In today’s rapidly evolving financial services landscape, technology plays a crucial role in enabling business outcomes. Cisco is at the forefront of these technological advancements. Cisco Catalyst Center stands as a testament to this commitment to innovation, particularly in the application of automation use cases.
What is Cisco Catalyst Center
With a customer-centric approach, Cisco has been instrumental in transforming financial institutions by helping them achieve key business outcomes. Core to any digital transformation is the ability to automate as much as possible through Cisco Catalyst Center’s automation capabilities that significantly enhance operational efficiency, security, and customer experience.
Cisco Catalyst Center, a software-driven, intent-based allows a systems administrator to apply business policies to the network, which Catalyst Center then translates into network behaviors. These policies are then monitored, maintained, and adjusted on an ongoing basis to achieve the desired end state. By automating these tasks, IT teams can focus on more strategic initiatives instead of being burdened by routine network management activities.
A Customer Success Story
One of my clients is a leading global bank based in the U.S. They were able to leverage Cisco Catalyst Center to address several critical challenges. Here are four ways it improved the bank’s performance:
- Automating Network Operations: The bank’s expansive network required a significant amount of resources to manage. With Catalyst Center, they were able to automate many of these operations, drastically reducing the labor and time required for network management. This led to cost savings and reduced the likelihood of human error, improving the network’s efficiency and reliability.
- Enhanced Security: Financial services is a prime target for cyber threats, and the bank needed a solution that could provide robust security. Catalyst Center integration with Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and its in-built security features allowed the bank to identify and mitigate threats quickly and effectively. This ensured the protection of sensitive customer data and maintained the bank’s reputation for security.
- Superior Customer Experience: The bank was able to leverage the capabilities of Cisco Catalyst Center to enhance its customer experience. With a stable, secure, and efficient network, they could ensure their services were always available and performing optimally. This led to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.
- Scalability: As a global bank with an ever-expanding customer base, the ability to scale was essential. Cisco Catalyst Center’s scalability allowed the bank to expand its network capabilities as needed, ensuring it could continue to provide a high-quality service as they grew.
Before deploying Catalyst Center, customers would be subject to periodic service degradations, due to routing failures. Post-deployment, Catalyst Center’s network traffic optimization reduced these issues by 25%, resulting in a more satisfying user experience. From a business standpoint that has meant fewer abandoned transactions and greater overall CSAT scores for the bank.
Success with Cisco Catalyst Center
This is just my example of how Cisco has empowered financial institutions through the power of automation however there are other similar published customer success stories. With Cisco Catalyst Center, these organizations have a potent tool that not only simplifies IT operations but also delivers key business outcomes.
The success of Cisco Catalyst Center in financial services underscores the importance of automation in driving digital transformation. By also leveraging the power of predictive and adaptive AI/ML capabilities, financial institutions can improve their network’s reliability, security, and efficiency, ultimately supporting better business outcomes.
- Predictive Analytics: Catalyst Center uses AI and ML to provide predictive analytics, enabling financial institutions to foresee network issues before they occur. This allows for proactive troubleshooting, reducing downtime and ensuring reliable network connectivity, which is crucial for financial operations.
- Adaptability: Through intent-based networking, Catalyst Center can adapt to the changing needs of a financial institution. It can automatically optimize network performance based on the desired outcomes defined by the organization, like prioritizing certain types of traffic or automatically isolating potentially compromised devices.
Take the next steps
The velocity of change in the IT landscape is accelerating at an unprecedented rate. Traditional networking solutions are rapidly becoming obsolete, unable to keep pace with the demands of today’s digital world. The need for automation, observability, and self-healing capabilities is no longer optional; they are critical prerequisites for network success.
Ignoring this evolution is akin to admitting defeat. Businesses that fail to equip themselves with these advanced capabilities risk being unable to compete effectively, with their network becoming a bottleneck rather than a driver of growth. The time to act is now.
Embrace the future of networking with Cisco Catalyst Center, and ensure
your institution remains competitive in the ever-evolving digital landscape.
This is a great success story – it’s really helpful to hear about your learnings. Thanks for sharing, Mandeep!
Hi Maya – I’m thrilled to hear that you found the success story and the learnings I shared to be helpful. Collaborating and exchanging insights with peers like you is what truly enriches our professional community. Once again, I appreciate your support and encouragement. I look forward to any future opportunities where we can continue to learn from each other.
Excellent success story Mandeep, thank you for driving customers’ business outcomes with Catalyst Center!
Hi Christelle,
I’m grateful for your encouraging words on my recent Cisco.com blog post. It’s always a rewarding experience to contribute to our customer’s success, and sharing these stories is just one way we can inspire and inform others about the potential of Catalyst Center.
Your support is greatly appreciated, and it’s colleagues like you who motivate me to keep pursuing excellence in everything we do.
It is good to see the technology we develop, is helping our customers, automate, secure, and scale to provide a superior experience.
Thanks for sharing, this story.
Hi Surendran,
Thank you for your thoughtful feedback on my blog post about the Cisco Catalyst Center. I wholeheartedly agree with you—it’s incredibly rewarding to see the tangible impact our Cisco technology has on helping our customers achieve their goals.