microsoft was clearly presented to us: together, they offer us more capability and more reliability."
Barbara Fischer, Senior Vice President Application Conversions, is convinced that Windows NT and Unisys will support the Bank well into its future. "NT provides the open architecture necessary to grow – having a platform that can connect to other systems is key. Whether I am in growth mode or acquisition mode, I need to be creative. And I see this new solution as the basis on which I can create a more efficient bank."
Customer Contact Solutions were customized to support the Bank's best practices, rather than forcing them to change an application. "Employees could also use existing processes, which improved our sales support and training efforts," comments Gunnerson. The conversion itself was achieved over a single weekend, between close of business on Friday and opening as usual on Monday morning.
Prior to implementing the solution, Sovereign ran different applications in the branch and call center. The new single solution simplifies application deployment and maintenance. It enables Bank employees to see the same view of a customer across channels, improving customer service. For example, a customer may initiate a loan via telephone or Internet and complete the process with a visit to any Sovereign branch to sign the paperwork. In fact, loans can now be approved in minutes rather than in weeks. In addition, Sovereign can more carefully target its marketing campaigns, improving cross-sell ratios and customer retention.
Customers are assured of what Gunnerson calls "the uniform Sovereign experience", however they approach the Bank. Fischer is convinced that this customer view of the Bank is thanks to the introduction of the new solution. "You hear that people are getting good service, and its because the folks in the bank are able to serve them more efficiently." Gunnerson backs this up with figures: "We are now handling 60,000 calls a day, whereas back in 1992, we could only handle 8,000 per day.
"Experience in multi-channel retail banking solutions, systems integration, and large-scale, mission critical implementations reinforced our decision to choose Unisys," concludes Gunnerson. "Unisys has delivered, as they said they would – from project management through to engineering, product design, maintenance and service. They have a positive, can-do attitude. It's so important when picking a partner to get a company that listens and delivers." Fischer agrees: "The team did a tremendous job – Unisys is a strategic partner."
