Thailand's Government Savings Bank Pursues Its Smart Branch Mission with a Huawei SD-WAN Solution

Background

Established in 1913, Thailand's Government Savings Bank (GSB), formerly known as the Savings Office, was initially created as a safe place to store assets, helping Thai people save money in a proper way. For over a century now, GSB has been fully committed to providing reliable, high-quality, and safe financial services for its 25 million customers. And in today's digital world, this storied social bank is now striving to offer Thai people innovative products that promote saving and financial sustainability across generations.

Realizing the need for digital transformation amid the ever-changing demands of its clients over the past decade, GSB has worked closely with partners to develop new services for both staff and customers, in order to guarantee frictionless operations across systems. Indeed, aiming to become "more than just a bank" for all Thais, GSB is determined to help drive the digital economy, contributing to a better society for the generations that are to come.

Customer Requirements and Challenges

With a long-term mission to become a fully digital social bank, GSB was focused on enabling smart, efficient, and safe operations at over 1000 branches. But many of the solutions and products used in the bank’s legacy Information Technology (IT) system were no longer available on the market (having been discontinued), making updates problematic and inevitably leading to high maintenance costs. Indeed, this aging system was holding back GSB’s data transfer to the cloud, therefore jeopardizing future network expansion.

The bank was looking for the right network infrastructure to ensure smooth operations and an identical level of services across the bank's sizable network of branches, big and small. New infrastructure was needed to improve GSB’s efficiency across all banking services, reduce Operations and Maintenance (O&M) costs, and enhance the user experience for both online banking and traditional in-branch interactions.

Huawei Solutions: SD-WAN

Huawei understood GSB’s particular requirements and proposed its Software-Defined Networking in a Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) Solution to help create a strong cloud-based network to accommodate new demands and any future business expansion. The integrated solution is an ideal choice for large financial institutions, thanks to its capability to interconnect headquarters, remote branches, and multiple clouds. The synchronized system ensures service continuity, efficiency, and stability at all branches, without compromising data security. The Huawei SD-WAN Solution’s key features include:

Intelligent ultra-broadband and on-demand interconnection that enables reliable and scalable interconnection between branches, headquarters, and clouds.

Zero-touch configuration that provides simple and reliable service roll-out and maintenance without the need for on-site staff.

Smart O&M with unified management, allowing cloud-based management of Local Area Networks (LANs) and WANs, simplifying system deployment and reducing O&M costs.

Excellent full-service experience that supports emerging technologies such as 5G, Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and the cloud, driving branches toward digital transformation, while paving the way for flexible yet secure business and network expansion.

Customer Benefits

The powerful Huawei network solution has built an intelligent platform for GSB, helping the bank to realize its smart branch mission. The Huawei SD-WAN Solution has accelerated service rollout, reduced O&M costs, and ensured smooth service operations. These benefits are enjoyed by both GSB staff and customers, across all branches and online. This future-proof solution is also ready to accommodate any new demands that arise, with support for fifth-generation networks ensuring sustainable business growth for GSB.

"GSB has 1060 branches nationwide. The amount of data we need to transmit to our branch offices is increasing every day," said Boonson Jenchaimahakoon, GSB’s First Senior Executive Vice President (EVP) for the IT Group. "To eliminate distance as an obstacle, we need interconnection technology that allows all branch staff to work as if they are sitting at head office. The Huawei SD-WAN Solution enables GSB to connect branch offices by seamlessly and quickly transmitting data back and forth between bank branches throughout the country. No matter where the branch is, everything is connected by a full communication network."