According to a USAToday article, the number of routine transactions conducted atcommunity bank and credit union branches has gone down 10% annuallyover the past four years. Conversely, mobile traffic isskyrocketing with 50,000 customers downloading banks'/creditunions' mobile apps each week and executing anywhere from 250 to300 million online banking logins each month.

Customers are sending a message that they want to do businessdifferently than in the past. They demand the speed and convenienceof banking remotely without sacrificing security.

This behavior correlates with the continuing adoption of videocommunications. A recent survey by Polycom found thatdecision-makers worldwide view video conferencing as the essentialteam collaboration tool. Of more than 1,200 decision-makerssurveyed in 12 countries, 96% agreed that video conferencingremoves distance barriers to improve productivity amonggeographically scattered teams. The respondents noted that, inaddition to promoting collaboration across borders, videoconferencing with built-in file sharing and collaboration toolsalso allowed clearer communication and more efficient meetings.

Most companies have frequent opportunities to experience thebenefits of video, with 56% of the respondents to the Polycomsurvey participating in video calls at least once a week. More thanhalf (52%) of those surveyed expect video to become their topcommunication preference within three years.

To see the correlation between these two trends, one only needsto look at a major IT overhaul that Bank of America went throughlast year. As a direct response to customers' feedback, theindustry giant implemented video services throughout theorganization to give customers access to investment, smallbusiness, and mortgage subject matter experts (SMEs) viateleconference stations at its retail locations. Not only doesvideo conferencing reduce client wait times and the need toschedule appointments at a later time, there are benefits for thebank, too. For example, the bank nowhas the ability to share SMEresources with other branches, saving on labor resources and costs,while fulfilling a broader set of clients' business needs.

SaaS, Managed Video Communications Offer Winning Combofor Credit Unions

Some credit unions who have been less than successful withsimilar investments to the Bank of America example might poseobjections to why they believe video isn't a fit for theirbusiness, such as:

1. Video conferencing equipment can come at a high price tag,which is cost-prohibitive for smaller financial institutions.
2. It's not secure enough. Securing video communicationconversations without compromising voice and video quality isbeyond the capabilities of the average IT person.
3. In today's BYOD (bring your own device) work environments,credit unions have the added challenge of connecting a myriad ofdifferent devices, which can only support a limited number of videocommunication applications and codecs.

SaaS and cloud-based videoconferencing combined with managedvideo services is a winning combo that overcomes these challengesand puts credit unions on par with much larger competitors. Videomanaged service providers offer an alternative to CapEx investmentsin infrastructure and break-fix maintenance costs by handlingeverything from system planning and deployment to monitoring andpreventative maintenance.

In addition to paying a manageable monthly subscription fee,credit unions no longer have to worry about equipment brands,codecs, and version control — the entire experience is managed forthem.

As a result, technology works the way it's supposed to andcredit union executives and customer service reps can work smarterand collaborate more effectively with other branches. Even moreimportantly, credit unions can provide better and more personalizedservice at the same time.

Joe Arena is SVP of Advanced Services for Yorktel, a global cloud,UC&C and video managed services provider. He can be reachedat [email protected] or 267-337-5676.