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Transcript of FedLine Advantage® with Secondary VPN Video

Last year, the Geo D. Warthen Bank’s primary FedLine Advantage Virtual Private Network (VPN) device, which helps to provide secure access to Federal Reserve Bank Services, was impacted by an internet service provider (ISP) disruption. The outage impacted the Geo D. Warthen Bank’s ability to access the FedLine Advantage Solution via its primary FedLine Advantage VPN, but the bank was able to rely on its secondary FedLine Advantage VPN device to continue accessing Federal Reserve Bank Services. Below is a transcript of our video (Off-site Link) featuring the bank’s experience.

FedLine Advantage® with a secondary VPN device helps make The Geo. D. Warthen Bank stronger

My name is Lamar Doolittle, and I’m CIO here at The Geo. D. Warthen Bank. As you can see, we’ve been in business for quite a long time. When I first started working at the bank, one of the things I was put in charge of was disaster recovery and business continuity. I realized we needed some sort of backup to this very, very vital system – the FedLine Advantage plays a vital role in many services that we offer to our corporate customers.

We have two locations, and each location have the VPN connection to FedLine Advantage. The main one here at our main office is used on a daily basis. The one at our branch is basically a backup system.

Last year we had an outage here in the middle-Georgia area with our local ISP, and we kept waiting and waiting and waiting thinking, "Oh, it will be back on," but it never did. But, as the day went with our conversations with our branch office, we found out that their internet was still live and well. So we just went to our branch – took all our business there – all our wires, our ACH files and processed our cash letter there and took care of everything as if we did it right here at our main office.

The installation process is very straightforward and simple. The local EUAC at a bank or the administrator can log in with their credentials, and then there’s a whole page of set-up where it guides you through the whole process where you’ll learn about the different options depending on your network. During the process, you have a phone call with the Federal Reserve if you have any technical questions.

My account executive is exactly what you’d like to have in an account executive. Brenda’s always there when I need her. Always supplying me with the answers to the questions I need. I feel like she’s more a friend than an account executive.

The services from the Federal Reserve have always been top-notch. Everyone’s always friendly, professional and very consistent.

From a disaster recovery scenario, I think all banks should have a backup VPN system as we do. It certainly lends to your reliability as a bank partner with all the businesses that you deal with. I think the value – it’s invaluable, in fact – having a backup system like this.