For financial institutions, network connectivity isn’t simply an IT expense. It supports nearly every part of the business – connecting locations, supporting employees, protecting access to critical systems, and helping ensure customers can get the service they expect.
But as networks grow and technology evolves, organizations can find themselves managing multiple providers, aging infrastructure, rising connectivity costs, and increasingly complex environments.
Ulster Savings Bank wanted a better approach.
By working with AccessPlus to consolidate and modernize its communications and network infrastructure, Ulster Savings was able to reduce interoperability costs by 80% while increasing bandwidth, adding redundancy, and expanding secondary services.
The result demonstrates how the right telecommunications partnership can help a financial institution reduce expenses while simultaneously building a stronger network.
About Ulster Savings Bank
Ulster Savings Bank is a community-focused financial institution with approximately $1.3 billion in assets and deep roots in the communities it serves.
Despite its growth, the bank has maintained a relationship-driven approach to banking.
The organization describes itself as a bank that still knows its customers, with much of its business built through referrals and long-term relationships.
That philosophy also influences how Ulster Savings chooses its technology partners.
Rather than simply purchasing individual telecom services, the bank has developed a long-standing relationship with AccessPlus to help support and evolve its communications and connectivity infrastructure.
The Challenge: Managing Cost, Connectivity and a Changing Network
Financial institutions depend on highly reliable connectivity.
Branches and offices need dependable access to applications and systems. Employees need reliable voice and data services. Networks need sufficient bandwidth and redundancy. And IT teams need the ability to manage an increasingly sophisticated technology environment without unnecessary complexity.
At the same time, organizations have to continually evaluate costs.
Ulster Savings saw an opportunity to rethink how its connectivity and telecommunications services were structured.
Instead of maintaining a fragmented collection of services and providers, the bank worked with AccessPlus to identify opportunities to consolidate services, modernize its network, and create a more efficient technology environment.
The goal wasn’t simply to spend less. It was to get more from the network while spending smarter.
The Solution: One Technology Partner, Multiple Solutions
AccessPlus supports Ulster Savings with a range of communications and connectivity solutions, including:
Bringing these capabilities together through one technology partner gives Ulster Savings the opportunity to approach its infrastructure more holistically.
Instead of evaluating voice, internet connectivity, network architecture and redundancy as unrelated services, AccessPlus can work with the bank to understand the larger environment and identify solutions that support both immediate requirements and long-term plans.
One provider. Multiple solutions. One trusted technology partner.
The Result: 80% Lower Connectivity Costs — With More Capability
One of the most significant results of the partnership was a dramatic reduction in connectivity-related costs.
Ulster Savings reports:
“My interoperability costs dropped by 80%.”
Gregg Jocelyn, Technology Officer at Ulster Savings Bank
But the savings become even more significant when considered alongside what happened to the network itself.
The bank didn’t achieve those savings by simply reducing services. Instead:
“I was able to increase bandwidth, create more redundancy, and add secondary services.”
That distinction matters.
For businesses evaluating telecom and network expenses, cost reduction can sometimes imply accepting less — less bandwidth, less redundancy or fewer capabilities.
Ulster Savings achieved the opposite. Costs went down while network capabilities increased.
The organization was able to improve bandwidth, strengthen redundancy and introduce additional services while significantly lowering interoperability costs.
Why Network Redundancy Matters for Financial Institutions
For a bank or credit union, network downtime can have consequences far beyond an inconvenience for employees.
Connectivity supports transactions, communications, cloud applications, customer service, internal systems and access to critical business resources.
That makes redundancy an important component of network planning.
By adding secondary services and increasing network redundancy, Ulster Savings created additional resiliency while modernizing its infrastructure.
A well-designed redundant network can help organizations reduce the risk that a single connection or provider issue will interrupt critical operations.
For financial institutions with multiple locations, that resiliency becomes even more important.
Consolidating Telecom Services Can Reduce Complexity
Cost isn’t the only reason organizations consider telecom consolidation.
Managing numerous vendors can create its own operational burden. Different contracts, support teams, billing structures, technologies and escalation processes can make even routine network changes more complicated than necessary.
Working with a broader technology partner can simplify that environment.
For Ulster Savings, the relationship with AccessPlus extends across connectivity, voice and network services, allowing the bank to work with a team that understands its infrastructure and long-term technology objectives.
When new challenges arise, that existing knowledge becomes valuable.
As the Ulster Savings Bank team explains:
“When we have a challenge, we can bring it to the team and work together to find the right solution.”
More Than a Vendor Relationship
Technology changes.
The people responsible for managing it change.
And the requirements of a growing organization continually evolve.
That makes the relationship between an organization and its technology provider particularly important.
Ulster Savings’ relationship with AccessPlus goes back many years, giving the AccessPlus team a deeper understanding of the bank’s environment, priorities and objectives.
The bank describes the relationship this way:
“The AccessPlus team has consistently approached our business as a partner rather than simply a service provider.”
That collaborative approach allows conversations to begin with the business challenge rather than with a predetermined product.
The question becomes: What are we trying to accomplish — and what’s the best way to get there?
For an IT team, that can make a substantial difference.
Modernizing the Network for What’s Next
Reducing current expenses was only one part of the project.
Ulster Savings is also looking toward the future of its network.
That includes simplifying network management and moving toward greater centralized visibility — ultimately bringing more of the environment into a “single pane of glass.”
This type of network modernization can give IT teams greater visibility and control while simplifying the management of connectivity across multiple locations.
SD-WAN is one component of that strategy. By intelligently managing network connections and traffic, SD-WAN can help multi-location organizations improve resiliency, network visibility and flexibility while making better use of available connectivity.
For Ulster Savings, these improvements are part of a broader effort to build infrastructure that can support both today’s operations and tomorrow’s growth.
“AccessPlus helped us modernize critical infrastructure while supporting future growth.”
What Can Other Businesses Learn from Ulster Savings Bank?
The Ulster Savings experience highlights an important point for organizations evaluating their telecommunications environment:
Reducing telecom costs doesn’t necessarily mean reducing capability.
A comprehensive review of connectivity, voice, redundancy and network architecture may uncover opportunities to both improve performance and lower expenses.
Businesses evaluating their current environment should consider questions such as:
Are we paying multiple providers for services that could be consolidated?
Are our current bandwidth levels appropriate for how our business operates today?
Do critical locations have sufficient network redundancy?
Are we paying for legacy services or network configurations that no longer make sense?
How difficult is it for our IT team to manage connectivity across locations?
Could SD-WAN or centralized network management simplify our environment?
When something changes, do our providers understand our entire network — or only the individual service they sell us?
Those questions can uncover opportunities that aren’t obvious when telecom services are reviewed for one circuit or invoice at a time.
Can Switching Telecom Providers Really Reduce Business Connectivity Costs?
A comprehensive review of connectivity, voice, redundancy and network architecture may uncover opportunities to both improve performance and lower expenses. Yes – but simply switching providers isn’t necessarily the answer.
The larger opportunity often comes from evaluating the entire environment. That means looking at internet connectivity, bandwidth, voice services, network architecture, redundancy, contracts and management together.
Ulster Savings provides a good example.
The bank didn’t simply reduce a monthly connectivity bill. Working with AccessPlus, it was able to reduce interoperability costs by 80%, increase bandwidth, improve redundancy and add secondary services.
That is a fundamentally different outcome than simply finding a cheaper internet connection.
What Services Does AccessPlus Provide for Banks and Multi-Location Businesses?
A comprehensive review of connectivity, voice, redundancy and network architecture may uncover opportunities to both improve performance and lower expenses. AccessPlus provides business communications, connectivity and network solutions designed to help organizations simplify and modernize their technology environments.
Solutions include business fiber, Direct Internet Access, voice services, colocation, SD-WAN and related connectivity services.
For organizations with multiple locations or complex network requirements, AccessPlus can also evaluate how those services work together and identify opportunities to improve redundancy, simplify management and reduce unnecessary costs.
Start With a Telecom and Connectivity Review
A comprehensive review of connectivity, voice, redundancy and network architecture may uncover opportunities to both improve performance and lower expenses. Businesses often continue paying for the same telecommunications infrastructure simply because it works.
But “working” and “optimized” aren’t the same thing.
Networks evolve. Bandwidth requirements increase. New connectivity options become available. Pricing changes. And technologies such as SD-WAN can create new opportunities to simplify how networks are managed.
Ulster Savings’ experience shows what can happen when an organization takes a broader look at its environment:
- 80% lower interoperability costs
- More bandwidth
- Greater redundancy
- Additional services
- A network positioned for future growth
If your organization hasn’t taken a comprehensive look at its telecom and connectivity environment recently, it may be worth asking what you’re paying for today — and what you could be getting instead.
See What Your Network Could Be Doing Better
A comprehensive review of connectivity, voice, redundancy and network architecture may uncover opportunities to both improve performance and lower expenses. AccessPlus works with businesses, financial institutions and multi-location organizations to evaluate connectivity, voice and network infrastructure and identify opportunities to improve performance, simplify management and reduce costs.
Talk with the AccessPlus team about your current network and discover where there may be opportunities to save, consolidate, and modernize.
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