One Question For: Jeff Van Houten, SVP, Parish National Bank

In which areas has Parish National Bank been able to increase the return on its technology investments, and why?

Converged networking has played a big role in improving PNB's ROI. PNB currently is using Cisco Systems' (San Jose, Calif.) IP Communications systems to bring everything - data, voice, video conference, fax, ATM transactions, video surveillance, etc. - onto one converged network. With a converged network, we are able to manage initiatives more efficiently. For example, unified messaging allows us to receive voicemail, e-mail and fax through one application, which lowers training and support costs.

Another example is our ability to maintain a community bank atmosphere, with face-to-face meetings via video conference, while growing geographically. Sales meetings, loan committees, compliance meetings and even customer interactions all can be conducted efficiently with an increasingly dispersed workforce.

Centralized customer contact centers also have a large ROI. We've been able to improve both the quality and efficiency of phone transactions.

While ROI for individual technologies may be difficult to calculate, the benefits of technology tend to drive ROI.

Jeff Van Houten,
Senior Vice President, Parish National Bank (Covington, La.; $560 million in assets)