Customer Profile
Established in 1988, Resource Bank -- a Virginia chartered regional commercial bank headquartered in Virginia Beach -- has eight branches throughout Virginia, including offices in Chesapeake, Herndon, Newport News, and Richmond. With total assets exceeding $867 million, the financial services organization offers the strength of a regional bank with the personal focus of a local bank.

Resource Bank’s traditional banking services include personal and commercial checking and savings accounts, certificates of deposit, money market accounts, cash management and sweep account services and a full range of consumer and commercial loan products.

An integral part of the bank’s customer service goal is “taking pride in providing personal, friendly service and developing banking relationships with our customers.”

Resource is a Preferred Lender for small businesses in both the Richmond and Washington, D.C. Small Business Administration (SBA) districts, and has been named the Top Lender – Community Bank four years in a row by the Richmond district.

In addition, Resource Mortgage, a division of Resource Bank, offers a wide variety of mortgage loan products. and has lenders on hand in Hampton Roads, Richmond, Northern Virginia, Maryland and Jacksonville and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

Telephony Challenge
Resource Bank had an aging phone system that simply couldn’t keep pace with the bank’s growth and its desire to support initiatives to improve customer service. The old system was installed in 1988, had been upgraded as far as possible, but still lacked key capabilities the bank required. Resource was looking for more than an upgrade: IT managers looked toward a communications system fueled by VoIP that would accommodate communication among multiple sites.

“We were growing and wanted all our locations to be able to dial any extensions in any branch, avoid long distance and to do all that using our current network,” said Billie Daugherty, Telecommunications Manager at Resource Bank. “We weren’t sure how things would be in several years but knew they would be different, and we wanted each branch entity to be able to have its own main number…. And a system that accounted for expansion and consolidation.”

At the same time, Resource wanted to keep an eye on the bottom line, which meant a thorough search for the most comprehensive telephone system at the best possible price. IT managers at first considered a phone system made by the same manufacturer as the bank’s network routers and switches. However, when the managers discovered the bank would need to add additionally complexity and make a significant investment in the network infrastructure before installing the phone system, they pursued other options.

AltiGen Solution
Resource then considered three networking vendors, including AltiGen Communications. In the end, Resource opted for AltiGen’s AltiServ™ advanced business telephone system, which included the key features the bank required: support for VoIP, advanced call routing with seamless dial and transfer, call detail reporting and monitoring, and the ability to have caller ID information follow customers when they are transferred. AltiGen proved to be between 15 and 20 percent less expensive than the other two contenders.

Two other key factors spurred Resource to select AltiGen. First, a technology overhaul to install an AltiGen system was unnecessary, as the technology could be implemented over the bank’s existing network infrastructure. Secondly, the bank elected to go with a hybrid IP/analog approach – this was provided a significant savings to the bank and was something the other vendors could not accommodate easily. AltiGen systems support both IP and traditional telephone phone lines and extensions, which meant that in the event of network problems, the bank customers would still have access Resource Bank employees and service.

Benefits, Feedback and Results
With help from AltiGen partner TCI, the new communications system debuted in late 2002 at the Chesapeake branch. By early 2005, all eight locations were reaping the benefits of VoIP-powered communications.

Today, the eight locations are connected via VoIP for a common extension plan. A customer can dial any branch location and be instantly connected with the appropriate person at any other location. Customers get the help they need more quickly, and are never told to hang up and dial a different number.

Another AltiGen benefit for bank customers is the banks new automatic call distribution capabilities. This ensures the right customer is connected with the right specialist to answer specific questions. This is especially relevant for the Real Estate Services Group, which constantly receives a high volume of calls. With improved call routing and distribution the bank can place all qualified real estate employees in a specific call group, so customers get a live answer by a knowledgeable employee every time. Busy signals are a thing of the past as the intelligent routing can look at the availability of employees throughout the bank and then distribute calls to the available employee among the group.

AltiServ also offers Resource significant operational benefits with its comprehensive call detail reporting (CDR) and conversation record-on-demand features. With call detail reporting, employee phone activity is tracked to ensure optimal productivity. Record-on-demand, meanwhile, allows employees to record appropriate conversations with business associates into their voice mail boxes for legal purposes. The bank’s mortgage division, for example, often interacts with outside brokers. After a call, a recording can be pulled from voicemail emailed to the broker (as a common WAV file) as back-up of exactly what terms were agreed to. Beyond the on-demand call recording, AltiGen offers centralized call recording functionality that can also support liability and fraud protection programs. With record-on-demand, for example, the bank once recorded and archived a threatening phone call that was subsequently able to be investigated by police.

AltiGen’s AltiConsole operator console, a feature-rich PC interface that allows the operator to manage up to 50 simultaneous calls, has significantly improved how general incoming customer calls are handled. Resource Bank attendants and employees can view extensions and transfer calls among all eight branches seamlessly. And with AltiGen’s AltiView, which brings visual call management to every employee, bank employees can see exactly who is calling, juggle multiple calls if needed, and use point-and-click dialing, call forwarding, and call transfer, as well as visual voicemail management from their PC desktop.

The AltiGen system is flexible and easy to maintain. Resource’s technical staff is able to manage all the moves, adds, and changes, eliminating the need to call expensive hourly consultants. With 350 extensions spread across eight locations, and a company that is growing and changing, this has reduced costs significantly. For example, during the installation of the new phone system, Resource was also making location-related changes. The bank had divided into three distinct groups – loan servicing, corporate, and mortgage origination – and the three units were all moved into one new building.

Thanks to AltiServ, the three separate phone systems were unified to operate as a single system, and throughout the transition, the phones remained live and the bank maintained its excellent level of customer service. Thanks to the ability to self-administer the communications system, AltiServ has delivered serious quantitative return on investment (ROI) for Resource, cutting the bank’s annual service costs by 50 percent.

The new VoIP-fueled communications system is keeping Resource Bank dialed into both customer and employee needs. As the bank continues its growth trajectory, managers are confident the communications system will be an integral part of maintaining high service levels across the board.

Authorized AltiGen Partner Information
Teltek Communications, Inc. (TCI) was formed in 1983 by President/Owner Ken Shewbridge and has grown become Tidewater's largest independent business telephone company. Today, in addition to Resource Bank TCI supports thousands of customers large and small in all aspects of their communication needs throughout the southeast Virginia region.