With 65 branches in North Carolina and Virginia, the bank was seeking a best-in-class mobile experience for its customer base, including those in rural and low-to-moderate income areas that might have a more difficult time getting to a branch. The bank also wanted to ensure that customers would have a seamless experience between online and mobile bill pay. Malauzai worked with the bank’s bill pay provider, FIS (formerly Metavante), to create an integration that enables account holders to access existing online banking bill pay details via the mobile device. This integration eliminates the need for customers to go through the tedious payee setup process in order to make bill payments via the mobile channel. Southern Bank also implemented PicturePay, developed by Allied Payment Network, which allows users to pay bills via their smartphone camera.

“It was important to us that account holders be able to leverage the payment channel of their choice,” said Sondra McCorquodale, SVP alternate delivery with Southern Bank. “Of the mobile banking vendors we reviewed, Malauzai offered the most advanced features and the best flexibility. This was even more evident as they worked closely with our bill pay provider to create a great user experience for our customers, and could bring PicturePay to the table as well. It was refreshing to work with a vendor that never said ‘no,’ but instead talked through our specific needs and requests until we came to a solution.”

The bank plans to start an extensive marketing campaign in early November to introduce the new mobile SmartApp to its current account holders, as well as the community. Southern Bank has also created a television ad campaign to promote itself as the only bank in the area offering PicturePay.

“Southern Bank has set an aggressive adoption goal of 25 percent of current online banking users leveraging the mobile channel within 12 months. We have no doubt they will hit that mark,” said Robb Gaynor, chief product officer at Malauzai. “This is the perfect example of a community bank taking advantage of the advanced features available in the market to out-innovate the big banks in its area. Southern Bank’s smart and strategic approach to mobile banking will ensure the success of its new program.”