HP rolls out virtual banking with Avaya’s Web.alive

Press Release: HP and Avaya Address Banks’ Need to Place Customers at the Center of Service Innovation
Virtual Branch and Contact Centers Increase Effectiveness with Enhanced Channel and New Assisted Self-Service Technology

NEW YORK — Building on HP’s Unified Communications and Collaboration Services portfolio for the enterprise, HP and Avaya today announced a strategic offering that provides banks with a customer-centric, humanizing element for assisted self-service.

To regain customer loyalty and trust in today’s post financial crisis era, the customer must feel personally connected to their bank. In fact, analysis from Bain & Company[i] found that banks that are loyalty leaders enjoy a growth rate that is 10 percent higher and a cost of funds that is 80 basis points lower than banks that are price leaders. HP and Avaya are helping banks map a path to unified communications that enhances customer loyalty by placing the customer at the center of all transactions.

While anytime, anywhere banking provides new opportunities for bank revenue growth, the current state of online banking and call center interaction can also leave the customer dissatisfied with the lack of human interaction.

Customer meeting with bank officials in HP's Virtual Bank.

A convergence of multi-channel delivery with communications (voice, digital, SIP) and collaboration (UCC, chat, voice and video) will become necessary to be competitive and customer-centric. Managing this hybrid environment requires a new approach to technology and innovation.

HP offers a full range of solutions to drive the customer-centric banking channel, including a complete networking portfolio, consulting and services deployment, application transformation and extensive multi-channel expertise.

Innovations from HP and Avaya for the financial services industry, a continuation of a partnership announced in June 2010, include the ability to incorporate the latest unified communications and contact center solutions by developing a holistic channels strategy.

HP brings to the partnership extensive experience and reach with all of the banks’ related channels and touchpoint devices, as well as design, consulting, integration, networking, document management and delivery. HP’s advanced expertise in channel integration and modelling sets the stage for a holistic channels plan, set on a foundation of HP’s expandable Converged Infrastructure.

Avaya’s leading communications products and services are tapped to provide a seamless and secure integration model. Starting with a base of Avaya Aura® — a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based unified communications architecture for multi-modal communications — and Avaya Aura Contact Center, banks can integrate disparate communications systems and enable true multi-channel integration. This may include the use of Avaya Web.alive, which enables customer interaction through virtual branches assisted by a live-voice avatar.

Unlike traditional avatars with a text-to-speech or simple text interaction, this innovative avatar simulation for banking brings personalized, human interaction to the self-service channel. Bank staff and customers connect in real time, presenting an engaging virtual experience. Collaborative voice-video sessions can be used to walk customers through complex requests. Such interactivity appeals to today’s “always on” customer, while helping banks address staffing issues and the need for greater efficiencies in a world beyond phone-based customer service. With an integrated strategy, banks can maximize email, video, text and even social media channels.

HP helps businesses and governments in their pursuit of an Instant-On Enterprise. In a world of continuous connectivity, the Instant-On Enterprise embeds technology in everything it does to serve customers, employees, partners, and citizens with whatever they need, instantly.

About HP

HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses, governments and society. The world’s largest technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure to solve client problems. More information about HP is available at http://www.hp.com.

About Avaya

Avaya is a global leader in business communications and collaboration, providing unified communications, contact centers, data solutions and related services to companies of all sizes around the world. For more information please visit www.avaya.com.