Microsoft Corp. has seen the bank branch of the future, and it is Umpqua Bank's flagship branch in the trendy Pearl District of Portland, Ore.
The Redmond, Wash., software giant recently chose the 2-year-old branch - or "store," as Umpqua calls it - as the backdrop for a video it is producing about technology that it says could transform the way customers conduct their everyday banking.
Ian Sands, the director of Microsoft's Industry Innovations Group, says it plans to use the video at conferences and other events for information technology officers and other company decision-makers to "whet their appetites" for what could be coming this decade.
The Pearl District branch - the first of 11 in Umpqua's new-generation branch network - was built in a renovated warehouse and is designed to be a destination. Customers can sip coffee, browse art, check out a laptop computer from the concierge, or even attend the occasional poetry reading. If they are interested in applying for a loan or opening an account, they can do so with one of the sales associates who roam the floor.
Mr. Sands said Microsoft was drawn to the branch because of its architecture - which he said "jumped out" at him - and its unhurried, unbank-like atmosphere.
"We've looked at banks around the world, and we found that Umpqua has the perfect setting to illustrate some of the farther-reaching aspects of our R&D technologies," he said.
Umpqua's innovative approach to customer service also caught Mr. Sands' attention, largely because Microsoft's banking research, development, and marketing efforts are all about enhancing the experience for customers and employees, he said.
Microsoft's three-minute video starts with a woman seated in the back seat of a taxi who receives an alert on her cell phone/personal digital assistant, letting her know that a particular bank is offering the kind of rate that she wanted to refinance her home.
The device then tells her the location of the nearest branch, which she immediately calls to schedule an interview with a bank employee. She pays for the cab by swiping her device over a point-of-sale payment terminal - such technology is already available in Japan.
When the customer walks into the bank branch, her mobile device sends a signal to the employee's computer that the customer has arrived, so that her account information and refinancing application can be accessed immediately.
The customer approaches a kiosk and fills out the refi application. When the employee notices that some information is missing, the customer finds it on her mobile device, drags her stylus over the information, walks to the computer that has her application on the screen, and touches her stylus to the screen to fill in the missing information.
(Once inside, the customer also passes a gentleman studying a digital marketing display about home equity loans. He touches the display with his own mobile device's stylus, which records the information.)
Mr. Sands emphasized that some of the products are still in the development stage, while others are just concepts. The point Microsoft is trying to get across is that it is developing software that will improve customer service, he said.
Raymond P. Davis, the president and chief executive officer of Umpqua's parent, the $4.9 billion-asset Umpqua Holdings Corp., said customers would love the products in the video not just for the convenience, but for the "cool factor" as well.
"People would see these truly unique things and say, 'That's pretty cool for a bank,' " he said. "That would give them even more of a reason to come into the store."
