Beginning recent in a brand new nation is a frightening journey, crammed with unfamiliar environment and cultural uncertainties. For a lot of immigrants, the help of their group is essential in constructing a brand new life.
Hanmi Financial institution was based in 1982 to be that pillar of help for Korean American immigrants, serving to them obtain their desires. Recognizing the important position of correct banking and monetary help, the founders—profitable enterprise homeowners themselves—aimed to supply the steerage and assets essential for others to thrive. This mission fostered a way of stability and progress throughout the group, making Hanmi a cornerstone of success for numerous people and companies.
“Hanmi actually means ‘Korean American,’ however the title is way more than that. It’s in regards to the capability to attach with our buyer base, the power to attach our group and the power to attach our banking clients with the monetary companies to satisfy the American dream,” says Jenny Park, Hanmi’s Company Advertising Supervisor.
What started within the vibrant and historic Koreatown neighborhood of Los Angeles has blossomed right into a community of 35 branches and eight mortgage manufacturing places of work throughout 9 states. Hanmi Financial institution has develop into a significant lifeline for various communities, addressing the wants of people, small and mid-sized companies, actual property buyers and Korean firms working within the U.S. Over the previous 40 years, Hanmi has not solely expanded its attain however has additionally steadfastly supported the desires of all People, fostering progress and alternative nationwide.
“We serve an essential area of interest locally,” says Navneeth Naidu, Hanmi’s Chief Know-how Officer who has labored at group banks since he immigrated greater than 20 years in the past. “We guarantee that our clients are getting every part they should make their monetary desires come true and meet their monetary wants.”
Hanmi serves as a bridge to progress and achievement, connecting companies with customers and delivering assets to the group. Nevertheless, their community was not assembly the calls for of their increasing operations, risking their capability to supply essential companies and keep buyer belief. Recognizing the necessity for a extra dependable and scalable community, Hanmi took decisive steps to improve their infrastructure, guaranteeing they may proceed to help their group’s monetary wants successfully.
Breaking Free From a Dated and Costly System
Hanmi Financial institution confronted important challenges with their outdated and expensive community system, significantly gradual community speeds. Their legacy MPLS system averaged about 10 Mbps, which was inadequate for contemporary banking wants.
“That was most likely wonderful for a financial institution to function with 10 years in the past, however with the development of applied sciences like IoT and SaaS platforms, it actually grew to become paramount to extend the speeds in any respect of our branches and places of work,” Matthew Spero, SVP of IT Infrastructure, explains.
The community was additionally complicated and costly to take care of, costing $160,000 month-to-month, just like bigger banks. The crew obtained 1,600-page payments, making it troublesome to identify errors. Extra critically, the community hindered the IT crew from offering clients with the instruments they wanted to attain their monetary desires.
“Our clients have caught with us in good occasions and unhealthy occasions, so we requested, how can we assist them? And the way can we assist our staff to attain that aim?” Naidu says. “Workers shouldn’t be worrying about expertise. It must be delivered seamlessly, and I needed my division to attain that.”
The crew explored numerous choices however was repeatedly let down by distributors who couldn’t meet their guarantees. Then, Lumen stood out by providing excessive ranges of uptime and the power to ship companies to all of Hanmi’s areas. “That was an enormous win for us,” Spero says. “They’re extremely versatile to help our rising want for bandwidth for all our functions.”
From Legacy Burden to Fashionable Effectivity
Hanmi Financial institution applied Lumen® SD-WAN throughout all areas, transitioning from the pricey MPLS system to Lumen® Devoted Web Entry (DIA). This strategic shift supplied high-bandwidth connections and enhanced safety features, optimizing knowledge safety and efficiency. With these superior options, Hanmi redesigned and expanded the bandwidth of their knowledge middle infrastructure, in the end shifting to Lumen® IP VPN.
“Being a group financial institution and a small enterprise, it’s generally troublesome to deliver on distributors and discover the most effective particular person for the job,” Spero explains. “We’d like to have the ability to activate a dime, and Lumen offers us the power to request new companies at a selected location, and their crew will simply merely deal with it. All the things is taken care of for us.”
For example, when an off-net web supplier precipitated an outage at a department and was unresponsive, Hanmi reached out to their Lumen account consultant. Inside half-hour, Lumen intervened and ensured the supplier despatched somebody to resolve the problem the identical day.
Via their partnership with Lumen, Hanmi gained extra than simply enhanced speeds and simplified infrastructure; they discovered a devoted accomplice equally invested of their success.
Streamlined Administration and Main Price Financial savings
Hanmi Financial institution’s journey mirrors that of many immigrants—beginning with a dream and overcoming challenges to construct a greater future. Transitioning from MPLS to Lumen® DIA has dramatically improved Hanmi Financial institution’s community, delivering outstanding pace and resilience whereas simplifying administration and slashing prices. By consolidating different distributors into Lumen, Hanmi achieved annual financial savings of $1.2 million—lowering bills by 30–40%.
Since switching to DIA, Hanmi has skilled zero downtime, highlighting the unwavering reliability and stability that each staff and clients now take pleasure in. Spero emphasizes that working with Lumen has been transformative for Hanmi’s IT division and your complete firm.
“We’ve got been utilizing Lumen companies for greater than 10 years and have seen the arc of T1s, Ethernet/MPLS and now DIA. Maintaining our core community infrastructure with the identical firm, identical invoice and identical crew has been extraordinarily useful. The secure and diversely peered Lumen community permits our knowledge to move effectively to develop into clear to our workers,” Spero says.
With a quicker and extra versatile community, Hanmi can concentrate on delivering a superior and strong banking expertise to their clients. Lumen performs a pivotal position on this journey.
“Lumen gives the connectivity and stability we have to scale,” says Park. “Via our partnership with Lumen, we are able to provide our clients a secure service, which permits us to develop and develop into stronger as a enterprise.”
This collaboration has been instrumental in Hanmi’s digital transformation, guaranteeing they’re well-equipped to help their group’s monetary aspirations as they proceed to evolve. With Lumen because the spine of their community, Hanmi Financial institution is fortifying the bridge that connects immigrants to their desires to assist guarantee each buyer can financial institution on a brighter future.
To study extra about Hanmi Financial institution’s transformation, learn the total buyer success story.
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