Armed Forces Bank (AFB) is embracing digital transformation with several newly implemented processes aimed at providing an improved customer experience during everyday transactions.

The $1.6 billion bank is using automation for card controls, allowing users to monitor transactions and establish account alerts, check imaging for deposits and digital chat enhancements that run on both APIs and middleware between internal systems and vendors, said Jodi Vickery, executive vice president and director at Kansas City, Mo.-based Armed Forces Bank.

“The business processes that have been streamlined with the aid of technology at both [locations] are varied in terms of the areas of operation they impact,” Vickery told Bank Automation News. “In other cases, we have worked in partnership with existing vendors to bring the new automations or features to the market for our clients.”

While the implementation of digital chat, for example, reduced customer call times, AFB trained branch associates to keep up with increased online chat activity. The bank will continue to explore upgrades to its chat platform, including using artificial intelligence (AI) to expand the number of interactions its chat bot can handle, Vickery added.

Automations saving ‘valuable hours’

AFB’s partnership with Fiserv’s Communicator Advantage platform, which facilitates the real-time flow of data and transactions through all channels, has made it easier for vendors and partners already using the Communicator Advantage platform to integrate new services into the bank’s back-end.

“Anytime there are multiple parties involved, the coordination of the development effort can be tricky,” Vickery noted.

The integrations are already paying dividends, allowing the bank to focus on new initiatives such as robot process automation, and to explore what other processes can be streamlined to save “valuable hours” and money, she told BAN.

“Many organizations indicate that they would like to create improvements using bots and other tools like this, but then they fail to adequately resource the effort,” Vickery said. “We are ensuring that this organizational priority has the resources available to meet the opportunity head on.”

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