Costa Rica National Bank Selects Cisco Borderless Network Architecture

Aim Is to Improve Customer Service, Increase Efficiency and Reduce Costs

SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica, June 14, 2011 – The Costa Rica National Bank has chosen the Cisco® Borderless Network Architecture to achieve flexibility and agility in its processes, improve productivity and reduce costs. The technology installed in each branch of the National Bank includes unified communications, Internet Protocol telephony, centralized information administration through data channels, Internet connectivity and edge protection through data centers, helping to guarantee business continuity. The 5,500 employees of the Costa Rica National Bank experience the benefits of this architecture every working day.

The technological evolution of the National Bank began with Cisco more than ten years ago. “We have gradually incorporated Cisco technology. We started with routers and switches in our headquarters office, and then the system expanded to the rest of the branches” said Robert Valerio, chief of infrastructure of the IT Architecture Direction of the National Bank.

“Since our first implementation about 10 years ago, Cisco has allowed the National Bank to improve our responses to customers, increase productivity and reduce operating costs,” said Valerio.

“We trust Cisco. It is a company with a robust, stable platform, and it offers an excellent technical support. “In addition, the Cisco’s channel service is very reliable,” he added.

Benefits

Cisco Borderless Network Architecture gave the bank the ability to speed processes, improve productivity and generate significant cost reductions. For example, according to Valerio training at the bank has clearly benefited from the virtual meeting process that was implemented more than one year ago. “Previously the National Bank had to invest a significant amount of money in training staff, who had to travel from various regions. Nowadays, most of the training is made via teleconference, allowing us to save money and time,” he noted.

Cisco technology has also benefited users as the bank has carried out chat and IP telephony sessions with them. “In 2010 we completed 150 customer service sessions via chat or IP telephony”, explained Valerio.

Preparing for the Future

The recent introduction in the country of Cisco’s latest Borderless Networks solution enables organizations to easily respond to the new demands of the market. “Studies estimate that in 2015 companies will generate 50 percent of sales through mobile devices and social networks, that most employees will not need an office to be efficient and productive, and that video will constitute the 91 percent of the global network traffic. All of these developments give us an idea of what new business scenarios will be like,” said Luis Garzón,Borderless Networks Sales Business Development, Cisco, for Central America, north of South America and the Caribbean (CANSAC).

The National Bank is preparing its own new business scenarios. Currently, approximately 250 executives of business development are fully equipped with Cisco technology, enabling each one to visit customers’ offices and show them how to access the services of the bank in an agile and highly secure way from their customer laptops.

In addition, the bank is developing an innovative project, called Virtual Expert, based fully on Cisco technology. Customers will use the Virtual Expert technology when they vist a branch and use a meeting room to contact, through a 42-inch screen, an expert at the bank’s headquarters.  “The Virtual Expert project is currently on a pilot plan at the branch at Escazú,” said Valerio, adding that the project is expected to expand to the other premier branches beginning in August.

Highlights

How does the Cisco Borderless Network Architecture help?

With the new requirements of business environments, including mobility, security and demands on the network to support contents like video, having a robust architecture is essential. These are some of the latest Borderless Networks technologies:

• Cisco Identity Services Engine.The centralized policy engine for the Cisco TrustSec® solution, Cisco ISEenables organizations to efficiently define and manage security policies across the organization.
• Cisco Prime™ for Enterprise.   This solution enables IT departments to more effectively manage their networks and network services. Cisco Prime for Enterprise is built on a service-centric foundation and a set of common operational attributes. It delivers an intuitive workflow-oriented user experience across Cisco architectures, technologies and networks to simplify network management, improve operational efficiency, speed troubleshooting, and increase network services predictability.
• Medianet technologies and video conferencing.Cisco solutions optimize video delivery by embedding media and network intelligence into endpoints and network elements. Using medianet capabilities enables organizations to reduce costs, save time, and make better decisions for network and video application planning.
• Cisco ISR G2 integrated video conferencing.The Cisco Integrated Services Router Generation 2 platform optimizes the quality of ad hoc video communications for branch offices, reducing wide-area network traffic for local branch office video applications.
• Medianet Readiness Assessment Service. This Cisco service assesses a customer’s network infrastructure and its ability to successfully support rich media.

About  National Bank

The Costa Rica National Bank was founded in October 1914. Nowadays it has a wide network of more than 180 offices, more than 428 ATMs in the Nation and about 5,000 employees. It is the largest banking institution of the country, with an asset volume of US$6.661 million positioning it in the first place in Costa Rica and Central America (Panama excluded), the Caribbean and Dominican Republic.

About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO, news, filings) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to newsroom.cisco.com/latam

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