The future of banking? I’m ready.

By Oswald Mair

Our community bank has been around since 1892. We’ve seen a lot of changes since then, and the reason we’ve been able to keep providing great service to our customers through those changes is because we stay one step ahead with technology. We’ve always been future-ready, even when the future meant the motor car, the internet or the euro.

But the fact remains that we’re a small bank, and our resources are limited. The six guys on our IT team are dedicated to developing the internal systems that help our business run better. Any time they spend on every day break-fix tasks is time that could be better spent working on the competitive services that make a real difference for customers. This is not to mention other challenges we face, such as hardware becoming end-of-life, or external factors like new banking regulations.

Turning a problem into an opportunity

Last year all these issues came together in a perfect storm. We turned it into a great opportunity to refresh our IT, which would allow us to be compliant with the new Solvency II regulations from the European Central Bank. Plus we figured we could make our IT more efficient and easy to manage at the same time.

We worked with our long-term Dell partner 4ward to deploy a Dell PowerEdge VRTX converged platform powered by Intel Xeon processors, which replaced six physical servers with a single unit. It was really simple to install and is much easier for our small team to manage, meaning they can concentrate on projects that deliver direct value to the bank. Meanwhile, we were able to meet compliance regulations, so we have a more secure data center.

We also have more flexibility now. We know that banking regulations will change again, and we’re ready for that. We know our customers’ needs will evolve, too, and we know that we’ll be able to adapt our IT to accommodate. With partners like Dell and 4ward behind us, we can stay future-ready, just like we’ve been for over 100 years.

To read more about our story, please click here.

About the Author: Power More