By Kevin Jepson

SAINT PAUL, Minn.-City & County CU came late to the paperless revolution but seems to have quickly made up for lost time, using 40% less paper over the past year.

Stuck in a vendor’s item processing contract until 2010, City & County here had to wait until last year to take full advantage of Check 21 technology, which helps reduce paper, said Patrick Pierce, president and CEO at the $360-million CU.

“Check 21 was the initial call for us to go paperless, but then we began noticing other efficiencies,” explained Pierce. “It made sense to deploy a range of paperless technology all at once in order to make the most of our members’ money.”

Last year’s Check 21 rollout included remote deposit capture, image capture at the teller and electronic receipts, all through technology provided by Vista, Calif.-based Bluepoint Solutions. Mobile deposit is coming to the CU next quarter, Pierce added.

City & County didn’t stop with Check 21 technology, implementing Bluepoint’s electronic content management system to index and access loans, account statements, membership cards, teller receipts, transaction data-”everything we used to keep in a paper folder for the member,” Pierce said.

The result is that City & County cut back on 4,000 pages of paper in one year, down to 61,000 pages, said Erin Coleman, vice president, Bluepoint Solutions. “I was startled at the progress City and County made in a short period of time.”

City & County now pushes paper as part of 74 business processes, down from 88 before deploying paperless technologies, Pierce added.

That’s despite the mountain of paper that accompanied the CU’s 279% monthly increase in indirect lending, a process that is typically paper-heavy. Regulations regarding the collections process have also required the CU to use more paper.

Normalized for the increase in lending volume and regulatory requirements, the paperless project accounts for a 37% reduction in paper, Coleman said. Paper specifically used in bankruptcies was reduced 97%, and the front line uses 45% fewer pages.

‘Significant’ Savings Expected

City & County has not yet investigated ROI from the technology, but cost savings are most likely “significant,” according to Pierce.

Pierce said he appreciates the way Bluepoint technology mirrors City & County’s “member-centric” approach to document management. “Everything goes into the member’s electronic file according to account number, just like we were doing with paper.”

When a member hands the CU a piece of paper, such as a check or loan document, the front-line scans each page immediately instead of stacking them up for batch scanning later.

“If you send loan documents to a scanning station, the loan officer will have to make a paper copy so they can refer to the documents meanwhile,” Pierce said. “Where’s the savings in that?”

City & County still sees a lot of paper in two areas-signature-based documents and human resources documents, he continued.

Once the CU deploys a new loan origination system next year, electronic signature technology will help eliminate signature-based paper, said Pierce.

City & County wants to be able to encrypt human resources documents before converting them to electronic processes, he said. Bluepoint will provide encryption capabilities in a future release and currently enables the CU to lock down documents with access permissions tools, Coleman said.

Pierce has mandated the paperless revolution at City & County, which is why the project has been so successful, said Andrew Tilbury, Bluepoint CMO. “The biggest obstacle we see among our clients deploying an effective content management system is that it doesn’t come from the top.” City & County employees must make a case for each piece of paper they use, he said.

March 1, 2012, City & County will join Bluepoint Solutions for a one-hour webinar to present and discuss the credit union’s deployment of FASTdocs one year after implementation. Click here to learn more about this session and to register.

Originally appeared in Credit Union Times | October 11, 2011

The increasing awareness of and demand for mobile deposit has placed credit unions at an interesting crossroads.

Waiting too long to launch the service places them at risk of losing members to competition. However, hastily rushing to market with a mediocre solution and fragmented strategy could be even more costly in the long run.

Click here to read the full article.

Originally appeared in Credit Union Magazine, By Patrick Totty | July 01, 2011

Originally published by Credit Union Journal | Monday, June 13, 2011

2011 marks the first year that more people will buy smart phones instead of traditional mobile phones.

Widespread usage of smart phones is causing a fundamental shift in how credit unions communicate to, connect with, and engage members.

Despite overwhelming data demonstrating the increased reliance and adoption of mobile technology, a large portion of the credit union industry is slow, in some cases even wary, to embrace this new reality. In 2007, 5% of consumers used their mobile device for banking. That has now increased to 19% according to Javelin Research. By 2015, it is expected to reach 41%. The early adopters in financial services have made their move and proven the viability of mobile banking. It is time for the rest of the credit unions to follow suit. If they don’t, they risk losing relevance, and losing members.

The newest generation of mobile banking applications has given credit unions the ability to extend their reach by creating a mobile branch network. What is a mobile branch? A smart phone or tablet banking application packed with so much functionality that the end-user almost has no need to walk into a brick and mortar location.

Where does mobile RDC fit into the mobile branch? At the heart of it.

Mobile RDC gives credit unions the ability to capture a greater amount of deposits and reduce branch traffic, while improving member service. The addition of mobile check deposit functionality to a robust mobile banking solution is a crucial aspect of the mobile branch.

Click here to read the full article.

By Andrew Tilbury

Thanks to the combined marketing efforts of USAA, Chase, and PayPal, consumers are aware of mobile deposit. They see the value in the technology and intuitively understand its benefits. But with the exception of a few select financial institutions, mobile deposit is not yet widely available to most consumers. Mobile deposit has created a new, strategic opportunity for credit unions to protect current member relationships and attract new ones.

Financial institutions have reached a crossroads with mobile capture. They must respond to consumer demand, but with so much conflicting information about this game-changing technology coming from vendors, technology providers, journalists, members, and other institutions, there are a lot of questions to answer and key decisions to make.

What You Need to Know
There are several critical questions to answer when evaluating vendors. How secure is the service? How are the checks processed and cleared? What are the success rates? How are duplicates detected and handled? Where does mobile fit in with other Check 21 and remote deposit capture (RDC) points? What is the best way to handle the check archive and images? How much work does the service require from credit union staff? Which is better, an outsourced or an in-house solution?

But the most important question to consider when surveying the vendor landscape and comparing the merits of their solutions is: Which is better, mobile deposit that is integrated with a mobile banking application or a standalone application? How a credit union deploys mobile deposit directly impacts its members’ reactions and the solution’s adoption rate.

The Importance of User Experience
Because the success (or failure) of a credit union’s mobile channel depends on its member user experience, credit unions need to examine the issue from the perspective of their members. Do users want to make a deposit in one application, exit that application, and then open a primary mobile banking application to verify the deposit posted or check the available balance? Do users want to wait until they can consult their credit union’s banking website? If users have to switch applications to transfer funds or make a payment on a loan or credit card, can they do so with a single set of login credentials or do they need to remember two different logins and passwords? Can users look up a check image from that deposit in their credit union’s online banking or mobile banking?

Members are aware of the technology available to them. And they won’t hesitate to find another institution if their credit union’s offering doesn’t live up to their expectations. With that in mind, do you still want to consider a standalone application, even as a stopgap measure?

Learn from the Early Adopters
Mountain America Federal Credit Union ($2.9B, West Jordan, UT) recently launched a fully integrated mobile deposit service within its mobile banking platform. Click here to watch an On-Demand webinar that examines how Mountain America deployed its mobile deposit application as part of its overall mobile strategy and what it means to its membership.

Originally appeared in Credit Union Times, April 13, 2011

With “technology” as your name and Silicon Valley as your home, you’d better be able to serve up the goods when it comes to offering your members leading-edge banking products.

Tech CU expects to go live in June with the mobile RDC service from Bluepoint Solutions Inc. of Vista, Calif., whose marketing and communications director, Andrew Tilbury, said he’s seeing others considering the same move themselves.

Click here to read the full article.

Originally appeared in Credit Union Journal, April 11, 2011

VISTA, Calif.-Improving a credit union’s document-management capabilities increases operating efficiency, reduces expenses, and bolsters the bottom line, shared Andrew Tilbury.

Savings, Tilbury said, not only come from lowering costs for lost items, but as staff sift through less paper they find documents faster and increase efficiency. Tilbury reminded that HR expenses are often one of the biggest budget line items, and that teller capture keeps teller stations in balance real time, eliminating a great deal of overtime.

Click here to read the full article.

Originally appeared in Credit Union Journal, April 4, 2011

VISTA, Calif. Companies that provide item processing confirm they, too, are seeing a trend by CUs to look to providers beyond corporate CUs for the service.

Andrew Tilbury, director of marketing and communications for Bluepoint Solutions, which provides solutions to support intermediate item processing steps, such as check imaging and bundling items into a cash letter, has seen an increase in CUs choosing its products to support inclearing.

“Last year we added 25 customers who elected to go in-house with their item processing and I expect that trend to continue.”

Click here to read the full article.

Originally appeared in Credit Union Journal, April 4, 2011

CLEVELAND  From tips on getting started with the Federal Reserve Bank on item processing to time-savings steps in the conversion process, three experts provided advice on working with the Fed.

[Sean] Rodriguez [the Federal Reserve Banks' national sales and marketing director] pointed out that every credit union has an assigned account executive at the Fed who can assist with identifying the right set of services and guide the customer through the setup process. “Credit unions can get their account executive’s contact information by entering their ABA into My FedDirectory on the home page of FRBservices.org.”

Andrew Tilbury emphasized the importance of Rodriguez’ advice. The director of marketing and communications for the Vista, Calif.-based Bluepoint Solutions stated that he is aware that CUs that don’t already have a relationship with he Fed often don’t know who to call.

Click here to read the full article.

Originally appeared in Credit Union Journal, April 4, 2011

HOUSTON  Working directly with the Federal Reserve Bank has given JSC FCU better control of its item processing, saved money, and eliminated worry over recapitalizing the corporates.

JSC already had a relationship with the Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas for ACH processing and partnered with Bluepoint Solutions to handle the intermediate steps, such as imaging of items, bundling those into a cash letter, and item removal.

Click here to read the full story.