Exinda, a global provider of next-generation WAN optimization and application performance assurance solutions, today announced that Michigan-based First State Bank has implemented its Exinda Edge Suite to assure the performance of its critical financial applications and improve both the employee and customer experience at its 13 locations in Macomb County.

With Exinda, First State has experienced more than 40 percent performance improvement for critical applications across its network.

First State Bank required a cost-effective WAN optimization solution to provide customers at its branch offices the same level of service and user experience as at its Operations Center. After testing two competitive solutions, First State selected Exinda to help solve the performance issues it was experiencing with its critical customer-facing financial applications.

“Community banking is all about customer service, and it is critical that our applications perform at a high level across the enterprise,” said Tristan Smith, head of IT for First State Bank. “With Exinda in place, our employees are now able to provide a high level of customer support at all of our locations. Our T1 MPLS circuits are now performing like 3 Mbps circuits.”

One of First State’s applications, an image archival solution that allows bank employees to check signatures, and review archived statements and documents, was experiencing performance issues due to the increased bandwidth demand from other applications. With Exinda in place, this core application now loads in less than 30 seconds. “It has completely revolutionized the way our team is able to function,” Smith said. In its mortgage processing center, First State experienced similar slowed results with a mortgage application when flipping from page to page. With Exinda, this was reduced to 3 seconds per page.

First State Bank is now so confident in its network that it is looking to deploy new applications, such as virtual desktop infrastructure, as soon as 2013. “Prior to Exinda, bandwidth constraints began to limit adding new applications,” Smith said. “Exinda supports our goal to be an innovation leader.”

Exinda Edge is the first and only integrated WAN optimization suite designed specifically for branch networks. Exinda Edge delivers actionable performance insights, policy-based service level assurance, and profile-driven application optimization in an easy-to-use package across a variety of powerful hardware and virtual appliances. Exinda Edge not only offers traditional WAN optimization services, but also adds Internet traffic containment as well as user, application and other contextual bandwidth-allocation policies. More than 11,000 global branch offices now collaborate on the Exinda Branch Network.

About Exinda

Exinda is a proven global supplier of next-generation WAN optimization and application assurance solutions. The company has helped more than 2,500 organizations in over 80 countries worldwide assure application performance, improve the end-user experience, contain recreational applications and reduce network operating costs for the IT executive. For more information, please visit http://www.exinda.com.

About First State Bank

First State Bank is headquartered in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. With over 94 years of service and $570 million in assets, First State Bank serves Macomb County with 11 branch offices located in Chesterfield Township, Clinton Township, Eastpointe, Macomb Township, Richmond, St. Clair Shores, Sterling Heights, Washington Township, and a Loan Center in Sterling Heights. For more information, please visit www.thefsb.com.