"There are a lot of challenges providing banking services to the largest state in the Union,” said Ben Craig, executive vice president, chief information officer for Northrim Bank. “Northrim Bank has customers who live off the road system, branches that can only be serviced by air or sled, and employees stretched across geography twice the size of Texas. Northrim Bank deployed Cisco secure video conferencing to every branch and remote employee to better connect employees and customers. As with most pre-pandemic video conferencing solutions, initial organizational adoption was slow. Desktop video phones and video monitors were easy enough to use. Still, only the most tech-savvy employees opted to leverage video conference rooms because they were too intimidating and complicated."
Craig added, "We integrated Cisco SX80 Codec to enable collaboration between in-person and remote meeting participants. Unfortunately, there’s no mechanism to power the displays, manage inputs and connect peripherals – It would require an additional piece of technology. The team attempted to simplify video conference rooms by deploying a third-party solution to automate larger rooms and ad-hoc third-party remotes in smaller huddle rooms. The integration created an overwhelming and intimidating user experience. It was a large barrier to adoption."
At this point, Northrim Bank discovered Lightware’s MMX-HDMI Matrix Switchers, a standalone solution offering uncompromised 4K30 signal management through HDMI 1.4 connectivity. Boasting zero latency for critical operations, the extensive selection of available variants, compatibility and connectivity features make Lightware’s MMX Series a perfect fit for any AV operation. Thus, Lightware’s MMX Series expanded the capabilities of a sophisticated meeting room.
"Lightware’s game-changing technology removed users’ real and perceived barriers to adoption by delivering intuitive and colorful graphical user interfaces to control the room’s projector screen, power, volume, mics, input sources and outputs to displays and projectors,” explained Craig. “Once users enter the room, they are immediately greeted with intuitive instructions prompting them to wake the system using the touchscreen. Seamlessly, the monitors are powered on and changed to their correct default inputs, and speakers and microphones are adjusted to preset volumes."
Lightware has simplified expanding, extending, and controlling Cisco Codec by providing a pre-configured appliance. With Lightware’s MMX Series, users can expand the number of inputs and outputs of a system, extend the connectivity over longer distances, and empower the user to natively control the entire solution via the Cisco Room Navigator.
“Historically, other vendors have complex solutions that require training, certification and maintenance,” noted Craig. “It’s very complicated to install and utilize. The technology is proprietary and not intuitive in the slightest. With Lightware, Northrim Bank designed an intuitive touchscreen interface between Cisco SX80 Codec and the Lightware MMX Series. It did not require any additional training. It just worked – Right out of the box. There was no need for consulting or technical support. Most importantly, the user experience proved to be paramount.”
Craig added, “The goal is to create a solution that anyone can use. It should be easy enough for someone to walk into the room and intuitively start a meeting, make a call, join a call or simply utilize the space without having to be formally trained or have an operating manual. Lightware is fully integrated with Cisco. Now, Northrim Bank has a reliable and stable solution. Users can enter the room without being overwhelmed by the technology. It provides them with a consumer technology experience. It’s as simple as using an iPhone or an iPad.”
Lightware’s MMX Series allowed Northrim Bank to substantially reduce costs while simultaneously unlocking the full potential of their video conference rooms. Lightware’s integration with Cisco enables nearly unlimited capabilities for meeting room control.
"Once the pandemic hit, Northrim Bank was already fully leveraging secure HD video conferencing across its 24 locations to maintain communication and collaboration when it was most needed,” said Craig. “Northim Bank’s Network & Systems Infrastructure team was able to migrate nearly 90% of their 400 onpremise users to work from home in less than two weeks while maintaining critical video communications across the enterprise."
Craig added, “Lightware’s technology proved so stable, easy and useful that Northrim Bank’s network and VoIP engineers could pivot from technical support to help underwrite and process more Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans in the state of Alaska than any other financial institution. As a result, Northrim Bank doubled in size by earning the trust of thousands of new customers across the state. Northrim Bank maintains a hybrid workforce model by supporting on-premise and distributed workers with its video conferencing infrastructure. Lightware’s technology can be found in every video conference room, which rarely enters its power-save mode throughout the day owing to its popularity and ease of use. Lightware performs how you need it to."
As a Cisco Solutions Plus partner, Lightware can provide a flexible, consistent, seamless user experience across room types. Lightware and Cisco have created configured packages designed for small to large meeting spaces. Lightware bundles seamlessly integrate with Cisco Codec and can be easily configured utilizing the Room Configuration Wizard. The plug-and-play system has all the necessary components to get the system up and running in no time.
