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<p><strong><font size=3><span class=ContentHeader><span id=PromptHtmlPlaceholderControl1>ING Direct Canada</span> </span><br><span id=PromptHtmlPlaceholderControl2></p></span></font></strong>
<p>ING DIRECT is the operating name of ING Bank of Canada, a member of ING Group. With worldwide banking and insurance assets exceeding $900 billion (Cdn), ING Group is one of the largest financial services companies in the world. </p>
<p>ING Direct opened its telephone lines and web site to the Canadian public on April 27, 1997. Since then it has grown to over 500,000 Canadian clients, and over $5.0 billion dollars in total assets. ING Direct has clients in every province and territory of Canada. The ING DIRECT currently has over 450 employees in Canada. </p>
<p><strong>Challenge:</strong> </p>
<p>Since being launched in 1997, ING's Intranet quickly grew to an invaluable tool supporting several of the organization's largest business units. Changes to the Intranet content were occurring frequently and consumed valuable time and resources from the IT department. ING's Intranet had grown beyond its initial requirements, and was no longer efficient to maintain using conventional methods. </p>
<p>Many daily activities took place that were time consuming and could be better automated with new technologies. For example, rate changes. Each time a rate changed, information was updated in several locations throughout the Intranet. This manual process was not only time consuming, it increased the risk for error. Additionally, ING's marketing department and call centre had corporate communications and other information that had to be posted regularly. This process involved coordinating the efforts of several people, and required significant time to complete. </p>
<p>In an effort to cut costs, optimize IT resources, and provide a better application for employee interaction with clients, ING determined a fully automated self-service intranet was the answer. The solution had to be user friendly for end-users and administration, and it had to comply with the corporate e-business standards. </p>
<p><b>Solution:</b> </p>
<p>ING spent considerable effort reviewing several 'off-the-shelf' software packages. The evaluations left ING disappointed with the licensing costs and amount of customization each packaged required. With specific criteria and a fixed budget available, ING turned to IBM to recommend a solution. IBM recommended Team Technologies to provide a custom Lotus Domino solution. Team Technologies, with their significant experience in developing Domino-based Intranet applications, made them the perfect choice. </p>
<p>Team Technologies was successful in demonstrating their abilities, and that Lotus Domino exceeded all of the criteria it provided the assurances ING required. </p>
<p>The custom designed Intranet solution for ING incorporated features that enabled a fully customizable content management system through a user-friendly interface. The solution allowed for a select group of users to post data with ease, maintain information in databases, and archive content all with the click of a button. </p>
<p>The Lotus Domino Intranet has enabled departments to benefit from the daily use of its abilities for such things as posting rates, updating competitive analysis information, statistical data on client activities, and training material. The CEO and other top executives have also used the Intranet as a method to communicate company events, and effectively disseminate key pieces of corporate information. </p>
<p>The Intranet solution developed by Team Technologies also integrated the built-in web functions of Microsoft Office. This feature allows content managers to post Microsoft Office documents to be viewable by users without Microsoft Office installed on their desktops. </p>
<p><b>Benefits:</b> </p>
<p>Since Team Technologies' Intranet solution went into production, ING has realized an impressive ROI and benefited from operational efficiencies. Prior to the Lotus Domino solution, the Intranet required two IT employees dedicating approximately 80% of their time to manage and update content. With Team Technologies' solution, these resources have freed up their time for other valuable projects, and only spend a few minutes each week assisting Intranet users. </p>
<p>The application also provides the investment protection ING was searching for as it incorporates into ING's strategic direction for standardising on IBM WebSphere platform for future e-business requirements. </p>
<p>As remarked by Charaka Kithulegoda, IT - Manager, Internet and Special Projects at ING Direct: "Team Technologies did a great job developing and deploying our corporate Intranet. The combination of their expertise and tremendous sense of teamwork resulted in a very successful project." </p></div></div>
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