BranchNet

ERF Wireless Enterprise Network Services provides banks with a turnkey design and implementation service for secure point-to-point microwave broadband networks in enterprise-class applications. Over the past three years, ERF Wireless Enterprise Network Services has targeted the regional banking industry in the southern and southwestern part of the country.

Remote Branch Connectivity
BranchNet wirelessly delivers enterprise resources and high performance to remote branches while tightly controlling costs and security. It enables banks to more quickly deploy office automation, digital and line-of-business applications to branch offices and remote workers.

BranchNet wirelessly deploys retail banking, imaging, security and voice solutions quickly and easily. The solution is designed to provide the highest level of telecommunications performance to connect multiple Local Area Networks into an integrated high-speed Wide Area Network. Centralizing remote office servers, applications and information allows IT to better manage, update, control and protect business assets. It also helps reduce support costs and allows IT to best leverage available resources.

Business Continuity
BranchNet allows continuous service through planned or unplanned events. A BranchNet Private Enterprise Network should be a critical part of any financial institution’s Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery solution. It addresses simple interruptions from hardware failures and local power outages to more dramatic downtime due to natural or man-made disasters.

With BranchNet, server processing and utilization can be easily managed through centralized server farms or data centers. Displaced workers can continue operating from another backup location or even from their homes. Access to applications and information can instantaneously be routed through redundant connections or alternate data centers. IT staff can control the redeployment of the network infrastructure instead of relying on remote telecommunications providers or waiting for cables to be reconnected. It is now easy to reconfigure all of your network applications across a geographically dispersed workplace.

Infrastructure Ownership – Owning Instead of Renting Your Telecommunications Network
Banks have made large lease payments to telecommunication providers for years. BranchNet turns the tables and allows banks to finally own their own communications infrastructure and enjoy the benefits of ownership. This unique application of microwave broadband technology provides financial institutions an extremely cost-effective way to replace all of their recurring frame relay, T1 and other branch WAN telecommunications costs with a one-time capital investment that can typically be recovered in less than three years.

Security & Regulatory Compliance
With the spotlight currently on regulatory compliance, especially around prevention and detection of intruders, it’s critical for financial services organizations to stay ahead of the game.

Implementing a solution using BranchNet and the ERF Wireless CryptoVue® Network Security Appliance enables financial services institutions to move from a reactive to a proactive stance, anticipating problems before they occur. Data is protected in many ways and the solution provides a number of powerful tools to monitor and oversee activity across the entire system.

BranchNet will help meet regulatory compliance goals as well as enable standardization of IT systems on a single communications platform for greater simplicity, ease of use and consistency.

Branch Capture
BranchNet provides the gateway to implement Check 21 as it was intended to be. Branch Capture requires high-speed connectivity to remote locations and BranchNet delivers. With bandwidth up to 20 Mbps available at the branch level, item image capture can be performed in real-time on a centralized server.

Wireless High-Speed Internet Infrastructure Provider
Many of the geographical areas served by community banks are neglected by the telecommunications providers. This creates a significant void in quality high-speed network access, particularly wireless Internet access, that can be filled by banks with BranchNet that have excess bandwidth capacity. The inherent security features for the BranchNet network allow for segmentation of network traffic to securely allow unused bandwidth to be sold or leased to third-party providers, for a profit.

Now a finacial institution can create a regional wireless infrastructure to facilitate high-speed Internet access in underserved markets while allowing the bank to profit from excess capacity or offer special privileges to preferred customers. The ERF wireless ISP division, the Bundled Wireless Services Division, can provide Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP) products and services across a market area and provide revenue sharing back to the bank which, over time, can provide sufficient income to pay for the entire network infrastructure costs.