【3D Panoramas News】Why a Leading North American Bank Uses Matterport 3D Digital Twins?
BMO uses Matterport's digital twins to streamline procurement and ongoing branch projects across hundreds of locations
"After the acquisition of Bank of the West, we realized we needed a tool to replace multiple branch visits, so we brought in Matterport. Within a few months, we were able to virtually visit every branch. Originally, the digital twins 3D panoramic scans were intended to assist with the rebranding initiative; however, as word of Matterport spread, other departments needing information about the branches could use the tool without needing to visit in person." – Lisa Near, Project Manager, BMO North American Physical Channels, Bank of the West (BOTW)
Results
• Saved over $500,000 in 15 months by reducing travel and on-site visits
• Reclaimed 6,000 hours of required survey work
• Successfully rebranded 503 BOTW branches
• Growing demand from inter-departmental teams to access the digital twin platform
• Centralized all BOTW asset repositories into one place on the Matterport platform
Previously, they relied on multiple on-site visits to each location to scope the required design and technology updates. Critical documents like floor plans were often missing, creating early design hurdles. Often, architects would be hired to travel to sites, manually measure, sketch, and then digitally draft floor plans, with turnarounds of weeks or even months before initial design work could begin.
Of particular concern was BOTW’s unique green branding color, requiring evaluation of interior rebranding needs at each location. While cost savings was a goal, time and resource efficiency were critical to ensuring properties reflected the BMO brand as back-end systems converted from BOTW to BMO, all without disrupting customer service.
BMO had previously dabbled in smaller virtual tour offerings, so they turned to Matterport for a scalable, end-to-end solution; it offered enterprise-grade security, an elegant interface, a network of over 700 capture services technicians globally, design document exports, and the unparalleled 3D visual fidelity stakeholders needed.
"After the acquisition of BOTW, our deadlines were tight. By engaging Matterport to scan the BOTW branches at a lower cost, we eliminated multiple visits to branches by various teams and vendors, which saved time and resources," said Lisa Near, Senior Manager, Process Improvement, BMO.
The BMO team configured a set of tiered design packages to assign to each location, with some branches needing a full interior rebranding while others only required modest changes, such as painting green walls blue.
Lisa explained, "The design managers will actually often set up a Matterport, so if we're looking at a proposed branch design, and the architect puts a digital screen on a wall, but we don't like the location, we'll all go look at the Matterport and immediately decide, 'No, we don't want it here, we want it there.'"
The technology team also urgently needed to determine equipment and network dependencies, such as auditing all BOTW server rooms, phone hardware, and computer stations. They could perform these investigations within Matterport instead of sending someone to the site. "In some cases, you can zoom in close enough and get asset tags, which is exciting!" Lisa added.
BMO leveraged Matterport's design document exports to create a complete asset supplement in a fraction of the existing timeline. BOTW didn't have floor plans for every branch, but BMO could purchase a floor plan for any scanned branch directly through their Matterport account. If business owners didn't have CAD files, they could now also obtain these from Matterport. Lisa said, "We could send an architect out to draw it, but why not just send Matterport to get the scan, floor plan, and CAD files? We submitted a capture service request, and within a week, Matterport scanned and uploaded it. We requested the floor plan files and moved locations two days later. If we had done it the traditional way, it could have taken up to a month."
Each branch was scanned twice, once to capture existing conditions and once after rebranding. While it was initially thought that they could only afford one scan per BOTW branch, they learned that within their budget, they could scan each branch before and after, with enough remaining funds to scan traditional BMO branches. Affordability stimulated the expansion of scope, accelerating Matterport digital twin projects across the entire U.S. branch portfolio. "I think it surprised everyone," Lisa said.
As a team, the benefits of having full remote access to a site's physical environment at any time had a tremendous impact on the project's success and supported BMO's corporate sustainability initiatives. All 500+ BOTW locations were captured within three months. The team reduced scheduling and travel time, as well as the number of disruptive branch visits, thereby eliminating redundant travel emissions within the BOTW footprint.
"News of this fantastic 360-degree tool we had quickly spread, and people came out of the woodwork, I tell you," Lisa emphasized.
BMO used digital twins instead of multiple field visits, reclaiming approximately 6,000 hours of survey time across 503 locations, about 12 hours per branch. With BMO undertaking over 50 new branch projects annually, the value of Matterport's end-to-end solution in saving them time, money, and carbon emissions will continue to play a huge role.
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