Advancial Federal Credit Union Deployed Nefsis Web and Video Conferencing to Connect Geographically Dispersed Workforce

Web and video conferencing is a popular visual communications tool for geographically distributed banks and credit unions, but there are wide variations in features and IT integration points. Nefsis’ security, both public and hybrid-cloud configurations, and advanced collaboration features for training fit Advancial Credit Union’s requirements.

Advancial Federal Credit Union has a workforce of 150 employees spread across four states, Dallas to Alaska. Travel expenses for meetings and training are costly and time consuming to the credit union. Looking for a reliable and affordable solution to connect employees, Advancial Federal Credit Union came across Nefsis video conferencing.

Advancial bought and deployed Nefsis in less than two weeks in November 2010.

"All you need is a server and any $99 USB webcam in each location, and you’re up and running," said Craig Sheffield, Advancial IT business systems analyst.

Problem: Advancial Federal Credit Union required a secure and affordable video conferencing solution to connect branch offices across the country.

Solution: Nefsis Dedicated, a full-featured, multiparty web and video conferencing software solution.

Business and IT Benefits: Nefsis brought real–time communication and collaboration to branch office locations improving inter–office meetings and training effectiveness. Nefsis saved money previously lost to recurring business travel. Nefsis’ secure, all-in-one solution saved IT staff installation and maintenance time.

Nefsis Hybrid-Cloud for Private Networks

To launch any type of online meeting, Advancial employees simply click a desktop icon. The virtual conference session is launched and hosted by an on-premise server at Advancials’s headquarters location running Nefsis software. This configuration is referred to as Nefsis Dedicated, a type of hybrid-cloud configuration.

Invitees join the video conference by clicking an emailed hyperlink, while audio is delivered via Advancial’s VoIP system. Nefsis provides all the web conferencing, advanced collaboration, and multiparty video conferencing features. Its end-to-end parallel processing software accelerates live sharing with multiparty video. In addition, Nefsis scalable video and automated bandwidth throttling dynamically adjusts bandwidth consumption — on a per-connection basis — ensuring the highest-quality video conferencing experience is enjoyed by all, without saturating the network.

By implementing Nefsis Dedicated, Advancial gets all the capabilities provided by video-specific routers, multipoint channel units, desktop gateway servers, and collaboration servers — all in one server-software solution.

"Advancial spent about $13,000 for Nefsis high-def, multipoint capabilities," said Sheffield. "Other hardware-based vendors quoted into the six figures."

Improving Training through Advanced Collaboration Features

The results of Nefsis web and video conferencing are engaging to Advancial employees. During inter-office and committee meetings, employees can share presentations and desktops, and annotate over live applications. Trainers can use the full suite of advanced collaboration features including playing movie files, distributing handouts, and running remote control sessions in coaching and training meetings. All while seeing each other and interacting in real-time.

"During video conferences, trainers can see trainee body language, which helps indicate whether they are comprehending and engaged," said Laurelle Campbell, Director of Employee Development. "And trainees now see they’re all learning as a team and are willing to ask questions and talk to each other about their learning. This is an important use case for Nefsis in our organization and I’ve seen an improvement in the training session outcomes with each employee."

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