New Video Banking Assistance System Allows Customers to Conference with Remote Experts

uGenius Technology unveiled its new SmartOFFICE solution today that helps banks reduce their spending on staff by allowing experts to interact with customers remotely.

Using the system an expert will be able to give advice and close sales from one location with customers at multiple branches through video teleconferencing. Banks won't need to stock each of their branches with experts on different products in order to give customers personal and knowledgable advice.

Philadelphia-based Conestoga Bank (asset size $624 million) implemented SmartOFFICE at its new Bankwerx branch designed specifically to serve customers who are constantly on the go. Conestoga will be using the system to streamline the process for initiating new accounts and closing loans, investments and mortgages.

"The uGenius SmartOFFICE solution is more than video conferencing, it allows us to provide the most convenient service possible while streamlining our sales," said Richard A. Elko, Conestoga's CEO, in a statement. "I think SmartOFFICE will help us maintain those high standards while staying aligned with the company's bottom line."

Through SmartOFFICE's remote device control, experts will be able to authenticate a customer's identity, give advice, capture signatures and initiate and close loans through document sharing. This will be more efficient, says uGenius, than the traditional method of a customer coming to the branch and scheduling an appointment, filing out an application and then returning to the branch to sign the agreement and forms.

"Through this video technology, we've eliminated the restrictions that are associated with the traditional branch model and we have opened up the opportunity for our clients to increase the level and volume of service they provide without increasing the number of employees on their payroll," said Gene Pranger, CEO of uGenius, in a statement.

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Jonathan Camhi has been an associate editor with Bank Systems & Technology since 2012. He previously worked as a freelance journalist in New York City covering politics, health and immigration, and has a master's degree from the City University of New York's Graduate School ... View Full Bio