The FINANCIAL — VMware, Inc., one of the global leaders in cloud infrastructure and business mobility, on November 14 announced the Bank of Georgia is deploying VMware Horizon and VMware NSX for Horizon to transform the in-branch experience of its customers.
Through the combination of VMware’s application, desktop and network virtualization solutions, the bank has introduced new customers services like its ‘Service in Five Minutes’ pledge, boosted productivity of its 3,000 branch staff, and significantly strengthened security.
The Bank of Georgia is one of the leading Georgian banks, with a third of the market share based on assets. The bank provides a broad range of retail banking, corporate banking and investment management services. Despite many banks across the world rationalising their branch footprint, the Bank of Georgia believes that face-to-face customer engagement is critical, and has therefore invested in refining the types of branches it operates and the services offered by each.
One area the bank sought to improve was the computing system used by customer-facing staff. The legacy PC solution was resulting in branch downtime, resulting in customer queues and consuming considerable resources of the IT team. The bank is working with local partner High-Tech Solutions Ltd. (HTS) to replace physical desktop PCs used by branch staff with a virtual desktop infrastructure using Horizon 7 Enterprise and Dell Wyse thin clients.
Horizon 7 has provided the bank’s staff with a digital workspace from which they can conveniently and quickly access the applications, desktops and data they need, improving their productivity and enabling them to provide a fast and professional service to customers. The IT team can now centrally manage images, back-ups and recoveries, and this has already led to a 30 percent reduction of help desk incidents. As a result, the IT team is now focused on business enablement, responding to the bank’s strategic demands. For example, the recent introduction of the bank’s ‘Service in Five Minutes’ pledge to customers relies on Horizon and was previously unfeasible.
Additionally, the Bank of Georgia has implemented VMware NSX for Horizon to provide a multi-layered and advanced security platform. IT can automate security policies that dynamically follow end users, resulting in increased security at the branches and protecting end points against attacks and data breaches.
“Banking is facing unprecedented change. With VMware, we are putting an advanced IT platform in place that allows us to redefine the customer experience and introduce exciting new services. At the same time, we are maximizing operational efficiency and effectiveness of the bank’s branches, and our IT team have streamlined IT management, reduced costs and improved security,” said Levan Jikia, Deputy CIO, Bank of Georgia.
“Thanks to the coordinated efforts of the HT Solutions team and the openness to the innovations of Bank of Georgia, the Bank decided to implement a VDI system, which allowed it to optimally manage the workplaces, thereby improving its service. The main indicator of success of the project for us is that Bank of Georgia plans to double the number of virtual desktops”, said Malkhaz Skhirtladze, CEO of HT Solutions.
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