mascoma savings bank

A RED RIVER CASE STUDY
MASCOMA SAVINGS BANK
OVERVIEW
Mascoma Savings Bank needed help to overhaul
their aging phone system. Red River stepped in
as a trusted advisor to design a custom Unified
Communications solution and oversee a network
refresh for Mascoma that addressed current
communications challenges and positioned
the bank to take advantage of cutting-edge
technologies going forward.
Red River and Cisco Lower Costs and
Enhance Collaboration with Advanced Unified
Communications and Network Refresh
CHALLENGE
Mascoma Savings Bank knew that the increasing costs and complexity of their aging
phone system were adding up to a losing investment. Each of the bank’s 18 branch
offices across New Hampshire and Vermont had a separate voice system that had
to be independently managed and supported – and frequent hardware failures
were undermining productivity while driving up maintenance costs. The financial
organization with over $900 million in assets prides itself on superior customer care
and they needed to address the call latency customers were experiencing due to the
system’s design. With two primary data center hub sites (one in NH and one in VT)
that were cross connected with a shared dial plan, the potential for branch outages
was high, as were the monthly recurring charges (MRC) associated with their point-topoint connections.
Mascoma began looking for a WAN replacement that would offer improved cost
savings along with higher throughput and system resiliency. However, they knew that
implementing a new phone system would be a complex process. “We couldn’t just
flip a switch and move to a new system,” said Chris Irish, Mascoma’s Vice President of
Information Technology. “We needed a partner that could design a hybrid solution
that added VoIP capabilities yet co-mingled old and new technology during our
transition to a new system to keep our business running smoothly.”
KEY BENEFITS
►Enhanced Collaboration Capabilities
►Streamlined Maintenance
►Significantly Lowered Costs
►Improved Operational Efficiency
and Disaster Recovery
►Scalability to Support Future Expansion
and Functionality
TECHNOLOGY
►Cisco Call Manager
►Cisco Unity Connection
►Cisco Contact Center Express
►Cisco Presence
►Cisco 28xx Routers
►Cisco 37xx Switches
►Cisco 7945 and 7965 VoIP Phones
Mascoma turned to their long-standing partner Red River to design a Unified
Communications solution that would lower costs and enhance collaboration
capabilities across the organization without disrupting current business operations.
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SOLUTION
Red River assembled a dedicated
team, including market leader Cisco
Systems, to provide complete end-toend support and services including
pre-design work, equipment delivery,
staging, deployment and project
management to help Mascoma
update their network and implement
an advanced Unified Communications
solution to solve the bank’s phone
system challenges.
“Honestly, I wasn’t sure that we could
pull this off,” said Irish. “Red River had
the vision and expertise to design a solution and create a phased implementation plan
that worked for Mascoma.“
“Red River is not a vendor
to me, they are a partner.
We have a comfortable,
solid partnership that I know
I can rely on.”
Chris Irish
VP, Information Technology
STRATEGIC PARTNERS
Over the course of a year, Red River worked closely with Mascoma to implement and
deploy Cisco Call Manager, Unity Connection, Unified Presence and Contact Center
along with new Cisco routers and switches to create a streamlined communications
network that would not only support expansive collaboration capabilities today but
would scale easily to support future technologies.
Cisco VoIP phones were installed at individual branches and each user or teller was
assigned a Direct Inward Dial (DID) to provide fast 4-digit dialing to any of the other
branches. Executive Managers were assigned desktop video phones for enhanced
collaboration including on-demand training capabilities. To deliver intelligent contact
routing, call treatment, network-to-desktop computer telephony integration and
multi-channel contact management over the new IP infrastructure, Cisco Contact
Center Express was deployed with agent queuing to further expedite client calls
to customer service agents.
“Red River was both focused and flexible,” Irish noted. “They met every benchmark and
target date we set throughout the entire process. And deployments became increasingly faster as we progressed from branch to branch throughout the rollout,” he said.
RESULTS
At the recommendation of Red River, Mascoma switched to PAETEC for ongoing
cloud-based data, voice and internet communications services, which immediately
resulted in significant cost savings for the bank. “By converting to an MPLS cloud,
using PAETEC as our new ISP provider and leveraging Red River’s leasing options, we
were able to implement over $400,000 worth of Cisco equipment without a capital
outlay,” said Irish.
“Everything we’re doing on a daily basis is a lot more efficient because we’ve caught up
to industry standards and have incorporated best practices with the help of Red River,”
said Irish. “Our network improvements have allowed us to overcome the limits of our
point-to-point environment and take advantage of new collaboration technologies.”
Today, all of Mascoma’s new applications are deployed to users over the new MPLS
network, which provides faster throughput along with improved resiliency and
disaster recovery for the bank. The refreshed network and Unified Communications
solution have created a foundation for the seamless deployment of new technologies,
including HD video, surveillance, WI-FI access, video telephony and more. And
Mascoma now relies on Red River to support their firewall, switching, routing and
wireless infrastructure under a new Help Desk contract.
“Red River is not a vendor to me, they are a partner,” said Irish. “We have a comfortable,
solid partnership that I know I can rely on.”
ABOUT MASCOMA SAVINGS BANK
Mascoma Savings Bank is a mutually-owned financial
services company committed to exceeding the
expectations of their customers, community and
employees. They provide a full range of personal and
commercial banking services from branch locations
in the upper valley of New Hampshire and Vermont.
Learn more at www.mascomabank.com.
ABOUT RED RIVER
Red River is proud to serve commercial, government,
healthcare and education sectors by providing
technology products and services coupled with
superior customer service and support.
Learn more at www.redriver.com.
RED RIVER
Corporate Headquarters
21 Water St., Suite 500
Claremont, NH 03743
800-769-3060
www.redriver.com
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