NEW YORK, April 15, 2011— Building on HP’s Unified Communications and Collaboration Services portfolio for the enterprise, HP and Avaya today announced a strategic offering that provides banks with a customer-centric, humanizing element for assisted self-service.
To regain customer loyalty and trust in today’s post financial crisis era, the customer must feel personally connected to their bank. In fact, analysis from Bain & Company found that banks that are loyalty leaders enjoy a growth rate that is 10 percent higher and a cost of funds that is 80 basis points lower than banks that are price leaders. HP and Avaya are helping banks map a path to unified communications that enhances customer loyalty by placing the customer at the center of all transactions. While anytime, anywhere banking provides new opportunities for bank revenue growth, the current state of online banking and contact center interaction can also leave the customer dissatisfied with the lack of human interaction.
A convergence of multi-channel delivery with communications (voice, digital, SIP) and collaboration (UCC, chat, voice and video) will become necessary to be competitive and customer-centric. Managing this hybrid environment requires a new approach to technology and innovation. HP offers a full range of solutions to drive the customer-centric banking channel, including a complete networking portfolio, consulting and services deployment, application transformation and extensive multi-channel expertise. Innovations from HP and Avaya for the financial services industry, a continuation of a partnership announced in June 2010, include the ability to incorporate the latest unified communications and contact center solutions by developing a holistic channels strategy.
HP brings to the partnership extensive experience and reach with all of the banks’ related channels and touchpoint devices, as well as design, consulting, integration, networking, document management and delivery. HP’s advanced expertise in channel integration and modelling sets the stage for a holistic channels plan, set on a foundation of HP’s expandable Converged Infrastructure. Avaya’s leading communications products and services are tapped to provide a seamless and secure integration model. Starting with a base of Avaya Aura — a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based unified communications architecture for multi-modal communications — and Avaya Aura Contact Center, banks can integrate disparate communications systems and enable true multi-channel integration. This could include the use of Avaya Web.alive, which enables customer interaction through virtual branches assisted by a live-voice avatar.
Unlike traditional avatars with a text-to-speech or simple text interaction, this innovative avatar simulation for banking brings personalized, human interaction to the self-service channel. Bank staff and customers connect in real time, presenting an engaging virtual experience. Collaborative voice-video sessions can be used to walk customers through complex requests. Such interactivity appeals to today’s “always on” customer, while helping banks address staffing issues and the need for greater efficiencies in a world beyond phone-based customer service. With an integrated strategy, banks can maximize email, video, text and even social media channels.
HP helps businesses and governments in their pursuit of an Instant-On Enterprise. In a world of continuous connectivity, the Instant-On Enterprise embeds technology in everything it does to serve customers, employees, partners, and citizens with whatever they need, instantly.