CenturyLink > Case Studies > First Southwest Bank Lays Foundation for Growth with CenturyLink

First Southwest Bank Lays Foundation for Growth with CenturyLink

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Customer Company Size
Mid-size Company
Region
  • America
Country
  • United States
Product
  • CenturyLink IQ MPLS Network Solution
Tech Stack
  • MPLS Network
  • CenturyLink Control Center
Implementation Scale
  • Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
  • Productivity Improvements
  • Customer Satisfaction
  • Employee Satisfaction
Technology Category
  • Networks & Connectivity - Network Management & Analysis Software
Applicable Functions
  • Business Operation
Use Cases
  • Remote Asset Management
  • Cybersecurity
Services
  • System Integration
About The Customer
First Southwest Bank is a $250 million bank with 7 branches stretched across 300 miles in southern Colorado. The bank's branches are located in diverse landscapes, from high desert to valleys to the southernmost peaks of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Some of the bank’s branches are in remote areas as the bank specializes in agriculture loans to farms and ranches along with small businesses. The bank has been growing and is open to further growth by acquiring other branches or institutions.
The Challenge
First Southwest Bank, a regional Colorado bank, was facing a challenge with its existing network. The bank's network was unable to keep up with their business growth, leading to constraints and impeding employees' ability to complete transactions. The network latency among a patchwork of various providers had already impacted customer service and the bank was prepared to expand its reach. The network performance also constrained the development of new programs for loans or online banking tools. The bank's own IT operation was affected by the poor network performance. The failover site for disaster recovery was located closer to the main data center site than they wanted, posing a risk in case of a natural disaster.
The Solution
First Southwest Bank worked with CenturyLink to implement CenturyLink IQ MPLS Network Solution among its branches and headquarters in Alamosa. The CenturyLink solution had the bandwidth and coverage to replace the multiple vendors the bank used previously. MPLS provides the bandwidth for diverse networking needs. It establishes a secure Virtual Private Network for both voice and data transmission. CenturyLink IQ also makes it easy to add circuits to accommodate the bank’s future growth. The bank also benefited from the fact that CenturyLink’s network infrastructure covered the bank’s entire region with fiber connections boosting available bandwidth considerably – even for the rural branches. The MPLS upgraded network speeds from 1.5Mbps to 10Mbps. The bank can increase its bandwidth needs as they need to because the MPLS solution is scalable.
Operational Impact
  • Teller transaction times were cut in half.
  • All the branches experienced faster service that eliminated the inefficiencies and delays the remote branches had come to expect.
  • Employee and customer satisfaction improved.
  • The new network provided enough bandwidth to consolidate voice and data onto a single platform.
  • Better network performance has also allowed the bank to address its disaster recovery plans.
Quantitative Benefit
  • The MPLS upgraded network speeds from 1.5Mbps to 10Mbps.
  • A task that normally took someone all day took her an hour.
  • A task that normally takes four hours took about 15 minutes.

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