CLEVELAND, Nov. 12, 1998 — Microsoft today announced that Ohio Savings Bank, a $5.5 billion bank with 45 branches in Ohio and Florida, will be
“going live” this week with a new computer infrastructure based on the Microsoft® Windows® Distributed interNet Application architecture for Financial Services (Windows DNAfs) framework.
Announced in December 1997 by Microsoft Corp. Chairman and CEO Bill Gates, Windows DNAfs enables banking software applications to exchange information with each other and across disparate computer systems, thereby allowing banks to better integrate multiple delivery channels, such as ATMs, call centers or Internet banking networks.
“Ohio Savings Bank has essentially built a ‘digital nervous system’ that will allow it to be the first in its class to combine good old-fashioned customer service and streamlined operations with innovative, cutting-edge technology,”
said Mike Dusche, worldwide banking industry manager at Microsoft.
“It’s Ohio Savings Bank that has the technological vision, but it’s their customers who will reap the real benefits.”
The Windows DNAfs framework means that Ohio Savings Bank employees will have real-time access to customer information from a variety of delivery channels.
“Our computer architecture will be based on components in the middle tier of an n-tier architecture, meaning it will be relatively easy to reproduce the same information across all our delivery channels,”
said Peter Goldberg, vice president at Ohio Savings Bank.
“A customer who performs a telephone banking transaction and then reviews his or her account history via our Internet site or in one of our branches will see that transaction already performed. This will basically redesign everything we do on the customer servicing side of our computers, but still allow us to link back to our existing mainframe applications. Microsoft makes it easy by providing the right building blocks at the right price. This has enabled us to build a world-class computer infrastructure that gives our employees state-of-the-art tools with which to deliver an even higher level of personalized service.”
The first phase of implementation will include a rollout to Ohio Savings’ Telephone Banking Center and strategically selected back-end operation areas. Using 250 seats of the Windows NT® Server and Windows NT Workstation operating system, Ohio Savings’ employees will now have access to all customer data in the new
“Total Relationship System”
(TRS).
“The Total Relationship System will allow for screen pops; profitability analysis; online, real-time transactions; and contact management information. A browser-based user-help system tells a personal banking specialist exactly how to better service a customer, for example, in looking up products or rates, or how to efficiently execute a stop payment,”
Goldberg said.
“And TRS is based entirely on Windows, so the learning curve for our people on the new operating environment is really short.”
After the Telephone Banking Center rollout, the bank will deploy TRS to its retail branch offices and the remaining back-end areas. Ohio Savings Bank has worked for several months
with Microsoft Consulting Services to build its computer infrastructure and will be implementing numerous Microsoft products, including Windows NT Server, Windows NT Workstation and Microsoft Transaction Server to manage traffic on its system, as well as the Microsoft Exchange e-mail server and the Microsoft Outlook® messaging and collaboration client for employee
e-mail communications.
“Ohio Savings Bank’s aggressive use of technology will not only allow it to go toe to toe with the nation’s largest financial institutions, but will also attract and retain the best and brightest IS employees,”
Dusche said.
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“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.
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