Oconee State Bank Maintains Compliance and Improves Network Efficiency with Safe Systems’ NetComply One Solution
To manage banks’ IT networks today, IT administrators need the proper tools to monitor the network, maintain patches, apply anti-malware, and troubleshoot network issues effectively. Under the pressure of constant technological changes and increasingly strict regulatory guidelines, many community banks struggle to efficiently administer these tasks and meet examiner expectations.
Oconee State Bank felt this pressure and sought a technology partner that was proven within the community banking environment and that clearly understood the challenges it faced from a regulatory standpoint. The bank had initially worked with Safe Systems on the design and installation of its first network in 1997. Over the years, as regulations evolved and IT networks became more complex, Oconee State Bank required additional resources to help with the day-to-day monitoring and overall management of its network. Based on its positive experience with Safe Systems, the bank added Safe Systems’ IT network management service to increase efficiencies and maintain compliance with regulatory requirements.
“As a community bank, I want the relationships with our vendors to be built on loyalty, honesty and integrity,” said Marisa Reynolds, Senior Vice President at Oconee State Bank. “We’ve stayed with Safe Systems for so long because they embody all of these values. I can always count on them to provide quality technology, expert guidance and excellent customer service to our team.”
Solution
Oconee State Bank had already successfully implemented a previous version of Safe Systems’ NetComply® IT network management service, which enabled the bank’s staff to efficiently manage all important network tasks and provide proper documentation to regulators for IT examinations.
In 2016, Safe Systems released the new version of the service, NetComply One. The new solution improved upon the patch management, qualified alerting, and reporting capabilities of the prior version while also offering much faster and smoother remote access capabilities, which allows bank staff to conveniently access the network to solve any issues that arise.
As one of the first banks to go through the conversion process, Oconee State Bank reported a seamless conversion to the new system and the staff was very pleased with the user-friendly interface. Safe Systems provided thorough training on NetComply One, and after a single session with its strategic advisor, the bank was up and running on the new system.
“We thought the conversion to NetComply One would be a long, complicated process, but that wasn’t the case at all,” said Jamie McFalls, IT Specialist at Oconee State Bank. “Safe Systems ran the conversion overnight and after just one week’s time of using both the old and new systems, we crossed over to NetComply One and never looked back.”
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Results
Since adding the NetComply One service, Oconee State Bank has already realized significant improvements in its examination scores and overall management of the network. Additionally, the staff no longer has to manage patches manually because all patches are done quickly and efficiently through automation.
“The patch management capabilities have been a big help to us when we’re doing scans, audits or exams because we want to make sure all of our machines are fully patched and secure,” said McFalls. “With NetComply One, we have better examinations and have achieved a higher level of compliance because our patches are completed much faster than if we had to manage them manually. With these results, I can say that NetComply One easily paid for itself in just the first 30 days.”
The qualified alerting feature has also helped Oconee State Bank reduce the number of tickets and alerts it receives which frees up internal IT staff to work on other things.
“We initially didn’t want to give up too much control over the network, but adding Safe Systems to our team has been a terrific experience,” said Reynolds. “NetComply One has truly been a game changer for our bank by helping us to achieve our IT and compliance goals and better serve our customers.”