Bypassing Human Error Eliminates a Huge Time-Waster

With increased volumes of document images being performed by employees across an institution, the potential exists for human error in the way documents are indexed. Every such error short-circuits the speed and ease of data retrieval and produces cumulative downstream errors.

Consistency is the basic principle of file indexing. Select a document management system that reads the documents you enter and has the intelligence to index them automatically. Indexes are captured directly from the core processor and applied to entire document, preventing lost documents, facilitating research and enhancing the service levels you offer your clients.

(This is the fifth strategy in a six-part series.  Check back each Friday for a new strategy to boost cost-efficiency in Financial Institutions.)

Logical Structuring of Information Dramatically Improves Customer Servicemand Efficiency

Does your call center still require your customers or members to wait for 24 hours to gain access to the transaction? Does a teller need to consult records in two, three or more places to process the transaction or to answer a question about it later? When the auditors arrive, how easily can you give them access to the records they need?

A robust document management system puts everything related to an account or an account-holder in one place. Once you have reduced extra paper, captured incoming paper documents electronically, and expanded your electronic document system to handle all types of documents, you are poised to organize this information in a logical structure that facilitates research and retrieval of records.

The way you use records “by account-holder” is the most logical way to store and manage information. With everything related to that customer or member in virtual folders, any document can be located right where it’s supposed to be instead of somewhere in a growing database with longer and longer search times. Record and transaction integrity is complete.

(This is the fourth strategy in a six-part series.  Check back each Friday for a new strategy to boost cost-efficiency in Financial Institutions.)

Pick up Credit Union Business’s July / August Issue for the complete article, “Captured!  RCCU Tries New Service”

In the July / August 2009 issue of Credit Union Business, Nancy Mann Jackson explores how credit unions can use Bluepoint Systems’ Remote Deposit Capture services like merchant capture attract small businesses without increasing the amount of branch traffic.  By  steering away from strict branch orientation, credit unions such as Red Crown  are able to stay competitive with much larger financial institutions by offering cutting-edge remote deposit technologies.

After exploring several different options for a merchant capture solution, Red Crown settled on Bluepoint because of it’s stable operating environment and ease of integration into their existing item processing solution.  Bluepoint’s Merchant Capture solution allowed Red Crown to avoid adding costly staff, yet it still met all of Red Crown’s strict criteria for data security and encryption — a top priority in their decision making process.

The installation went smoothly, and after an initial test with a dry cleaner business account, Red Crown is now offering merchant capture to other businesses.  According to Red Crown’s CFO, Kevin Hill, the risk associated with remote capture products — primarily duplicate scanning and validation — is dramatically reduced by applying proven methods of know your customer criteria when deciding whether or not to offer remote capture to business account holders.

Bluepoint’s Merchant Capture provides commercial accounts with the convenience of error-free balanced deposits and allows for electronic capture and remote transmittal of items from their location to yours. RDC Merchant offers financial institutions the opportunity to obtain deposits from commercial accounts at the earliest possible moment. When combined with RDC Teller and RDC Branch, Merchant capture rounds out a complete Remote Deposit Capture strategy for your financial institution.

Instant Document Capture Starts the Savings at the Point of Presentment

Imaging the documents you receive, transforming paper to electronic files, is where the savings start. It’s where many banks and credit unions have chosen as a starting point in streamlining their document management systems, and for good reason. Industry statistics show the majority of any paper document’s usefulness occurs during the first 24-48 hours after you receive it. Reduce costs during that interval and you affect your overall costs of doing business.

Moving away from centralized scanning operations to instant image capture makes documents and check images immediately available to any authorized employee, enterprise-wide. You no longer need duplicate copies at branch locations, because there is no lapse between receiving the original and having access to it both locally and centrally. And decentralized remote deposit capture is not limited to branches, but can be extended to ATMs, merchant locations or directly to consumers over secure Internet connections, which results in dramatically reduced float and branch traffic.

To the benefits of lower cost and faster access, add the elimination of physical document loss, a non- trivial ongoing headache that results in both poor customer service and wasted time for employees.

(This is the third strategy in a six-part series. Click here to see all past strategies. Check back each Friday for a new strategy to boost cost-efficiency in Financial Institutions.)

Comprehensive EDM Reduces More Than Paper

The more you are able to consolidate document storage and retrieval, the more efficiency gains you will make. Consolidating document storage means putting multiple file types from multiple sources into one database.

It also means keeping everything related to a transaction together. Consider the common practices of separating paper documents related to a simple transaction, perhaps a deposit with cash withdrawal at a teller window. Checks go here, deposit and cash tickets go there, receipts are generated, copied and put somewhere else, IDs, signature cards and even fingerprints are consulted, checks are batched for imaging and courier transport at the end of the day. The integrity of the transaction records is lost immediately. Now consider the downstream processes associated with clearing, retrieving and auditing transactions, and multiply by thousands.

Opportunities in this scenario for reducing costs, reducing errors, and reducing paper are easy to spot. A comprehensive EDM system will place all types of information in one place, including images of paper you receive, documents you generate, audio clips from your call center, and so on.
Staff time and overtime will probably be the biggest type of savings from this strategy. But even costs of clearing items can be reduced, perhaps significantly reduced, by transmitting image files for clearing multiple times per day.

(This is the second strategy in a six-part series.  The first strategy is Create Less Paper.  Check back each Friday for a new strategy to boost cost-efficiency in Financial Institutions.)

Originally published in US Banker, October 2009 issue.

by Hal Tilbury, Bluepoint Solutions

Most financial industry veterans would agree that remote deposit capture (RDC) is a game-changing development that lowered the cost of item processing. However, as the industry approaches the six-year anniversary of the passage of the Check 21 legislation, many banks still lack a sophisticated capture strategy. In fact, it was estimated at the 2009 BAI Remote Deposit Capture Summit that only 60 percent of all financial institutions have deployed branch capture technologies, and the number is substantially less for teller capture.

By the end of 2009, the Federal Reserve will have closed all but one of its paper-processing facilities, creating an imperative for banks to focus on branch or teller capture strategy before costs go up dramatically. Best practices in payments, supported by impressive ROI experiences from early-adopter installations, dictate that the most efficient mode of branch capture should be conducted at the earliest point of presentment possible: the teller line.

While most institutions recognize the workflow efficiencies of capturing items at the teller station, they discount this option because they think it is too expensive and slow. The industry has been led to believe, often by first-generation capture technology providers, that a single branch capture solution is the best strategy.

Teller capture systems provide a more efficient check processing transaction, freeing up a substantial amount of time for additional teller activity. Studies have proven that the time for standard teller capture transactions is not significantly greater, as no time is spent during any part of the workday closing out and entering batch information. Tellers no longer have to wait in line for other tellers to finish before they can scan their items. Because the tellers are up to date throughout the day, day-end processing becomes a thing of the past.

An early adopter of the teller capture technology, Grow Financial Federal Credit Union in Tampa, found the process added merely seconds to the transaction, and eliminated the need to do batch scanning at the end of the day. The time needed to balance at the end of the day fell from 15 minutes to five minutes.

Greater return on investment and increased operational efficiency is also achieved with teller capture solutions. The equipment and software cost for a branch is typically no less than the cost of licenses and scanners for about four tellers. In previous payments strategies, tellers had to leave the workstation to scan each batch. If tellers performed their scanning at the end of the day, queuing problems usually resulted. Teller capture solutions require a check scanner for each teller, which means that tellers never find themselves waiting for access to a scanner. Training sessions are also expedient and straightforward. All tellers in a branch can be fully trained in half a day.

An example of an almost immediate return on investment is how Grow Financial invested $857,000 in teller capture software and hardware, which included substitute check printing, 130 computers, the Primary Payment System and system maintenance. Grow Financial was able to eliminate three proofing machines and redeploy two full-time employees.

The system also strengthens fraud detection efforts, since the process involves intensive analysis of red flags. If a check presented at the teller line contains non-negotiable items, such as a missing signature, a discrepancy between the courtesy and legal amounts, or fraudulent information in the routing and transit line, it is addressed at that very moment. Scanning the check at the point-of-presentment also allows bank personnel to compare it to both internal and third party real-time fraud detection databases. This practice guarantees fraud reduction at the first point of capture and allows more items to be passed to the database, reducing the overall occurrences of fraud. Some of the current day fraud detection databases are delivering reductions in fraud of up to 90 percent. These results are only available if the items are scanned at the teller workstation.

The adoption of modern RDC solutions needs to increase if banks are to realize the substantial cost reductions that Check21 can deliver. In making the move to RDC it is critical that banks keep an open mind and seriously consider item capture at the teller workstation. For those banks still in the decision mode, it is not too late to select the superior and proven choice of teller capture. Those that do will almost certainly reduce their operational costs and fraud while improving customer service.

It’s Right for Operations, and Right for the Environment

“Paperless” offices have been a dream of automation experts for fifty years now. Today there is a new urgency about using paper wisely, not only to lower operating costs but to protect our precious natural resources.
Current practices for handling a newly-created document typically include printing it, perhaps with multiple copies, and then scanning it for electronic storage. Why not eliminate the printing step altogether and store it immediately? Loan documents, teller receipts, new account forms, COLD documents are just a few examples of documents that can be imported electronically without ever printing them on paper.

The more forms and other types of paper documents your electronic document management (EDM) system handles, the more you can reduce your budgets for supplies, labor, equipment, and storage space. Recent studies are starting to show the real cost of paper-based systems. It is eye-opening to consider not just the cost of the paper itself, but the cost of buying it, storing supplies of it, generating and copying it, employee time handling it through multiple processes, moving it, filing and keeping it, losing and finding it.

When institutions implement or upgrade even part of their processes, case study after case study shows the savings are many times the cost of the technology they deploy.

How does paper reduction affect customer service? Think of the delays that are reduced or eliminated by streamlining the processing of all that paperwork, from shorter teller lines to faster responses to customer service queries. And when a paper document is needed, a good EDM can produce that paper when and where the consumer wants it.

(This is the first strategy in a six-part series.  Check back each Friday for a new strategy to boost cost-efficiency in Financial Institutions.)

Safeguarding account holder records is a requirement for all financial institutions. Threats to data are as diverse as terrorist attacks, natural disasters and digital theft. After a major loss of computer records, 43% of institutions never reopen and over half close within two years of the loss*. For small to medium sized banks and credit unions, Business Continuity Planning, commonly known as BCP, can be a costly endeavor.

Several technical and operational factors must be considered when researching and selecting a data back-up and recovery solution. When these issues are examined in detail, virtualization emerges as the clear choice.

Select the lowest-cost, highest-performance backup medium.

Traditionally, magnetic tape dominated the BCP industry, but as the cost of disk space continues to fall, disk-based solutions have become increasingly popular. They offer superior encryption without requiring the delicate storage and frequent replacements of tape solutions. Most recently, virtualization as a back-up medium has become much more accessible. It offers more storage capacity, on and offsite, with fewer maintenance costs at a lower price point.  It is especially favored by small to medium size institutions with minimal technical staff to handle business continuity tasks.

Encrypt and safeguard backed-up data.

Securing sensitive data is more important today than ever. The Financial Modernization Act of 1999, also known as the “Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA),” requires every financial institution to have a security plan to protect the confidentiality and integrity of consumers’ personal information. This means that the methodology you choose for backing up data is crucial to the success of your BCP. Magnetic tape is typically not encrypted, but disk and virtual back-ups offer the benefits of encryption, ensuring tighter security.
Ensure that backed-up data can be restored to various types of hardware. Hardware systems change frequently over time. Critical data must be stored such that it can be easily restored to a variety of hardware systems, now and in the future. Both tape and disk storage are limited to restoration on the same type of hardware and operating system. Only by capturing all information in a virtual environment, below the operating system level, can you restore your entire server, its applications and data into operation-ready mode in a matter of minutes.

Ensure that data backup continues during active recovery.

A recovery and backup solution that allows your institution to handle data recovery in the background, while continuing normal business operations, is ideal. Account holders should not be inconvenienced when doing business with your institution during a recovery phase. A virtual backup can be operational within minutes of a main-server failure, ensuring minimal downtime.

Maintain technical resource requirements for a 24/7 data backup solution.

Understanding, designing, implementing and maintaining a backup system is a highly skilled practice. Additional staff with the skills and experience to execute a backup and recovery plan might be necessary, especially for small to midsized institutions. Outsourcing can be an attractive alternative, considering the impact on your ROI after calculating the costs of additional staff, equipment, maintenance and storage.

Virtual backup offers myriad benefits over other methods of data archiving. It is highly cost effective and has a lower instance of data loss than magnetic tape. It also provides a more secure archiving method than tape back-up. When taking into account the overall cost of a data backup solution, it is equally important to consider security and longevity. The ability to back up and restore data in nearly real-time provides your institution with a technological edge that your customers will appreciate.  Real-time recovery means that your clients won’t notice a disruption in service and your institution can carry on normal business operations without interruption.

Bluepoint offers the only Virtual Backup and Disaster Recovery solution to financial institutions that provides simple backup and restore, full virtualization and off-site backup storage in a hands off model, all at an affordable price. Click here to visit the product page.

*Cummings, Maeve; Haag, Stephen; and McCubbrey, Donald. 2003. Management information systems for the information age. http://highered.mcgrawhill.com/sites/0072935863/information_center_view0/

Today, Information Technology departments face a serious challenge when managing software installations and updates at multiple locations. It is a problem that increases exponentially when those locations extend across a metropolitan area, an entire region or nationwide, a typical scenario for financial institutions. In order for Information Technology staff to keep all those geographically disparate systems running smoothly, uniform software versions must be maintained at all user-stations. An innovative method for handling installations, updates and version control is through the use of a remote deployment tool. Remote deployment is the most effective solution because it allows the administrator to install updates without actually going to each user station, offers a simple user interface and provides a technique for handling multiple updates that ensures enterprise-wide compliance.

Bluepoint Solutions now provides an administrative tool, built right into its Remote Deposit Capture (RDC) product line, which allows your technical staff to remotely deliver upgrades and patches. It provides the capability to remotely install upgrades and patches on Branch and Teller Capture workstations located within the institution, as well as Merchant Capture workstations, which can be deployed at any geographic location nationwide.

Bluepoint’s Remote Deployment tool allows the system administrator to create, distribute and monitor upgrades from a central location. The administrator can ensure optimal performance of all systems through purposely selected updates, maintaining complete control over the features, upgrades and patches that are deployed to certain users at specified times. In addition, the Remote Deployment tool allows the administrator to throttle the amount of electronic information that is delivered in order to optimize the network bandwidth load.

Bluepoint provides updated “packages” of electronic information to RDC clients on a regular basis. These packages can be deployed as-is, or administrators may decide to deploy only some parts of the packages. With the Remote Deployment tool, different packages may be deployed based on groups or individual users, offering complete flexibility. This means new version roll-outs can be done in phases, at a level that is comfortable for your financial institution. Not only does Remote Deployment offer easy setup for system administrators, it is incredibly simple for users. With a few clicks, the system automatically runs through the installation process and prompts the user when finished, usually in just a few minutes.

By using Bluepoint’s Remote Deployment tool, your technical team can:

• Easily transmit and install software to an entire network of users, nationwide
• Free up time to handle other responsibilities
• Ensure that Bluepoints software solutions operate smoothly and efficiently

Take back those days, hours and minutes spent installing updates for your financial institution, one PC at a time!

Convenient, secure home/office deposit capabilities in Software as a Service model

 Vista, Calif. — August 26, 2009 — Bluepoint Solutions, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and leading innovator in remote deposit capture (RDC), image-based item processing and electronic document management software technology for financial institutions, announced the availability of its RDC Consumer product in a hosted, Software as a Service (SaaS) model. This allows financial institutions to shift the responsibility for the acquisition and management of the infrastructure to Bluepoint. Bluepoint’s solution provides bank and credit union account holders the ability to conveniently deposit checks from any location – home or office – at any time. Users can easily make deposits with the use of a computer, a secure Internet connection and a scanner.

“Cloud computing, or SaaS, has the potential to revolutionize the way we develop, deliver, interact with, support and use applications,” said Hal Tilbury, president and CEO for Bluepoint Solutions. “Consumer capture is a recognized source of new fee income and reduced operational costs.  Taking advantage of the economic gains of “pay-as-you-go” computing, as well as the greater processing power found in a scalable, off-site, vendor-managed application; financial institutions can exercise even more control over spending while garnering expanded services and product profitability.”

Bluepoint’s consumer capture product is designed to help financial institutions retain accountholders, and more importantly, gain new deposit accounts. The solution increases profitability with a new source of fee income and significantly reduces operational costs, because deposits are now captured in the home rather than with a teller at the branch. It is fully integrated with Bluepoint’s powerful transport service, which compiles image files from its other RDC products including branch, teller, merchant and ATM, for immediate clearing, resulting in earliest possible funds availability. Like the in house solution, the hosted version of consumer capture maintains a central repository, making image files immediately available for research and retrieval, institution-wide. This highly scalable solution can accommodate an infinite number of consumers thereby offering credit unions and community banks a competitive advantage with larger institutions.

“Bluepoint Solutions is committed to leveraging technology innovation to lead the market toward higher levels of service and profitability,” said Tilbury. “Offering this proven solution in Cloud evidences that leadership.  For financial institutions, this model shifts the responsibility for the acquisition and management of all the infrastructure concerns to Bluepoint, their trusted software provider. Even more importantly, the Cloud model will unburden in house IT resources and allow bankers and credit union executives to focus on the far more strategic tasks associated with helping the institution become more productive.  Bluepoint is now one of the few companies offering integrated capture products at every point of presentment, including branch, teller, merchant, ATM and consumer. We believe offering our consumer capture solution in the Cloud format will provide the operational advantage our partner institutions need to move from competing in the market to dominating the market.”

About Bluepoint Solutions

Vista, Calif.-based Bluepoint Solutions is a leading innovator in remote deposit capture (RDC), image-based item processing, electronic document management and receipt management. Adhering to strict best practice standards, Bluepoint delivers proven technology solutions and consulting services designed to achieve the strategic goals of increased employee productivity, reduced operating costs, and improved customer service. Bluepoint’s family of products and services offer a complete, end-to-end, image-based item capture and payment processing solution.

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