Bank of Cyprus increases collaboration while reducing costs with Microsoft 365 and Teams Phone

Bank of Cyprus, established in 1899, offers a comprehensive range of financial services, including retail and commercial banking, finance, investment banking, brokerage, fund management, private banking, life, and general insurance. With 60 branches in Cyprus and additional representation in Romania, Greece, Ukraine, and China, the bank's influence extends well beyond its local roots.

For an institution with a complex network of branches, departments, and external associates, reaching the right stakeholder and communicating smoothly can be challenging. “Every day, there are various groups of people who have to communicate, and collaborate rapidly,” explains Stephanos Gavrielides, Head Technology Support at the Bank of Cyprus. “The COVID-19 pandemic complicated this further. We needed to implement modern and secure collaboration tools to smoothly operate remotely.”

The bank’s employees were getting increasingly frustrated by the use of legacy collaboration platforms, struggling to collaborate through a modern workspace. “The increased reliance on digital collaboration also raised concerns about the movement and storage of sensitive information,” recalls Gregoris C. Gregoriou, Manager of Operations and Infrastructure at Bank of Cyprus. “We also relied on too many collaboration tools which increased security complexity.” In short, the bank needed to simplify its information technologies (IT) infrastructure and enhance collaboration practices.

A unified collaboration platform

Bank of Cyprus started its technological shift by adopting Microsoft 365. ”Employees used Microsoft Teams primarily for collaboration, messaging, file sharing, and meetings, while relying on a separate telephony system for making and receiving calls,” recalls Gregoriou. “This disjointed setup often led to inefficiencies as users had to switch between different applications or devices. Without seamless integration, call-related information wasn't accessible within the Teams interface. “So, the next logical step was a strategic shift towards a single-device policy and the implementation of Teams Phone. We started with pilot tests and finally made Teams Phone available across the bank.”

With the support of Microsoft, Bank of Cyprus organized training sessions on the new platform. The bank also provided training materials and guides through Viva Learning, an employee experience platform from Microsoft, facilitating widespread adoption among its employees. “Today, 3,000 people—mostly staff members but also external associates—use Teams Phone, making 40,000 calls per day,“ shares Gregoriou.

More efficiency, reduced costs

Microsoft Teams soon became the platform that centralized and unified the bank’s operations. “Teams is the first application we open every day,” Gregoriou shares. “By merging the functionalities of Teams and telephony, our staff has gained a cohesive platform where they can seamlessly transition between collaborative tasks and calls within a single interface. This enhances efficiency by reducing the time and cost required to use different applications.”

Since adopting Microsoft 365, Bank of Cyprus’ employees saw an improvement in their day-to-day efficiency. Most of them report feeling more effective in their tasks and experiencing a decrease in administrative, mundane tasks like document version control. “We also saw an improvement in the way people supervise,” Gavrielides adds. “Now, managers organize their teams into channels to work and collaborate. This helps everyone find the information they need, especially when they need to create documents, reports, or presentations together.”

The bank also observed a reduction in operating costs. “Integrating Teams with telephony simplified IT management by reducing the complexity of maintaining separate systems. This consolidation led to better utilization of resources and reduced overheads. Thanks to Teams phone we will significantly reduce costs and electricity consumption by implementing a single device policy and replacing Power over Ethernet (PoE) switches, which deliver both data and power through one cable, with non-PoE switches that only handle data,” notes Gavrielides. “This will contribute to decreasing our carbon footprint.” Additionally, the bank projects to save around 100 working days per year in terms of telephony maintenance and IT support.

Aligning with strategic and sustainability goals

In 2024, the bank aims to phase out desk phones entirely, further promoting its goals of sustainability. "We expect it will lead to a significant reduction in CO2 emissions annually," as Gavrielides states.

Bank of Cyprus also plans to further leverage the capabilities of Microsoft 365, Teams Premium, and Teams Room along with Teams Phone across various business units. "We want to explore advanced features like waiting lines, pick up rules, and interactive voice response (IVR) possibilities,” Gregoriou remarks. The bank is also considering migrating customer support telephony to Teams Phone. This move is expected to streamline customer interactions, enhance support efficiency, and provide a more cohesive experience for both employees and customers. “We envision a future where our support services are recognized as best-in-class,” concludes Gregoriou.