In 2005, Evans National Bank celebrates its 85th year of serving the suburban Buffalo, New York marketplace. The Bank's principal offerings are personal and business deposit services: online banking with bill paying service; consumer installment loans; residential and commercial real estate lending, lines of credit, and merchant credit card services. Ten branches serve Erie and Chautauqua counties. In addition, a network of over 300 ATMs statewide provides customers convenient access to funds. The Bank was recently the honored recipient of the 2004 Torch Award from the Better Business Bureau of Upstate New York and Western Pennsylvania in recognition of the Bank's exceptional service and commitment to ethical business practices.

4 Locations (6 future)
+ 110 users

Value Proposition:

ENB has a commitment to customer service. Voice over IP allows their staff to quickly service a customer by seamlessly connecting them to the right resource no matter where they may be geographically located.

VoIP allows ENB to control staffing costs while providing better overall service to their customers. In this highly competitive market, servicing clients means quickly accessing a client’s information and connecting them to a subject matter expert that can get them information immediately. Deployment of VoIP allows, for example, a customer to call into a local branch and be directed to a loan officer they may have met with at that branch the previous day; although that officer might be working at a different branch the next day. Operators are now centralized at one location further reducing staffing costs. Operators know what branch the client was calling into and are able to direct the calls directly to the personnel at that local branch. Along with “soft” dollars that are saved through gains in productivity ENB, sees real bottom line savings in the ability to right staff at all of their branch locations. For the first time, ENB is able to calculate a Return on Investment against its telecommunications infrastructure.


Testimonial:

It was moving day at Evans National Bank and the clock was ticking. Down time was not an option.

The small banks single massive check sorter had to be moved swiftly from Evans to the new headquarters in Hamburg. It had to be immediately operational at the new location.

“Before we loaded the check sorter onto the moving truck we had to be sure that everything at the new location was up and running or we wouldn‘t have been able to get our work done for that day,” said Howard Martin, the bank’s vice president and head of technology.

A secondary challenge on moving day was the bank’s conversion to a new computer based phone system. Just prior to the move, Howard Martin had contracted with the PremCom Corporation to install a ShoreTel phone system in the new headquarters.

Moving day would require the phone system to be fully operational as well. In a perfect world, the bank’s ten branch customer base would not be inconvenienced by a freeze in service.

“The telephone system had to be able to accommodate all the users on the fly. Literally, as the staff strolled into the new building with their moving boxes we were configuring their phones and their call handling and routing,” Martin said. “The ShoreTel system made it easy to do.”

Howard, who was overseeing the entire move, recalled how the PremCom team worked at his side throughout the moving process.

“In the days prior to the move the PremCom crew was there as much or more than we were,” Martin said.

“They promised us the phones would be operational on moving day, and they delivered on their promise. On moving day we opened on time with sorter fully functional and with fancy new servers and phone equipment.”

“The move was seamless and everybody thought that I was the hero. So, I took all the credit,” he laughed, “but it would have been impossible without PremCom.”

In the twelve months since the move into new headquarters, Evans National Bank has acquired a leasing company. PremCom and the ShoreTel phone system proved their value in that transaction as well.

“We didn’t have to block out a week of time and have three meetings on how to handle the phones,” Martin said. “Eleven new users walked into the door and we were able to accommodate them immediately.”