 |
|
| Press Room |
 |
| NIGHTWATCH |
|
Credit union back office computer
systems are intrinsically linked to an
online customer’s banking
experience. Credit unions require
fast and reliable connections
between front office online systems
and back office legacy applications
and hardware, to maintain customer
relations. Key to this integration of
front and back office systems is the
ability to spot faults in the network
and provide solutions in real time,
while simultaneously providing a
uninterrupted service for customers.
Seamless online banking
Chicago, Illinois-based Meadows Credit Union
faces the constant challenge of keeping up to
date with rapid technological advances,
particularly in the online banking arena. It must
provide its members with a seamless
connection from the front to the back end of its
network to maintain customer satisfaction. At
the same time, the business must keep the
costs of any IT implementation low, in order to
fulfill its responsibility towards its members.
Online banking is a vital area for the growth of
Meadows Credit Union, as it now accounts for
over 20 percent of the business’ total revenues.
Customers of its online services demand a
banking solution that can be accessed 24
hours a day, seven days a week, providing the
most up to date information on personal
accounts and other pertinent information.
Meadows Credit Union must provide its current
and potential customers with a high standard
of online service, or it risks losing them to the
competition.
Time to streamline organic
growth
Meadows Credit Union was facing a challenge
that is common in the online banking arena; it
has developed its processes for Internet
banking organically. The credit union has
grown new technology platforms for its online
banking service on top of its more traditional,
legacy systems. This organic growth of add-on
technology has sprawled as the online
business has expanded, becoming a
confusing mire of inflexible coding and multiple
systems.
The credit union operates its core business on
an HP 3000 system and it utilizes a blend of NT
and Unix servers. On top of this, it has added
a mixture of software that has become its online
banking service. These disparate systems led
to an inefficient way of working that increased
costs.
Meadows Credit Union suffered from regular
downtime on its online service, as its
processes for maintaining the network were
cumbersome. System health checks and
repairs were manually performed by IT
personnel that were kept on call for emergency
situations. When something went wrong, the
system was taken off-line. Customers were
forced to wait for IT technicians to discover the
problem, log on to pinpoint the issue, then wait
longer for a resolution.
Over a period of time, the credit union began to
realize that this approach led to excessive
downtime of the system. Mike Pozzi, Meadows
Credit Union’s executive vice president,
recognized that what the company needed
was an automated program that could monitor
the system in real time, removing much of the
company’s reliance on human intervention.
Pozzi commented: "If we don’t automate
monitoring and management, the job is
painfully manually intensive, which has its own
high cost. The dilemma for us is knowing these
various processes need to be proactively
managed for the credit union, yet without
introducing costly, overly complex IT
administrative tools and capabilities."
NIGHTWATCH delivers
As his objective had to be achieved while
preserving the credit union’s current
investments in technology, Pozzi looked into
cross platform system and network monitoring
tools. Pozzi’s main goal was to enable real time
notification of system errors and malfunctions.
A solution based on this technology would
greatly reduce the downtime of the site, while
improving the service for customers.
Meadows Credit Union selected NIGHTWATCH,
a cross platform system monitoring application
to enable the company to report on the health of
its online network in real time, while working
efficiently with the business’ legacy equipment.
NIGHTWATCH was implemented to ensure that
processes and jobs were completed on time
and with maximum system uptime. The solution
was additionally set up to initiate positive
confirmations for key processes, which inform
the credit union’s information systems staff on
job progress throughout the running cycle.
Pozzi also requested that the system be
enabled to monitor heat, humidity and power
levels of hardware in the server room. This
means if the company was hit by a public
service power failure, a new battery plant at
Meadows Credit Union will take over power
provision for two hours. Simultaneously,
NIGHTWATCH will automatically email all
internal staff with a prompt to begin a controlled
shut down of the business systems.
Massive cost savings on
improved online service
NIGHTWATCH has provided Meadows Credit
Union with a seamless network operation that
runs at a lower cost than its previous
unmonitored enterprise. The credit union now
has a network infrastructure that is more
effective than the company had at first
anticipated was possible, when it set out on its
project in early 2002. Online downtime at
Meadows Credit Union has been drastically
reduced by over 60 percent, ensuring a more
satisfying service for the company’s members.
NIGHTWATCH has turned Meadows Credit
Union’s complicated infrastructure into an easy
to manage and maintain network. The credit
union is now able to monitor and maintain
server, database and network health in real
time.
Pozzi stated that NIGHTWATCH is helping the
credit union move effectively into the future, and
is providing a strong basis for new innovations
and expansion. The project has been a
resounding success for both the credit union
and its members.
New enterprise software and hardware is
easier to monitor than ever
One of the IT department’s most perilous responsibilities is upgrading any
part of the credit union’s operational infrastructure. From time to time it is
necessary to add CPUs to a server, upgrade the system with new versions of
software, or add data storage devices.
Keeping things simple is a major asset in times of change. NIGHTWATCH
supports all minicomputers, mainframes and Windows Servers including
both HP3000 MPE and HP9000 UNIX systems. This means adding new
software or servers to the enterprise is easy, because NIGHTWATCH
supports all hardware platforms and their respective operating systems.
Using NIGHTWATCH, IT administrators can quickly check off items on
monitored task lists, to move the organization from one system to another. |
|
|
|
|
|
