Optimizing internal service workflows with Zendesk and Myndbend

Opportunity Bank of Montana opened its doors in Helena in 1922 as American Building and Loan. Today, the financial institution is proud to celebrate more than 100 years of serving individuals, families, and businesses across the state.

Opportunity Bank of Montana is a full-service community bank with 30 branches across the state, providing a broad range of banking solutions—including agricultural, consumer, and commercial lending products, along with a comprehensive suite of digital banking services. The bank was recently recognized by Newsweek as one of Montana’s top regional banks.

To uphold its high standard of service and prepare for continued growth, the team at Opportunity Bank proactively sought to enhance internal support workflows for greater efficiency and scalability.

Opportunities for integration and workflow optimization

In an industry where operational efficiency, compliance, and timely service are critical, Opportunity Bank of Montana’s IT and operations teams play a pivotal role in keeping staff productive and information secure.

For years, the bank utilized a ticketing system provided by their managed service provider (MSP). While functional, the MSP-managed system was overly complex, rigid, and difficult for employees to navigate.

Additionally, internal technology support requests were funneled through shared mailboxes, phone calls, and paper-based processes. Internal teams had little control over customization, leading to workflows that didn’t match the bank’s needs and presented several issues, including:

– Limited accountability: IT leaders struggled to see ticket ownership and status in real time.
– Inefficiency and errors: Manual provisioning often resulted in missed steps or delays.
– Audit risks: Documentation for compliance was inconsistent and time-consuming to prepare.
– Scalability limits: The legacy setup was not adaptable for future growth or expansion into other departments.

“It was clunky at best, painful at times, and just not working for us,” recalls Kristin McDonald, Information Systems Support, at Opportunity Bank. ”We needed a system that made us accountable and helped our end users more easily do their jobs.”

Revolutionizing employee service

To remedy the situation, the IT team started the search for an internal ticketing platform that was powerful, yet simple—something scalable for the future, but adaptable for the bank’s current needs. Zendesk emerged as the ideal choice.

From day one, the implementation was tailored to the bank’s needs and workflows. The initial help center was intentionally simple—just two buttons: Submit a Request and Check Existing Requests. Today, the solution has grown to support:

— A total of 68 agents, up from the initial 10 agents
— Additional departments beyond IT, including Marketing, Loan Servicing, and Deposit Operations.
— A central employee help center with 20+ custom forms for different departments.

“I don’t want to overstate this, but Zendesk has revolutionized our support team and our ability to service our end users,” says McDonald.

Newfound accountability and efficiency

Zendesk gave the IT team the structure they needed to manage service requests from across the bank, replacing outdated PDF-based workflows and email chains with fast, automated, and auditable support.

Adoption grew organically: teams like Marketing, Loan Operations and Deposit Operations asked to join the platform after seeing the results.

“Departments came to us out of the blue and said, ‘We want to get onboard and use Zendesk.’ It’s become the obvious choice across the bank,” says McDonald.

As Zendesk adoption spread rapidly across departments, the bank determined it needed a more scalable, self-service internal help center. The team decided to partner with Zendesk Professional Services to redesign the help center for future growth, adding centralized, role-based service access for all internal employees.

“Every employee now has a custom help desk icon on their desktop—double click the icon and it takes you straight to the Help Center,” explains McDonald. “No guessing, no wasted time.”

Myndbend automation simplifies the complex

Opportunity Bank of Montana also leveraged Zendesk’s ease of integration to build a streamlined internal service ecosystem with Myndbend.

Myndbend Process Manager automates multi-step processes such as onboarding, offboarding, and access provisioning by routing tickets through sequenced approvals, triggering actions in other systems, and updating records without human intervention.

With Myndbend, the team automated complex, approval-based workflows like onboarding and change control—-generating child tickets, syncing approvers, and sequencing actions based on team and software dependencies.

By integrating device tracking and automated user provisioning directly within Zendesk, the team streamlined key IT workflows. These seamless solutions helped eliminate bottlenecks, reduce manual errors, and establish consistent, auditable processes across the employee lifecycle.

The Myndbend integration was initially recommended by the bank’s Zendesk account manager, and after a collaborative implementation, it became a cornerstone of the bank’s compliance process.

“Now we know exactly who owns a ticket, what work has been done, and how long it takes,” offers Shannon Copple, IS&T Support Manager at Opportunity Bank of Montana. “That accountability improves efficiency across the bank.”

Setting a new standard for service scalability

What started as a search for more accountability and ownership, from a service team perspective, turned into a platform for scalable, AI-ready internal service delivery without operational complexity.

Today, the bank is able to handle more than 2,000 tickets monthly in Zendesk, without having added additional headcount. Automated onboarding and termination workflows have significantly reduced manual errors and processing time.

Meanwhile, Zendesk’s unified ticketing gives managers visibility into ticket ownership, resolution statistics, and trends—data that now informs staffing and workload decisions.

“We use the ticket data for staffing decisions,” says Copple. “We can justify new hires, move staff to different departments, and understand what’s truly being solved.”

Automated and auditable workflows help Opportunity Bank of Montana meet the rigorous compliance standards of the financial industry. Every approval and provisioning action is clearly documented, supporting transparency and reducing the likelihood of audit issues.

“We’ve gone from paper forms and guesswork to a fine-tuned, accountable process,” says McDonald. “Our auditors love it—it’s literally a print-and-present moment now.”

AI on the horizon

The IT team is preparing to roll out Zendesk AI for employee self-service, starting with an AI agent in the help center. A growing knowledge base will support this move, enabling proactive, conversational support while maintaining compliance.

“We’re being very protective, but AI chat could be a game changer,” concludes McDonald. “We just need to lay the groundwork first.”