Networking vendor Cisco says banks have a renewed branch focus to answer recent security scares around Internet banking, and that technology such as IP telephone and Web kiosks support this.
"Recent Internet banking failures, marketplace pressures, higher customer expectations, increased competition and the ongoing need to cut costs are prompting banks to refocus their efforts on the cornerstone of banking commerce - the branch," the company says.
New Internet-based services and technology built around a converged network (which can carry data, voice, and video) are "revolutionising the branch and ensuring a...future for what remains the preferred channel of consumer banking".
Paul Ruinaard, account manager for financial solutions at Cisco Systems SA, asserts that "contrary to the prevailing wisdom that the Internet would replace branch banking, the industry is experiencing a branch revival of sorts, with a twist".
Ruinaard says now that consumers are familiar with the Internet`s benefits, they have come to expect a similar menu of expanded services, products and conveniences at branch teller counters and platform desks.
While this trend is "putting pressure on SA banks to upgrade their branch technologies and integrate branch-office networks with back offices and contact centres", it also puts pressure on traditional home- or office-bound Internet banking.
Technologies such as IP telephony and Web-enabled kiosks in branches of the future have "revealed how banks are cutting costs and improving customer service with the above technologies, as well as content-delivery networks and customer-care applications", he says.
He adds that the transition will happen, from outdated client-server platforms to Internet-based, thin-client technologies.
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