Profiled:

Crédit Agricole

8 November 2007

Crédit Agricole is the leading bank network in France with around 9,170 branches. It is the world's eighth largest bank in terms of shareholders' equity and the third biggest in Europe. With 157,000 employees in 66 countries, Crédit Agricole has a worldwide reach supported by its status as France's leading high street bank, serving 28 per cent of all households.

Crédit Agricole's strategic development plan for 2006–2008 in France has several growth targets. These include creating value for the customer by increased cross-functionality in processes and adding commercial value by establishing a unique market position for Crédit Agricole regional banks and Le Crédit Lyonnais (the bank's other brand). The bank also wants to increase the French market share of its specialised businesses and to create industrial value by pooling resources and standardising processes.

In 2005, Crédit Agricole deployed Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005, an enterprise-grade, unified communications solution that provides instant messaging (IM), peer-to-peer and presence awareness to detect whether a user is available for real-time communication. When tested in a pilot, users responded positively especially in the use of presence awareness and IM, which significantly reduced missed calls and accelerated day-to-day communications.

The bank is now considering a true unified communications model that combines all the elements of enterprise communications including voice, messaging, conferencing, business applications and notification services. In particular, the bank wanted to widen the availability of multi-party Web conferencing, currently provided by third parties. Yannick Flégeau, senior IT architect of the IT research and development team at Crédit Agricole says: "While the technology works well we aim to deploy a less expensive, more accessible alternative that can be used by as many staff as possible, not just senior managers."

In addition, the company wants to prove the viability of voice over IP (VoIP). The bank had tested a number of widely available solutions, some of which also included video, but the sound and image quality wasn't high enough for the business.

Security was another major concern. Flégeau says, "We needed to comply with the high level of security standards associated with the confidentiality necessary in delivering high quality financial services. This led us to sound out the market."

In 2006, the Crédit Agricole IT innovation team met executives from Microsoft France. Following a series of meetings and demonstrations, the team decided to deploy a Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 pilot across several different user scenarios, with a focus on widening the use of Web conferencing technology and proving the voice capability of the solution.

"We especially wanted to support managers in regional banks who could benefit from Web conferencing where they share documents and can work as effectively as in regular face-to-face meetings," says Flégeau. "To prove its viability, we are testing this solution with employees in branches who are often more than 100 km (62 miles) apart in remote areas."

When it came to integration with voice, Office Communications Server 2007 was connected to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) through a Dialogic DMG-4000 media gateway. Dialogic was selected for its compatibility with Microsoft unified communications solutions. The bank was also attracted by the simplicity, Private Branch Exchange (PBX) interoperability, and price performance of this gateway technology.

Mobile and remote users access Office Communications Server 2007 through an edge server and Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server (ISA) 2006, which provides levels of security high enough for the pilot to support access over the Internet.

Employees access all their communication channels - voice, IM, and conferencing - from the client application, Office Communicator 2007.

Flégeau says, "People take to it very quickly. They are familiar with the Microsoft 'look and feel' and they quickly work out how to place and pick up calls, send a message, or initiate a conference."

Employees use the LG-Nortel IP Phone 8540 as their handset. Remote users can either use a PDA, or LG-Nortel USB Phone 8501 handsets that plug straight into their computer. The LG-Nortel handsets help organisations run their business efficiently and effectively, improve productivity, reduce IT administration costs, and lower the total cost of ownership.

Employees are assigned a single phone number so that they can be contacted wherever they are. But in reality the notion of a number disappears. When users place calls they simply click on the recipient's name in their contact list. The software automatically routes the call to the most appropriate device - be it soft phone, mobile device, or voice mail. Mobile users can also make voice or video calls from wireless hotspots or anywhere with an Internet connection using their portable computer and Office Communicator 2007. Remote users also tested the new technology through Microsoft Office Communicator Web Access for presence and IM.

For Web conferencing, Flégeau's team is evaluating a Microsoft RoundTable conferencing and collaboration device at participating branches and offices. RoundTable provides a 360-degree view of the conference room, wideband audio, and video that tracks the flow of conversation between multiple speakers.

The pilot programme showed that financial experts can work smarter with unified communications and more easily fulfil their mission of recruiting and retaining retail banking customers, as well as getting new products to market faster. The innovation team forecasts that unified communications will significantly increase individual productivity. Video conferencing is now widely used and more cost effective, and the solution provides an easier- to-manage infrastructure.

Unified communications supports new ways of working for financial experts, making possible what Flégeau describes as 'a new leap of productivity' for information workers. He estimates by using Office Communications Server 2007, he saves a significant amount of time that was previously consumed switching between applications or making calls to colleagues who were not answering their phones.

"This morning I was making phone calls without being in the office," Flégeau says. "I was working at home using all the communication tools available to me in the office - such as a fixed line, e-mail, IM, videoconferencing, and audio conferencing - from a single interface. If everyone used Office Communications Server 2007, we would see a real culture change within the organisation."

Crédit Agricole views unified communications and, in particular, the video and audio functions in Office Communications Server 2007 as a good way of improving the range of services available to customers in its regional banks and local branches.

"Office Communication Server 2007 will result in better project management and faster decision making, especially where employees are working in different offices or at remote sites," says Flégeau. "It can be used by tele-workers, mobile users, and remote users with a personal disability and provide a richer communication experience."

The pilot programme showed that Office Communications Server 2007 creates a simplified and easier-to-manage network infrastructure that is cost-effective, flexible, and scalable, providing the bank with automated provisioning. "It delivers unification on the systems side, consolidation of a client with a familiar toolset for users, and unifies the network layer," says Flégeau.

"The solution integrates telephony and data. It is now easier to transfer a large number of branches onto the system. In the long run, we will dispense with a separate voice and data administration team."

Flégeau is also confident of achieving savings in operational costs. He says it is far less expensive to deploy and manage voice over IP (VoIP) with Office Communications Server 2007 than it was using IP-PBX solutions. Because of its federated structure, Crédit Agricole uses a variety of PBX systems as well as IP-based telephony.