Download.microsoft.com



For more information about other Microsoft customer successes, please visit: casestudiesCustomer: Desert Schools Federal Credit UnionWebsite: Customer Size: 1,200 employeesCountry or Region: United StatesIndustry: Financial servicesPartner: FiservPartner website: Customer ProfileDesert Schools Federal Credit Union, based in Phoenix, Arizona, hasU.S.$3 billion in assets, 360,000 members, and more than 50 branch offices.Software and ServicesMicrosoft Server Product PortfolioMicrosoft SQL Server 2008 EnterpriseWindows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise TechnologiesMicrosoft .NET Framework 3.5Microsoft Customer SolutionFinancial Services Industry Case Study00Credit Union Stays Competitive with Better, Faster CRM Solution for Member Service “With Fiserv and Microsoft technology in the call center, we’re ensuring that our member service remains a competitive advantage. Lowering the cost of that service is a bonus.” Jim Lavery, Vice President of Contact Center Operations, Desert Schools Federal Credit UnionDesert Schools Federal Credit Union is one of the largest credit unions in the United States. To maintain that position, it must continue to provide member service that delivers competitive advantage. That’s why it adopted a call center solution from Fiserv based on Microsoft technology. Now agents handle members’ calls faster and more effectively; agent training focuses on service, not systems; and business agility is up, too.Business NeedsFew things flourish in the desert, which makes Desert Schools Federal Credit Union a notable exception. Desert Schools, based in Phoenix, Arizona, is the largest credit union in the state, with U.S.$3 billion in assets, 360,000 members, and more than 50 branches throughout “the valley of the sun.” To continue to grow in a highly competitive market, Desert Schools needs the flexibility to respond quickly to members’ needs with new financial products and services. It needs fast, friendly member service. A highly effective customer relationship management (CRM) solution in the call center can go far toward meeting these needs.But Desert Schools was succeeding in spite of, not because of, its call center CRM system. That system was built on now-aging technology to serve what was then a smaller Desert Schools. The shortcomings were showing. For example, to work with the system while assisting customers, call center agents had to keep up to seven windows open on their displays at any one time, and switch among them. They had to memorize seemingly random keystroke combinations and acronyms that weren’t always intelligible. The quality of member service was high, but agents worked hard behind the scenes to make it so.The technical limitations of the system influenced the syllabus for training new agents. Those agents had to focus on learning the call center CRM system, when their time would have been better spent focusing on member service and products.Because the legacy system was relatively inflexible, it inhibited management’s ability to quickly add new products. Changes in procedures could take weeks to work their way into the system, and collaboration with other departments was difficult, too. SolutionWhen it came time to address its call center needs, Desert Schools Federal Credit Union had a head start. It had already adopted the Signature? banking platform from Fiserv, a global provider of information management and e-commerce systems for the financial services industry. With Desert Schools using Signature for its core account processing, the credit union again turned to Fiserv, this time for a call center CRM solution.That solution is Aperio? from Fiserv. With Aperio, call center agents work from a sin-gle, point-and-click screen that consolidates the information that they need to assist credit union members. The solution is based on Microsoft technology that already served as the foundation for the Desert Schools infrastructure, including Microsoft SQL Server 2008 data management software, the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system, and the Windows user interface. That made it simple to train on, and use, the system. “It was very important to us that Aperio was a Microsoft-based CRM solution that fit with our architecture,” says Jim Lavery, Vice President of Contact Center Operations at Desert Schools. “It meant we could increase the return on investment in our Microsoft knowledge and systems.”The solution integrated easily with the credit union’s Fiserv infrastructure. Desert Schools relied on that integration, as well as on the solution’s flexibility and easy-to-use management features, to include information on new products and product updates, and to ensure compliance with policies and procedures. During the deployment process, Fiserv helped the credit union create workflows in Aperio. The workflows mirrored the business processes that call center management wanted to adopt internally, and ensured process consistency between the call center and other departments.BenefitsDesert Schools Federal Credit Union uses its call center CRM solution Aperio from Fiserv, based on Microsoft technologies, to enhance member service, agent training, and credit union agility.Better Member Service Cuts Time-to-Resolution by Seven PercentDesert Schools wanted to enhance its already-high level of member service. It has. As a result, calls are handled more efficiently, with the average time-to-resolution cut by seven percent. Calls are more effective, too, because agents now focus on the member’s needs and the credit union’s products and services to meet them, rather than on managing an often-abstruse series of computer screens. That gives the agents more time to respond to member inquiries and explain, for example, how a product can benefit a particular member.The credit union uses Aperio workflows to route tasks arising from a member’s call—such as retrieving and mailing documents, or ordering checks—from the agent to a lower-cost “off-phone group.” Agents can complete more calls and spend less time on the follow-up.“With Fiserv and Microsoft technology in the call center, we’re ensuring that our member service remains a competitive advantage,” says Lavery. ”Lowering the cost of that service is a bonus.”Speedier System Training Improves ProductivityDuring their training, call center agents now focus largely on the credit union’s products and services, rather than on its computer system. Because Aperio is simpler and more intuitive, the time needed to learn it is reduced by more than 50 percent, and the time saved is invested in more extensive product training. The time that it takes for a new agent to become fully productive is similarly cut, from several weeks to just two.Greater Agility Supports Faster Updates, Broader CoordinationBecause Desert Schools uses Aperio to update agents on new products, services, and procedures, agents can put that infor-mation to use more quickly to help mem-bers. Lavery envisions expanding the solu-tion’s reach to better coordinate the call center’s member service with the credit union’s other back-office departments.“Now, we can manage change as it happens, rather than in weeks, and bring more of our resources to bear more effectively on behalf of our members,” says Lavery. “That validates our decision to base our systems on Microsoft.” ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download