By Andrew Tilbury

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.

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The right mobile deposit solution directly influences adoption rates. Boost your chances of success by delivering the best user experience.

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.

By Marc Rapport

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.

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By Ray Birch

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.

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By Ray Birch

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.”

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By Ray Birch

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.

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By Ray Birch

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.

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By John Adams

Originally appeared in Bank Technology News, April 2011

Like a summer basketball game at the playground, mobile banking tech firms are trash talking over how mobile remote deposit capture should be offered, though their real dispute is about who can best calm the nerves of banks worried about missing out on the high demand for mobile RDC because of time to market issues.

Andrew Tilbury, a director for Bluepoint Solutions, says mobile RDC “should be fully integrated with a mobile banking app-period… from the user experience side of things, you don’t want to have multiple applications to manage,” he says, adding his firm’s only had one client that was interested in mobile RDC only.

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By Andrew Tilbury

Originally appeared at CUTimes.com, February 25, 2011

Most analysts and experts agree 2011 is the year mobile capture goes mainstream. In fact, I predict within two years this service offering will be as ubiquitous as online banking and bill pay. Your members will demand it, and statistics demonstrate that some members will even go so far as to switch financial institutions if the service isn’t offered at their current institution.

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By Marc Rapport, originally published by Credit Union Times, December 20, 2010

As Check 21 wraps up its first decade, its impact has been considerable, to the point where the Federal Reserve has but one site left for processing [paper] checks…

The Check Clearing Act for the 21st Century “Check 21″ was passed by Congress in October 2003 and took effect a year later.

Then in 2010, remote-deposit capture went mobile, as vendors and financial institutions that saw a market for it hastened to get the service onto BlackBerry, Android and iPhone platforms, further extending to consumers the conveniences that had been reserved for the enterprise itself.

“The cost of handling paper checks is getting so much lower than it used to be that I think we may see a renaissance in their use and in checking accounts,” [Bluepoint CEO Hal] Tilbury said. “They’re also easier to secure against fraud than a debit card.”

“I see equal lines forming to get mobile and home capture solutions and I see teller capture taking over a lot of the back-office work associated with branch capture, but I don’t see checks going away anytime soon.”

Click here to read the full article.