Banca Popolare di Milano has completed a project to provide branch tellers nationwide with consolidated customer information from multiple channels via a Web-based application interface to a unified Linux platform.
The bank used integration technology from Jacada to act as the primary link between legacy mainframe applications and the IBM WebSphere e-commerce application that acts as the main interface for employees at over 700 bank branches.
The new system provides bank employees with a single, comprehensive view of customer account information, while simultaneously lowering operational costs and reducing the complexity of the underlying information technology.
"Our main goal was to integrate all of our channels so we could have a single view of our customers," says Clive Whincup, CIO at BPM. "Channel integration gives us a competitive advantage because we can be more reactive to business demands and cut the cost of implementing and maintaining the system."
About 70% of the bank's branches are based in Northern Italy, with the rest located around Rome and Southern Italy.
Going forward, BPM expects to be able to offer new services - such as support for financial advisors - with minimum investment and a streamlined approach to managing and distributing upgrades to bank branches.
"By moving from client/server to the Web, we do not have expensive software distribution costs to the branch, and implementation is much easier," explains Whincup.