Charter Business® Case Study
Fiber Optic Case Study: River Valley Bank.
The challenge
The bank's data communications network—a lifeline for daily business operations
— simply couldn't keep pace. Comprised of 256Kbps frame relay circuits leased
from several phone company providers, the network linked the 18 branches to
the company's main hub in Wausau, which houses the company's core IBM AS400
system and other associated servers. The servers run all of the applications
company wide, ranging from basic internet connectivity to email.
Headaches were common—often, the frame relay connections straddled service
provider territories, requiring one phone company to lease a circuit from another.
As a result, there was a lot of confusion and finger pointing when there was a
service outage.
"It gets really old when you get a circuit that you are having problems with," said
Rich Daul, network administrator for River Valley Bank. Add to that the fact that
when a frame relay circuit crosses state lines, the cost "goes up quite a bit."
Transferring check receipts from the company's Michigan branches also was a
problem. The slim 256Kbps frame relay connection wouldn't support electronic
transmission of check images. So River Valley Bank had to hire an air courier
company at $40,000 a month to fly bags of canceled checks daily from
the Michigan branches to the Wausau hub.
In 2005, the company started exploring whether it could upgrade to
higher-bandwidth frame relay connections, but that hit a financial wall.
"We looked at the bandwidth upgrade, and the cost was pretty
astronomical," Daul said.
Charter Business® steps in
Just then, Daul got a call from a Charter Business® sales representative asking
if he'd consider fiber-optic service. He immediately thought of the Michigan
branches, so he checked with the sales rep regarding service availability. It turned
out that Charter Business could provide fiber-optic connections to six of the seven
locations, with the exception of an eastern Michigan branch in Menominee.
"I told him, 'You have got to be kidding me,'" Daul said. "So I rattled off the
Wisconsin branches, and he said, 'We can do most of those.'"
And what of Menominee? It turns out that
Charter Business could reach that branch as
well, thanks to a network interconnection
par tnership with fellow cable operator Time
Warner Cable. With Time Warner Cable supplying
the fiber-optic connection in Menominee, Charter
Business could provide a 10Mbps symmetric
fiber-optic service to all of River Valley Bank's
main branch locations.
"I was tickled pink," Daul said.
The news got even better when the Char ter Business sales
representative came back with a proposal for the fiber-optic
service that offered 10 times the bandwidth at half the cost of
the proposed frame relay circuit upgrades.
"That was extremely cost effective," Daul said.
Fast fiber-optics make a difference
The transition to the fiber -optic system began in the fall of 2005,
starting with the Michigan branches. The goal was to eliminate
the expensive air courier service and use the new 10Mbps
connection to launch remote check capture, an application that
scans cashed checks and then transfers those images to the
main server for record keeping.
No more $40,000 monthly air bills. And no more creeping along
in the 256Kbps slow lane.
"It's like comparing horse and buggy to a NASCAR racecar —
stable, smooth, reliable, fast. Nothing but compliments from the
users when we're on fiber," Daul said. The connection is so fast
that "it's almost like putting everybody on the local network here.
The remote branches don't feel quite so remote any more."
With Charter Business as the provider, response time is up and
finger pointing is nonexistent. On the rare occasion when there is a
service issue, Charter Business's response time is almost as fast
as its fiber-optic throughput—and that includes any issues with the
Menominee connection supported by TimeWarner Cable, Daul said.
"Sometimes Charter Business will call us before
the branches call to tell us when we're down," he
noted. "That's something we were not used to."
Another key advantage comes when the clouds
roll in. River Valley Bank's old frame relay system
depended on switched phone line networks, and
when summer thunderstorms rolled through,
lightning strikes could disrupt the circuit. With the
fiber-optic lines, there are no more interruptions
from the thunder gods.
"All through the thunderstorms, we don't go down
anymore, which used to make our lives a little
hectic," Daul said.
One provider, one call
Overall, working with Char ter Business is a
noticeable contrast to the old days of telco
circuits and multiple providers across state lines.
Not only is it easier to manage service through just one provider,
but the price also continues to beat out rival phone companies.
"There's no comparison," Daul said. "We've had some
telecommunication vendors come in to do sales pitches, trying
to get their foot in the door, and based on price and service,
there is just no comparison."
The fiber-optic network also allows the branch banks to send
batches of files to the main server in Wausau for backup. In the
past, those files would be stored only on the branch computers.
In the future, the fiber-optic connection gives River Valley Bank
the option to more easily increase the bandwidth beyond
10Mbps. Daul said the company is looking at such an upgrade
in several locations.
Branching out with fiber
With the buildout largely complete, River Valley Bank is now
looking at a contract extension that also would pool all of the
existing branch fiber service contracts.
All in all, the switch to Charter Business and its fiber-optic
service is a smart transaction for River Valley Bank.
"The move to Charter Business fiber has been one of the best
things we've done," Daul said. "It's a major step; it's not
something you can do overnight, and there is definitely cost
involved. But in the end, once people got used to the reliability
and speed of fiber, everybody looks back and says, ‘How did we
even function before?'"
Click here to see more Case Studies.