Financial Industry turns to Videoconferencing
by Joan Heberger
In this high-tech telecommunications age, the decision-makers in the banking and financial service industry have been turning to state-of-the-art video conferencing to help take them to the next level.
Orange-based BYL Bank Group, for example, manages loans and mortgages and
provides small business services in Orange and Riverside counties, and has
grown dramatically over the past two years. To ease the growing pains
encountered during the acquisition of three other companies, BYL adopted
video-conferencing as a way to train new employees, conduct effective
internal meetings, and create links between 350 people working in
multiple branches.
BYL investigated videoconferencing about 18 months before they found a
solution in Polycom’s ViewStation 512, which operates using ISDN lines.
The research was initiated because loan committees of about 25 people
were losing most of a work-day to drive to and from meetings that lasted
only a few hours.
“When a loan officer presents an application to the committee, he
lobbies for his client. It is a very human transaction, and you want to
see the whites of their eyes,” said Roger Garvin, BYL network
administrator. “We would have paid almost any price if videoconferencing
had accomplished what we needed. But the video quality was not good
enough, and the units were big and cumbersome,” Garvin said.
In September 1998, Garvin saw a demonstration of Polycom’s ViewStation
solution at EIS Systems, Inc. of Anaheim, and consequently, BYL
purchased three systems. EIS provided the video-conferencing equipment,
installation, upgrades, and training, and helped arrange for the ISDN
installation the equipment requires.
According to Garvin, “Finally, somebody figured out what conferencing
needs to be. Polycom knew that three ISDN lines are needed to transmit
business-level communications.” ViewStation’s tracking camera and
high-quality audio help recreate the natural feeling of a face-to-face
meeting.
Polycom designed the ViewStation to function like a Nintendo game in
order to make it as intuitive as possible.
“We felt Polycom truly understands what the end-user needs. Anybody who
can handle a remote control or a Gameboy can use a Polycom
videoconferencing system. Most of our users can figure out how to use
the product without help from the IS department,” Garvin said.
Now BYL’s organizational teams use videoconferencing weekly to train
staff and keep policies consistent between all branches. The operations
staff are saving lots of time previously spent traveling. BYL also
uses Polycom’s ViewStation MP, which allows all three branches with
systems to participate on one videoconference.
Without a multipoint video-conferencing system, users need to pay an
outside bridging service to conduct multipoint calls. “Our upgrade to MP
paid for itself during an all-day meeting we held recently,” Garvin
said.
“Our videoconferencing implementation has been an easy transition
because of EIS’s exceptional on-site support and training,” said Garvin.
“BYL Bank Group is a very progressive banking organization, and we were
honored to be their vendor of choice,” said Dan Dawson, president of EIS
Systems, Inc. “We were confident that Polycom’s ViewStation would be the
best solution.”
For more information on videoconferencing, contact Dan Dawson of EIS Systems, Inc., (888) 344-4347.
