Press Release

BB&T Uses iRise to Improve Online Client Experience for a Host of Online Solutions

Collaborative application simulation helps cut requirements cycle time by 25%

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – Jan. 30, 2008 – iRise®, the world’s leading visualization software company, today announced that BB&T Corporation (NYSE: BBT), the nation’s 14th largest financial holding company, has leveraged iRise to speed delivery of online banking applications by shortening the time it takes for business and key stakeholders to agree on what to build in the first place. By quickly creating and rapidly iterating with medium to high fidelity simulations in collaboration with the business, BB&T has been able to cut requirements cycle time by 25% across a broad portfolio of projects.

"Something special happens when a group of people interact with visual simulations instead of text-based documents," said Guy T. Garrett III, vice president of online implementation for BB&T. "It's much easier for business people to envision the final result, which leads to better requirements, faster. The collaboration features built into iRise accelerated the whole process."

Using iRise, the business analysts at BB&T created medium to high fidelity, interactive simulations for several banking projects. Stakeholders were able to interact with and review the simulations in a collaborative online environment as well as in-person review sessions with the whole team. Changes to the simulation were made iteratively in front of stakeholders at review meetings, speeding feedback and quickly driving consensus. Stakeholders included members of the Legal and Compliance teams, Designers, User Experience professionals, management, Line of Business managers and Business Analysts.

BB&T determined that the iRise iDoc, an encapsulated, stand-alone simulation which can be emailed, was one of the capabilities that proved most useful in terms of collaboration amongst both stakeholders and project sponsors. Moreover, the sophistication of iRise’s version control and integration with requirements management functionality set its system apart from other competitive offerings.

"Simulations ultimately help us improve the online client experience," said Paal Kaperdal, senior vice president of the online channel department at BB&T. "Using iRise we’ve been able to get tremendous feedback directly from our customers early in the definition cycle. That feedback has been invaluable in driving adoption for the bank."

"With standards and expectations for online usability continually rising, our customers have become incredibly diligent in examining what it takes to deliver an intuitive user experience," said Emmet B. Keeffe III, chief executive officer and co-founder of iRise. "By first simulating the design of new financial applications and interfaces in iRise, companies such as BB&T are meeting customer demand for easy-to-use services."

About iRise
iRise software is used by business analysts and usability professionals to create high impact visualizations of custom and packaged applications early in the definition process.  Over 160 companies like Wachovia, CompuCredit, UPS and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center use iRise visualizations to speed up application definition and virtually eliminate confusion between business and IT.  iRise visualizations accelerate application delivery with dramatically less cost and risk, especially when global sourcing is a strategy.  Headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., iRise is backed by Morgan Stanley Venture Partners and has sales offices across North America.

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