Global bank implements virtual meeting rooms

ABN AMRO to install 12 virtual meeting rooms to reduce travel costs

ABN AMRO aims to cut travel costs using new technology

Global bank ABN AMRO is implementing 12 virtual meeting rooms throughout its worldwide offices to reduce travel costs while providing real time face-to-face meeting facilities.

The collaboration technology called Halo, supplied by HP, will enable the bank to quickly bring together key business stakeholder.

The new collaboration system will help reduce travel costs and speed up business development.

The meeting studio enables participants in multiple locations to see each other in life-sized images projected on studio-quality displays and communicate in real time.

Benefits will include easier collaboration on banking solutions which are then reused and customised across various locations.

Another benefit will be a reduction in training costs.

The transfer of knowledge around global offices has become much more effective says Craig Hollenbaugh, global head of infrastructure services at ABN AMRO.

‘For example, we could have mortgage teams in the Netherlands and Brazil working together on a mortgage-related service instead of having co-located teams,’ said Hollenbaugh.

‘We will also use Halo as a way to build more agility into the development of new products and services,’ he said.

The bank will initially install studios in six locations; London, Amsterdam, Chicago, Hong Kong, Mumbai and Sao Paulo, with additional studios to be later built at other sites.

Each studio is designed for up to six people and comes equipped with studio-quality audio which is operated via an on-screen user interface.