By Graham Brooks, Strategic Account Director, Cradlepoint EMEA

As consumers cautiously return to the UK high street in the past few weeks, banks can expect customer footfall in branch to rise accordingly. But whether it’s checking in for a mortgage appointment or cashing in a cheque, awareness of the ongoing potential health risks must be top of mind.

At the same time, the pandemic has forced a transition to the future bank branch. This means that there will be less people and more machines – digital signs, contactless devices, and new cash deposit systems.

To ensure they continue to provide a service that attracts new customers, banks must digitise their branches. And wireless technology is going to form the underlying infrastructure that makes that possible.

Wireless WAN providing reliability

Traditional banks now face their biggest challenge in history: digital-only banking. Over two-thirds of participants in a 2020 study planned to transition to a digital-only bank in the future. It’s therefore vital that traditional banks running physical branches update in-branch customer experience to compete with the new pack on the prairie. Reliability plays a big part. So does trust.

The future of in-branch experience lies in technologies such as IoT, VR/AR, and AI, all of which are highly data-intensive. Reliable connectivity is therefore critical, and banks should be shooting for zero-downtime connectivity, allowing no room for gaps in service.

To do this, banks can deploy Gigabit-class 4G LTE (LTE Advanced) or 5G adapters that bridge to a traditional ethernet connection, providing a wireless option to the wired-line router. Then, in the rare scenario where wireless connectivity is down, at least one of the WAN connections is always guaranteed to be live. The router has the autonomy to determine when failover is necessary.

Better still, the reliability of modern Gigabit 4G LTE and 5G connectivity now means that failover is often unnecessary. A branch can, therefore, run its network independent of a wired-line connection and benefit from the security and agility of a resilient wireless network, while still providing enterprise-grade connectivity.

Branch network reliability, in this way, will support the bank’s reliability as a whole. In turn, this will fuel the higher standards of customer experience needed to compete with more agile digital-only banks.

The new reality of IoT

The first organised response to stop the spread of the virus around the world was social distancing. While transparent screens can be used to block transmission, the overarching effect of these measures has been a loss of communication capabilities. This will affect banks like it has everywhere else, if not more as a space where interaction is so important.

IoT technology will be core to overcoming these barriers. Digital signage, kiosks, and surveillance cameras will all contribute to improved communication and security, and a better customer banking experience. But to enable such extensive use of IoT devices operating on a single network, banks must ensure they can accommodate such high levels of data transfer. Using Gigabit 4G LTE connectivity to extend its services beyond traditional network infrastructure, banks will achieve the required levels of bandwidth.

Hybrid connections managed in the cloud

With high volumes of data being transferred across the network, security and availability should be at the top of the agenda when digitising bank branches. But these are not always easy to implement, especially in an environment with several complex networks of endpoints.

Graham Brooks

For example, marketing teams need to push personalised content to customers on digital signs and IT teams need to set visitors up on a guest WiFi network. These operations require the guarantee of security and availability, with trust and the customer experience at the core.

Wireless networks excel in this aspect as they can employ the benefits of a cloud-based management system. Cloud-based systems make it easier for bank staff working from home, who can access the same assets and applications from their sofa as they would otherwise have in-branch. The service is the same.

Cloud management systems also provide improved network visibility, giving IT teams endpoint information from across the network as it happens. With security patches being updated on devices simultaneously, leaving reduced time for opportunistic attacks to exploit known vulnerabilities.

Equally, by using a hybrid Gigabit 4G LTE network in tandem with a wired connection, businesses can achieve simplicity from an otherwise complex challenge. The primary wired network can be used to transmit any sensitive information securely, while a separate network using the Gigabit 4G LTE connection runs other in-branch operations.

The branch’s network, in this way, is ‘air-gapped’. The secure data being processed by the operations team runs on an essentially separate network to that of the marketing team’s content. The network will also increase its ability to process more information, with its workload spread out.

The simplest solutions are often the best. In this case, exploiting a hybrid network can address the complexities of security and availability when employing enterprise-grade connectivity.

Invest now for future 5G rewards

As banks continue to adapt their branches over the course of the pandemic, they should invest in business-wide digitisation to secure a sustainable pathway to the future. To achieve this, banks must ensure their network solution enables carrier-class connectivity. It should make use of the full spectrum of connectivity – 4G LTE to 5G – and offer the full spectrum of 5G bandwidth. Branches aren’t going anywhere soon. They must ensure that their services are optimal now, and in ten years’ time.

Fortune favours the bold, and those who chose to adopt revolutionary and innovative technology early are already on their journey. Learning from this, banks that invest now to improve their future infrastructure will thrive once 5G does arrive. Good things do not come to those who ‘wait’. They come to those who prepare well in advance.