“One of the wishes of our customers is to make banking transactions more comprehensible. The modern tablet and PC technology with Windows 8 offers us new ways to fulfill their expectations.” Horst Weichselbaumer, Chief Information Officer, Erste Bank AG Erste Bank Group provides retail financial services in Europe. To differentiate its financial services and increase market share and sales, the bank deployed Windows 8 Enterprise and developed a touch-enabled app called FinanceCheck. Both customers and advisors use FinanceCheck on a tablet during financial consultations. Customers love the new, empowering service paradigm. Business Needs Founded in 1819, Erste Bank Group is one of the largest financial services providers in central and eastern Europe in terms of clients and total assets. Along with serving private individuals, the bank provides advisory services and support for corporate clients in financing, investment, and access to international capital markets. Erste Bank grew its reputation within the retail banking market by applying innovation to traditional banking services. “We want to establish ourselves as a hub for innovation and demonstrate that retail banking can be exciting, interesting, and engaging for our customers,” says Horst Weichselbaumer, Chief Information Officer at Erste Bank AG, the Austrian branch of the Erste Bank Group. “To support innovative financial products and new approaches to customer service, we strive to take advantage of the latest technologies available.” Recently, Erste Bank turned to technology to support a new vision for customer service, one that brings the customer and the teller together on an equal footing to promote more interactive consultations. “Today, a customer sits across the table from the advisor, who clicks through our financial applications, entering information on behalf of the customer,” says Weichselbaumer. “This creates a ‘top- down’ feeling and throws up barriers to more open, personal discussions that can lead to more sales.” Erste Bank wanted a modern, mobile computing experience to foster its vision of a more equal interaction, for example, during a personal financial and budget planning review. Tellers perform three to five of these reviews every day with a goal of introducing new products based on a customer’s life situation. “We needed to find the right mobile device and the right operating system for touch-enabled, interactive computing to support the dialogue between the customer and the teller,” says Weichselbaumer. Solution Erste Bank turned to the Windows 8 Enterprise operating system to help make its strategic goals a reality. The bank evaluated other options, but Windows 8 interoperates better with its current IT environment, and IT staff members are familiar with Windows-based technologies. “Windows 8 runs on a variety of devices, and we wanted that flexibility in hardware choice to find a device to support our vision for interactive customer consultations,” says Weichselbaumer. The bank worked with Microsoft Services Consulting to create a touch-enabled Customer: Erste Bank Group Website: www.erstegroup.com Customer Size: 47,000 employees Country or Region: Austria Industry: Financial—Retail banking Customer Profile Headquartered in Vienna, Austria, Erste Bank Group serves 16.6 million customers in the retail banking business through 2,900 branches in seven countries across central and eastern Europe. Software and Services Windows 8 Enterprise Microsoft Services − Microsoft Services Consulting Hardware Lenovo ThinkPad Helix Samsung Slate Sony Slate For more information about other Microsoft customer successes, please visit: www.microsoft.com/casestudies Windows 8 Enterprise Customer Solution Case Study Retail Banker Increases Sales, Improves Customer Relations with Windows Store App