Founded in 1874, The Bank of Marion is a regional bank based in southwest Virginia with over a dozen branches across Virginia and Tennessee. Their philosophy is to provide the personal service that is all too often lost in modern banking, while delivering a secure, convenient, and efficient experience powered by technology. In the era of the bank's founding, typewriters were in their infancy of adoption and the mechanical adding machine was an inventor's curiosity. Today, banking is done with software, computers, and mobile phones. For any business to thrive over such a wide range of technological epochs, proactive investment is key: The Bank of Marion invests in the people, processes, and technologies necessary to maintain their stellar, centuries-long reputation. With nearly 150 years in business, it's safe to say that their approach is working.
Tim Ringley is the Vice President & Information Security Officer and has been at the bank since 2010. He's responsible for securing the bank's systems and protecting against the inevitable cyber attacks that all banks receive. When Tim selects a security tool, he always considers the impact it will have on the bank employees that will use it every day. A security solution that disrupts productivity or delivers poor end-user experience is no solution at all. When he learned about The Island Enterprise Browser at a financial services security conference, he saw something new: a security tool that could actually improve user productivity. With full support from the bank's leadership, he rolled out The Enterprise Browser to bank employees as their default web browser.
User Productivity
The bank staff use a variety of web apps - some developed in-house and some external - to conduct business with customers. Since moving from Google Chrome to The Island Enterprise Browser, common workflows they experience every day are simpler and more efficient:
The Bank Teller Test
This is the first tool the security team rolled out where users were not just willing, but genuinely enthusiastic about using it. The banking staff who are naturally a little apprehensive about rolling out new tools were eager to make it their default browser once they saw what it could do.
"It's so rare that you can add a security tool that greatly enhances the security posture of the organization and that the end-users genuinely enjoy." - Tim Ringley
For the bank tellers it's especially important to have a single app to login and access the various apps and resources they need. Some tellers work across several branches throughout the month, so knowing that The Enterprise Browser will give them the same experience on every bank computer eliminates friction and ensures flexibility. Onboarding new tellers is streamlined as well: new employees can login and immediately access everything they need to be productive.
Looking Ahead
For Tim and the InfoSec team, the decision to implement The Enterprise Browser was easy to make. They have simplified their tech stack, improved their security posture, and boosted productivity for bank employees. But let's not stop the story here.
The relationship between The Bank of Marion and Island is still early days, and there's more value to discover in the future. Already, the team was pleasantly surprised at how quickly their requests for new features turned into shipping software. For example, they asked to centrally configure the option to make the bookmarks bar visible and the Island team delivered. Instead of submitting requests through an impersonal web form, Tim and his team can open Slack and instantly connect with their Island support team. Personal connections and customer focus are values that both organizations share.
With their intentional investments in people, process, and technology, The Bank of Marion is well positioned to build on their success and deliver the quality hometown banking service that their customers expect.
About Island
Island, the Enterprise Browser is the ideal enterprise workplace, where work flows freely while remaining fundamentally secure. With the core needs of the enterprise naturally embedded in the browser itself, Island gives organizations complete control, visibility, and governance over the last mile, while delivering the same smooth Chromium-based browser experience users expect. Led by experienced leaders of the enterprise security and browser technology space and backed by leading venture funds -- Insight Partners, Sequoia Capital, Cyberstarts and Stripes -- Island is redefining the future of work for some of the largest, most respected enterprises in the world. Island is based in Dallas with research and development in Tel Aviv and can be reached at info@island.io or (866) 832 7114.
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