Getronics Wang workers in Liberty Lake have developed new software that integrates banking systems used to provide customer service at branch locations, at call centers, and over the Internet, says Leni Selvaggio, Getronics marketing programs director here.


Because of the innovation, Getronics is expected to boost employment here in the coming year, although Selvaggio declines to disclose by how much, and give the Spokane area group a broader mission. Employment levels have dipped in the past year, Selvaggio says. The company now has about 350 full-time equivalent employees here, down from 450 a year earlier.


The software, called Globalfs, provides a framework that links teller terminals, touch-tone banking systems, call center systems, Internet banking links and a banks mainframe computer, says Carl Paukstis, a Liberty Lake-based vice president of software development. That capability would eliminate the need for separate software programs, often each from a different vendor, to handle transactions conducted in branches, over the phone, or on line, Selvaggio says.


Paukstis adds that thanks to the software, information can move quickly and easily between all parts of the system. For example, if a bank customer were banking by phone with a touch-tone or voice-recognition system, then linked up amid the transaction with a customer-service representative, all the account and transaction information he or she had just entered would be available instantly on the customer-service representatives terminal at a call center as soon as the customers call came through.


The first installation of the new software system is under way at Central Bancompany, a Jefferson City, Mo.-based bank-holding company. The installation began last summer in the teller areas of its bank branches, and other capabilities are being added in phases.


The Getronics group here developed the software and will continue to refine and enhance applications for the basic framework, Selvaggio says. Paukstis says the group will add more call-center features and will develop advanced web-related features, such as browser-based banking and the ability to do transactions through personal organizers such as the Palm Pilot. Getronics expects to hire people here with skills in those areas.