Summit Credit Union

In early 2001, Summit Credit Union was formed out of a merger between State Capitol and Commonwealth Credit Unions. Headquartered in Madison and with 10 branches throughout Wisconsin, membership is open to anyone who lives in the state. While “the customer is the boss” is an ideal that most companies never come close to achieving, it is quite literally the truth for credit unions. It has members, not customers, and those members own the credit union.

“In the technology arena, when you have to focus on customers instead of the infrastructure, it changes how you think about things. If you do initiatives for technology reasons, you are failing.”
- Drew Lawrence, Director of Information Technology, Summit Credit Union.

Among the many projects resulting from the merger, one of management’s primary tasks was to a untangle a phone environment that included old PBXs; key systems and handsets from a variety of vendors and suppliers; an abundance of POTS and Centrex lines; a mixed voice and network topology; and a file drawer full of expensive service contracts. The priority list for the new phone system was clear: a scalable, unified phone system for all 10 branches. This system would need to offer remote management of equipment at any branch, toll-bypass capabilities, and other key cost benefits.

“At one point I had 38 different phone bills on my desk for a single month.”
- Drew Lawrence, Director of Information Technology, Summit Credit Union.

Five years prior, the credit union had a Call Center CTI (computer telephony integration) system which integrated voice, email, and Web chat. Fast-paced growth, however, had left behind both a legacy voice network and CTI system in need of restructuring and change. As an open, distributed platform, ShoreTel integrates seamlessly with legacy systems and applications, making it a great fit for Summit. The existing data infrastructure — a mixture of 64K ISDN lines and frame relay — was changed to a star-configured T1 network, and the migration to an IP-based system began in mid-2002. Other benefits include:

• Estimated savings in excess of $200,000 over the first five years due to toll-bypass, least-cost routing, and the elimination of Centrex lines and maintenance contracts.
• Each branch can have a custom auto-attendant to suit local callers and still redirect calls back to the central call center to handle certain requests. Now Summit can give branch callers a local touch and still provide an enterprise call center when needed.
• Flexible mobile and remote worker options provide easy access to communications for staff who work at multiple branches and on the go.
• Bringing on new locations involves a little more than plugging in a switch and letting it go. Moves, adds, and changes take minutes — not days — and can be made from anywhere on ShoreTel Director’s browser-based interface.
• The 12-person IT department is one of the heaviest users of ShoreTel’s built-in three-way conferencing. The auto-attendant they are implementing for the IT help desk will direct members to the staff with the appropriate skills. 

“We in the IT department view Summit’s staff as our internal customers, and we use ShoreTel’s capabilities to also help better serve the members — our external customers. Making sure ShoreTel met our customers needs first and foremost was essential, and we’re thrilled with the results and how we’ve been able to make that happen."
- Drew Lawrence, Director of Information Technology, Summit Credit Union.