Lloyds TSB invests £3.5m in comms update

High street bank Lloyds TSB has invested £3.5m to integrate its selling of financial packages to corporate customers through a single customer contact-centre.

The project, run with systems integrator Affiniti, focuses on the installation of a Cisco converged communications system at the bank's new premises in the City of London.

Around 1,100 staff will provide support for the bank's cash management and payments, risk management, human resources and pensions, specialist financing, and trade and structured investments services.

The new building will house a 30-seat IP contact centre where Lloyds TSB's corporate customers will be offered advice and give the bank opportunities to cross-sell financial products, by giving sales agents a complete view of their clients' portfolio.

The project also involves the setting up of a wireless network, also supplied by Cisco, so that 200 traders within the building are connected to the platform, even in the café.

Lloyds TSB senior manager of strategy and architecture, David Morely, admitted the bank was playing catch-up a little in approaching its customers in a more integrated way but said the system it now has is flexible enough to react to the needs of the business quickly.

Morely said: "We had three or four separate divisions all selling to the same customer at different times. We wanted to be their banker and meet all their banking needs by adopting a unified selling focus.

"The platform we have now has the scale, flexibility and mobility for us to meet the challenges of selling new financial products very quickly. We don't have the luxury of three months to deliver new products to market."

Lloyds TSB signed the contract with Affinity in June 2006 and it will run until 2009.