Chase Fortifies Its Branches with PC Power

Tellers and platform officers at a Manhattan branch warmed quickly to the bank's technology investment Now that New York banks are leaner, stronger, and more competitive, thanks to recent mergers and healthier balance sheets, they've got the time and money to improve customer service. One way Chase Manhattan Bank is competing in the New York retail bank market is by retooling its branch network with what Steve Herz, an executive in charge of the project, calls "the power of the PC." This effort involves replacing 15-year-old teller and platform systems with personal computers that accomplish retail banking tasks at a rate perhaps only New Yorkers would appreciate. End-of-day teller balancing, for example, took 45 minutes under the previous architecture. The same function today takes about 15 minutes. Customer transactions, too, are faster, particularly the less common ones, because the tellers don't have to remember command sequences to execute them. Branch by branch, Chase's IBM 4700-based branch automation system in the lower New York State region, known as COMETS, for Community Electronic Teller System, is being replaced by what the bank currently calls Metrolan. The latter is a networked configuration of PCs for tellers, platform officers, and administration personnel. The Metrolan moniker will be changed, say Chase officials, as more suburban branches are brought on-line. SPEEDY COMPUTERS. "Due to enhancements in PC technology, we're improving the level of service we offer our customers by providing our branch personnel with easier access to customer account records and transactions," says Herz, who is Chase's information delivery executive for the northeast regional retail bank. That unit operates branches in New York State, Connecticut, and Maryland. The computers being installed are IBM PS/2 personal computers using Intel 486 chip technology--among the fastest currently available on the market. The computers were purchased from integrated System Solution Corp., which is the facilities management and servicing subsidiary of IBM. In November 1992, IBM agreed to replace some of Chase's core operating systems as well as supply the hardware for the branch automation project. The bank developed its own software applications for the branch system, based on an application development package called Online Financial from MicroBilt Corp., Atlanta. The package comprises a set of tools that Chase staff used to develop both the screen layout and the sequence of transaction steps that support branch banking. The teller side is where the greatest efficiency improvements are, notes Herz, both in assisting customers and balancing the teller drawers at the end of the day. ONE BPANCH'S EXPERIENCE. Branch managers and platform officers, too, are benefitting from the PC technology by virtue of the word processing, electronic mail, and spreadsheet applications that it affords. Quicker access to customer account information using simple menu screens are part of the platform version of the software as well. "Metrolan has made my job a lot easier," says Marc F. Castellaneta, vice-president and branch manager of the Chase branch at Columbus Circle, in New York. "It also makes us more professional in the work that we deliver to our clients." For example, a valued client called Castellaneta one morning recently needing 100 bonds evaluated for portfolio management purposes. "Within 30 minutes," the banker recalls, "we had the bonds evaluated and a professionally produced listing ready for him, including the bonds' purchase price, interest earned, and current evaluation." The bank uses a bond evaluation program supplied by the U.S. Treasury Department. Additionally, simple memo and letter writing tasks are simplified, notes Castellaneta, because word-processing features eliminate having to write correspondence by hand before it is typed and revised. …