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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The Innovative Solutions Awards, sponsored by BankNews, recognizes companies that have introduced or significantly enhanced products designed to help community banks become more efficient, expand their capabilities and, ultimately, better serve their customers. Bluepoint Solutions’ Check 21 teller capture product has been nominated as an integral part of Open Solutions’ tMagic Teller Capture’ solution, which is fully integrated with Open Solutions’ enterprise-wide core processing and teller platform technology.

By integrating Bluepoint’s teller capture solution with its core processing platform, Open Solutions increases the already significant benefits of capturing at the teller point-of-presentment, including:

1. Increased operational efficiency and reduced costs
2. Immediate check verification and fraud prevention
3. Automatic processing and balancing
4. Enhanced business continuity and disaster recovery
5. 100% transaction integrity

The Open Solutions offering, jointly developed with Bluepoint Solutions, allows tellers to capture checks in real-time at the point-of-presentment at the teller line. When a teller receives checks, he or she will scan the items into the system by selecting the “Scan” button in Open Solutions’ Transaction Express (TE). This button invokes a call to tMagic Teller Capture, which reads the MICR information and the amount of each item and populates the TE screen with that information. The teller then selects the “Process” button in TE to commit the transaction to the database. When all items are read successfully, it only takes two mouse clicks to complete a transaction. This significant reduction in keystrokes enables tellers to balance cash drawers more rapidly and with fewer errors.

Click here to read more and cast your vote.

Save resources and boost efficiency with Bluepoint’s Receipt Manager™ v4.0

Did you know that your institution can generate an email transaction receipt instead of — or in addition to — a paper receipt? With Receipt Manager v4.0, Bluepoint’s electronic receipt management solution, your institution can save paper and printing supplies, further “green initiatives,” enhance service to account holders and increase efficiency at the teller line.

• Go green: offer account holders the next logical step beyond electronic statements. Conserve resources with email receipts.
• Increase security: protect account holders’ private financial information by eliminating insecure, vulnerable paper documentation.
• Strengthen relationships: customize receipt notification emails to reinforce a current marketing campaign, provide information about upcoming policy changes or thank clients for their business.
• Improve staff efficiency: streamline the transaction process and increase efficiency by replacing physical printing with a one-click email at the teller window. Free your staff from time spent on printer maintenance for other more important responsibilities.
• Reduce hard costs: Improve your bottom line with the reduction of paper and printer supplies used at the teller line.

Receipt Manager’s email feature is flexible and configurable to best fit your needs. It provides the ability to be turned off at the organization level. Plus, tellers can generate a paper and/or email receipt based on account holder preferences. Receipt Manager v4.0 includes options to generate text or HTML emails with variable fonts and embedded links and images, specify “reply-to” email addresses, and make unlimited updates to email messages, providing clients with the latest news and current promotions.

Receipt Manager produces an electronic receipt image of every transaction, stores it immediately and makes it available to any authorized employee from any location. Tellers can capture client signatures and identification information, print receipts, research past transactions and now instantly send a receipt notification by email!

In the current economic environment, capturing check images at the earliest point of presentment gives financial institutions an immediate competitive advantage that directly improves the level of convenience and service they are able to offer account holders. Offering image-enabled ATMs paired with remote deposit capture (RDC) can help recruit new accounts and strengthen relationships with existing clients by offering enhanced self-service banking options at multiple remote locations. As image-enabled ATMs gain momentum among financial institutions, the institutions need to closely examine their capture and processing strategies to ensure they are not missing out on critical cost savings and operational efficiencies.

The clear advantages of RDC at the ATM are increased when the items captured at ATMs are combined with a full remote deposit capture platform. By incorporating the ATM capture component into the institution’s entire RDC platform, they will take advantage of enterprise-wide duplicate MICR detection, central archiving and research, and simplified balancing – resulting in earliest funds availability (reduced float), earlier fraud detection and reduced workload. This is a critical, yet often overlooked, component to a comprehensive ATM capture strategy.

The last component of sophisticated ATM capture strategy involves evaluating the transport services utilized to process and clear transactions. When an institution relies on a centralized transport service to move images from multiple capture points (ATM, teller, branch, merchant, consumer) to the back-end item processing solution, they can strategically time and coordinate multiple releases for clearing, resulting in earliest funds availability and savings on dollar amount or item per-transmission fees.

When integrated into the institution’s full remote deposit capture strategy, the image-enabled ATM becomes much more than just a convenience, but rather a significant savings and revenue builder for financial institutions.

To learn about more Up-and-Coming ATM Strategies read the Bank News article, featuring Bluepoint Chief Marketing Officer, Dick Drew.

Consolidation of Key Components Yields Comprehensive, Streamlined Item Processing Solution

ImagePoint, Bluepoint’s image-based item processing solution, allows financial institutions to take full advantage of Check 21 legislation through sophisticated incoming and outgoing central image exchange. Due to the integration of several major components from Bluepoint’s existing product line with the highly advanced functionalities from the ImagePoint product, the release of ImagePoint version 3.5 yields a streamlined Item Processing solution with greater technological strength and functional depth. Significant features included in this comprehensive version release are:

• Sort Pattern Studio - virtually sorts items to destination endpoints using a sophisticated sort pattern utility. Provides the ability to execute simple RT-based routing up to complicated least cost routing, based on multiple factors. Eliminates the need for paper item processing and the large sorters required for this task.
• Workflow Manager - streamlines processing and automatic workflow management with new workflows, configurable to a financial institution’s environment. Simplifies the task of monitoring and managing the flow of information through the system.
• FedReturn & Receipt - sends mixed return image cash letters to the Federal Reserve by interfacing to FedReturn and accepting return image cash letters. Multiple file output formats now include the latest SOP 4.8 posting format, improving compatibility with most core processing systems.
• SmartClient support for Microsoft Windows - combines the reach of the Internet with the power of local computing hardware allowing financial institutions to operate in an SaaS environment. Smart clients may be deployed and updated in real time over the network from a centralized server.
• File Processing - improves image exchange file processing speed by over 50%. This feature also includes numerous item level enhancements such as TIFF tag validation and repair, missing image detection and MICR/OCR mismatch detection. A broad range of file and item level processing validation criteria may be enabled, allowing financial institutions to proactively monitor and correct image exchange files that may have been received with errors, ensuring proper file integrity for all exchange partners.

As the first Bluepoint release of ImagePoint since the company acquired the product’s creator, Avalon International, this version marks a milestone for the company and its customers by providing an integrated product line focused on innovation. ImagePoint version 3.5 maintains the flexibility and modularity of a comprehensive item processing solution, while advancing the technology it was built upon. The ImagePoint solution is a highly efficient and cost effective complement to Bluepoint’s RDC Check 21 capture solutions. Together they deliver a true, end-to-end, Check 21 image-based item capture and payment processing solution for small and large financial institutions.

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Excerpt from the original article by Michael P. Voelker, CU BUSINESS Magazine/December 2007

To say technology has changed the way credit unions do business is quite an understatement, but what does technology herald for the future? An examination of the systems that have disrupted the industry are used to predict what technology credit unions won’t be able to live without in the years to come.

In 1967, the world’s first ATM was installed in the UK. Today, there are millions of ATMs from as far north as Norway to as far south as Antarctica. Can you imagine running your credit union (or, for that matter, handling your own personal finances) without them? That inability to live without it defines a “disruptive” technology – something that overturns the status quo.

Over the years, technology has continued to reshape the way credit unions operate. We’ll look at what developments, specific to financial services, made the biggest impact over the last five years, and we’ll project what tech-driven capabilities you and your members won’t be able to do business without five years from

Made Their Mark: IRDs

Check 21 legislation declared that image replacement documents (IRDs) were just as valid as the original check. Although it didn’t mandate image-based transactions, the legislation set the wheels in motion, and today the number of image-based deposits exceeds that of paper checks. Now that’s disruptive.

For credit unions, Check 21 required tough decisions about how to handle IRDs and whether – and how – they would image checks themselves. Would it be a back- office or teller-level function? Would they enable branch imaging or keep it centralized? Could existing scanners and software be used, or were additional investments necessary?

Summit Credit Union had used FASTdocs from Bluepoint Solutions for document imaging. The credit union was able to leverage its investment in that platform for Check 21 and went live with teller capture in September 2007.

For Summit CU, the benefits of imaging go beyond check processing. “FASTdocs gives us member centric access to receipts, new account format, member forms, loan forms and statement copies. We can store member emails, letters, faxes and voice recording,” explains Sam Whitehurst, CEO at Summit CU, adding that deploying the receipt capture solution alone resulted in cost savings that paid for the imaging solution.