Allied Irish Bank (AIB) had an all-too-familiar and costly problem two years ago: its employees kept forgetting their passwords. The bank’s service desk had six full-time employees dedicated to dealing with 160,000 requests for new passwords a year. At peak times, the number of staff increased to eight.

Today, head office employees can reset their passwords at any time of the day and need not queue for up to three minutes on the phone: their calls are answered straightaway.