SoftwareOne case study

Kvika and SoftwareOne take the call with automated compliance recording for Microsoft Teams

Icelandic bank improves its compliance processes by automating call recordings

There is one important fact to remember about Icelanders, and it is that they take their financial regulations very seriously. Consequently, for the employees of Kvika Bank in the capital Reykjavik, staying on the right side of the country’s Financial Supervision Authority is extremely important.

Kvika Bank provides insurance services, asset management, commercial banking, and investment banking. The company also operates a UK division that offers corporate finance, investment management, and secured lending. It seeks to foster long-term relationships with its customers by providing high-quality and efficient financial services in these core areas.

For several years, the bank’s IT department has worked extensively with Sensa, a SoftwareOne (formerly Crayon) company. Kvika particularly valued Sensa’s approachable attitude, excellent communications skills, and deep expertise, attributes that enabled the company to clinch this vital project.

Jóhannes Páll Friðriksson, Information Technology Team Leader at Kvika, said; “Our relationship with Sensa goes back over a decade, with projects covering insurance products and on-premises solutions for Skype. Later on, we switched to Microsoft Teams for voice calls. We now have more than 200 users who take telephone calls through Teams Voice over IP (VoIP) routing, meaning that our customer representatives field all their inquiries through Teams.”

Client: Kivka Bank
Industry: Finance, Insurance
Platform: Azure Cloud
Services: Digital transformation
Country: Iceland

We now have more than 200 users who take telephone calls through Teams Voice over IP (VoIP) routing.

Automation eliminates human error

Although Teams already provides the facility to record individual conversations, this functionality requires users to press the record button. As it operates in a regulated environment, Kvika must ensure that it records and archives all customer interactions in case of legal action or subsequent follow-up from the regulator.

“Because of the strict laws and regulations we have to follow, simply relying on users to press record every time was an error-prone and inefficient approach. We also needed to ensure that our customer representatives were meeting our professional standards requirements,” said Friðriksson. “However, Teams does not provide a system-based recording solution, which is why we turned to Sensa.”

Because of the strict laws and regulations we have to follow, simply relying on users to press record every time was an error-prone and inefficient approach.

To address this issue, the Sensa team at SoftwareOne developed a Managed Compliance Recording add-in for Microsoft Teams. The design brief for the project was critical: “What’s most important is that the user doesn’t have to do anything,” said Friðriksson. “As soon as they answer the incoming call, the system starts recording and it stores the audio recording when the conversation completes.”

Andri Örvar Baldvinsson, Collaboration Leader at Sensa, explained the key design decisions. “We had to ensure that the customer could choose the storage location, whether in the cloud or on-premises, as that flexibility was a central requirement. We then built the Managed Compliance Recording on Microsoft Azure technology, based on a certified solution from Verint, a global leader in customer engagement.”

“Using Verint running on Azure, we were able to employ features, such as multi-tenancy with compartmentalized security and the choice of storage locations to integrate the Managed Compliance Recording into the Microsoft 365 S3 subscription. We applied Azure and Microsoft best practices, such as employing groups to assign functionality, thereby reducing the risk should anything break,” said Baldvins

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Developed with customers’ needs in mind

The system required a complex onboarding path, reflecting the mission-critical role that excellent customer service plays in Kvika’s business model. Alexander Waldhaus, Director of Global Modern Workplace Services at SoftwareOne, said, “We only got sign-off from Kvika when the system did exactly what they wanted it to do. We created masses of onboarding documentation covering every aspect of the Managed Compliance Recording, particularly what should or should not be recorded. This solution is completely tailored to our customer’s needs and we both carried out extensive quality checks to ensure that our mutual goals had been achieved.”

Another key factor in this business relationship is the ongoing development and support for the Managed Compliance Recording. “We continue to enhance and improve this product in conjunction with Kvika’s IT department, incrementally adding features that incorporate user feedback. When we have a stable release, we notify Kvika,” Waldhaus said.

Both Kvika and SoftwareOne are ISO 27001-certified companies, so deploying any updates involves a highly process-oriented approach. “Kvika implements a 27001-based development-staging-production environment,” said Friðriksson. “We need to ensure that security is in place, and if anything breaks during deployment, we have to be able to restore the operating environment rapidly.”

The Managed Compliance Recording certainly contributes to greater peace of mind within Kvika’s IT department. “It’s a known solution that the FSA in Iceland accepts. It’s also highly expandable, so we can add many more features. We’re not using it to its full capacity yet,” said Friðriksson.

Recording adds value to customer service development

User feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. "Managed Compliance Recording is incredibly easy to use, as it just works in the background recording every incoming and outgoing call,” said Friðriksson.

“What’s good is that our users don’t see it as snooping on them – in fact, they find it comforting to know that the recording is there. If they have a tough call, then they can easily recall that conversation through a simple interface and then review it with their supervisor, or, if it was particularly upsetting, with a mental health professional. We see this system as an integral part of looking after the welfare of our employees that spans both IT and HR departments. Certainly, nobody has said they don’t want it!”

What’s good is that our users don’t see it as snooping on them – in fact, they find it comforting to know that the recording is there.

“We’re working with Kvika on a number of exciting future improvements,” said Waldhaus. “Improved auditing is very much a priority, but artificial intelligence and machine learning could one day lead to voice analytics identifying potential trigger words or even the tone of voice in a conversation to create a real-time alert to a supervisor. However, that approach would need voice analytics for Icelandic.”

“Our relationship with SoftwareOne has been very productive. Sensa’s experience with vertical solutions will enable us to extend the program’s capabilities – we certainly have plenty of use cases to incorporate. And, importantly, Managed Compliance Recording has already helped shield Kvika from potential prosecution,” said Friðriksson.