Washington State Employees Credit Union

Employees at Washington State Employees Credit Union (WSECU), a member-owned cooperative, understand that when a call comes in, they’re not just talking to a member: they’re talking to the boss. WSECU remains among the top-rated financial institutions for member satisfaction, despite decades of competition, extensive regulatory changes, and growing expectations from increasingly tech-savvy members. With 19 statewide branches, WSECU receives more than 180,000 calls a month, and boasts a membership of more than 150,000 with $1.4 billion in assets.

“Our previous phone system consisted of a patchwork of independent ‘branch’ systems that were becoming unreliable, antiquated, and unable to adapt new technology,”
- Tony Hildesheim, Vice President of IT, WSECU.

The credit union needed a unified communications (UC) system that would really deliver on its initiatives to provide members remote, real-time access to transactions, and to deliver high-tech, high-touch member service. WSECU sought features and functionality to support the credit union’s mission — “to make members’ lives easier” — and to enable each call to be tracked for a consistent member experience. Additionally, WSECU wanted a solution that would allow them to leverage its existing data infrastructure and integrate it into existing CRM applications.

“To improve internal and external member services and flexibility, we required a unified system that would offer redundancy for business resumption needs, and one that could evolve into the future, as WSECU continues to grow.”
- Tony Hildesheim, Vice President of IT, WSECU.

WSECU was already using an IP-based system at two branches. While most of the feature sets of the vendors on their shortlist were similar, ShoreTel’s open, distributed solution consistently came out ahead for reliability, ease of management, support, and costs. Deploying the ShoreTel UC system enabled WSECU to centralize communications and use ShoreTel Enterprise Contact Center to establish multiple call centers. The same architecture that makes the ShoreTel system reliable and easy to scale also ensured seamless integration with other applications and systems. Other benefits include:

• Overall lower total cost of ownership with the elimination of $100/hour service calls, along with moves, adds, and changes that are managed on ShoreTel Director, saving an estimated 117 staff hours a month.
• Anticipated annual savings of around $13,000 over previous systems.
• Skills-based routing puts callers in touch with the right agent for their need, optimizing resources and saving valuable time.
• Advanced mobility features enable the IT team to provide after-hours support from their mobile devices or from home, just as if they were in the office.
• Highly reliable, distributed architecture helps ensure system dependability — a must for any financial institution.
• Tight integration with business processes and existing applications offers increased flexibility and the ability to offer customers more personalized service.

“ShoreTel’s ability to integrate with business processes, databases, and other applications, and to streamline the communications experience, will help us take advantage of future innovations in member service.”
- Tony Hildesheim, Vice President of IT, WSECU.