Results shed light on future of consumer capture implementations

Vista, Calif. Feb. 18, 2010. Bluepoint Solutions, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and leading innovator in remote deposit capture (RDC), image-based item processing and enterprise content management software technology for financial institutions, today announced the results of its 2009 Remote Deposit Capture for Credit Union’s survey. Bluepoint surveyed a random sampling of credit unions with assets ranging from $100 million to $1 billion to evaluate which remote capture point(s) they were currently using and/or future plans for leveraging the technology. More than 200 credit unions participated in the survey.

According to responses, 52 percent of participants indicated their credit union currently has at least one type of remote capture solution implemented. Out of those respondents, 63 percent have instituted a branch capture platform, 20 percent rely on teller capture solutions, nine percent have an ATM capture solution, four percent offer merchant capture and another four percent offer home or member capture.

Remote Deposit Capture Deployment

CEO and Founder, Hal Tilbury, said, “Credit unions are only now beginning to seriously embrace remote deposit capture.  As credit union executives become more aware of the cost, time and resource savings this technology can produce, adoption rates will accelerate dramatically until remote deposit capture is as common as online banking or debit cards.”

Respondents indicated a high interest in home capture as a valuable service for their members. When asked about future plans for implementing home capture, 42 percent of respondents indicated they currently had initiatives in place and another 46 percent responded they were currently exploring the service.

Senior Analyst for Celent, Bob Meara, said, “Branch capture’s swift adoption was driven by a compelling and urgent need to address the rising cost of processing paper. That same sense of urgency does not surround home capture. Member demand will eventually lead to widespread adoption, however, as awareness of home capture grows.”
“I’m not surprised to see this trend,” continued Tilbury. “In our society, consumers are used to banking anytime, anywhere. The convenience of making deposits from home creates loyalty from existing members and will attract new members.”

Originally appeared in March 2010 issue of Bank News.

By: Dick Drew, Executive Vice President of Bluepoint Solutions

Consumer confidence in larger financial institutions remains low, providing opportunities for community banks to attract new, and increase loyalty with existing customers. Many consumers that have grown frustrated with larger banks are shopping for a new financial institution, and many, for the first time, are looking at community banks as a viable option. Consumers are seeking institutions that offer the type of one-on-one banking that community banks are renowned for, but also provide sophisticated technology tools.

Consumer or home capture is one of these tools that can attract new customers and creating a protection strategy for existing customers. Home capture eliminates trips to the branch or the ATM, giving customers the flexibility to make deposits any time, from any place. The only thing required by the customer is a working scanner and an Internet connection; there is no software to install, making this a very attractive offering to the end-user. This type of service is extremely valuable to those customers that are self-employed or run side businesses out of their homes, such as rental property owners or product distributors like Mary Kay. These “consumers” are valuable to an institution, but may be often overlooked as a merchant or small business. Home capture offers a solution that meets the needs of the bank and the customer. Additionally, those community banks that are serving a dispersed customer base, such as retirees or active military personnel, will be able to retain those customers and collect deposits, no matter how remote the location.

In addition to customer convenience, this creates an entirely new channel to receive deposits. This technology is gaining momentum among credit unions and is demonstrating significant results even at an early stage in the adoption cycle. However, among community banks this still remains a relatively untapped opportunity.
According to a report by Lydia Cole in the 2009 Technology Guide for Credit Unions, Digital Federal Credit Union launched a home capture solution in March 2008, and within one year had 15 percent of its membership signed up for the service. The credit union received approximately 9,000 deposits per month, totaling more than $13.5 million.
Another example from the credit union community is USAA. According to the article “Now Might be Time to Reexamine Consumer Remote Deposit Capture” in the Jan. 21, 2009, issue of Bank Systems & Technology, USAA has nearly doubled the rate of its deposit growth since deploying the technology in 2005.

Once implemented, consumer capture can be used to fulfill consumer demand, increase deposits, retain existing customers and attract new customers. Additionally, when implemented in a software, as-a-service format, community banks can quickly deploy consumer capture, with minimal upfront expenses. During a recent webinar, Celent Senior Analyst Bob Meara said that consumer capture might be worth another look. As banks struggle to grow deposits and gain consumer trust, consumer capture is becoming more and more attractive.

While many financial executives dismissed consumer capture in the past, it is proving to be a technology that should no longer be ignored or overlooked. Given the growing distrust among consumers for larger financial institutions, the demand for convenience and anytime banking, and the demonstrable results from the credit union community; the market conditions are favorable for community banks to be successful with a consumer capture tool. The only question that remains is will your bank seize the opportunity or watch from the sidelines?

Bank leverages Software as a Service model to provide customers convenient, secure home/office deposit capabilities

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, today announced that Oswego, Ill.-based Allied First Bank selected ImagePoint Remote, a consumer deposit capture platform. The bank will market the solution as QwikDeposit Home to its customers.

Allied First Bank has approximately $160 million in assets and more than 9000 customers. The bank is leveraging Bluepoint’s unique Software as a Service (SaaS) model to offer its customers a sophisticated and convenient capture solution, without the initial upfront capital expenditures associated with traditional technology implementations. The consumer capture solution will be integrated with the bank’s existing Internet banking provider, enabling customers to upload check images with the click of a button within the existing online banking portal. Customers can now easily make deposits from home or office with the use of a computer, a secure Internet connection and a scanner.

Once captured, the images will be hosted in Bluepoint’s secure data processing center, where item perfection and correction will be performed. Using the SaaS model, the bank gains access to a secure central repository of the captured images, significantly reducing and simplifying the research process. An aggregate X9.37 file will then be submitted to Allied First Bank according to the bank’s preferred delivery schedule.

“Years ago, we began as a credit union for employees of one of the nation’s largest airlines,” Andy Hardin, Vice President of Operations & Marketing at Allied First said.  “Today, we’re a retail banking organization, but our customers are still living and working all over the globe.  ImagePoint Remote is the next step in our strategy to leverage innovation and technology to offer the highest levels of security, access and control to our customers and the growing numbers of consumers who are reevaluating their primary banking relationships.”

“We are looking forward to working with Allied to implement a customer-facing solution that will not only add value to the existing customer-base, but will give the bank a competitive advantage in the market to attract new customers,” said Hal Tilbury, president and CEO for Bluepoint Solutions. “As an early adopter of the consumer capture solution, Allied is showcasing its commitment to advanced technology and offering innovative products to better serve its customers. Our consumer capture solution is designed to help banks like Allied provide better service, but more importantly, grow deposit accounts. By taking advantage of Bluepoint’s pay-as-you-go model, as well as the greater processing power found in an off-site, Bluepoint-managed application, Allied is poised for success with a very nominal investment. The ROI is almost immediate in this type of scenario.”

Credit union maintains investment in teller capture, receipt manager and enterprise content management platforms; adds consumer capture and disaster recovery
VISTA, Calif.–Summit Credit Union today announced a five-year renewal contract with Bluepoint Solutions. The credit union will continue its use of Bluepoint’s teller capture, receipt manager and enterprise content management products. Also, the credit union added Bluepoint’s disaster recovery services. Bluepoint Solutions is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and leading innovator in remote deposit capture (RDC), image-based item processing and enterprise content management software technology for financial institutions.
Summit Credit Union is based in Greensboro, N.C. with seven branches, approximately $130 million in assets and more than 21,000 members. The credit union has been a Bluepoint customer since 2005 and saved more than $50,000 per year by eliminating a cumbersome research process and increasing workflow efficiencies via the automation. By capturing documents at the point of presentment, the Bluepoint solution immediately reduced keystrokes and human error and significantly reduced the amount of paper used in processing.
The CEO of Summit Credit Union, Sam Whitehurst, said, “The Bluepoint products have been instrumental in helping our credit union continue to grow and offer superior member service. Through the efficiencies we’ve gained, our staff is able to focus on meeting the diverse needs of our members by offering personalized products and services. Expanding our partnership with Bluepoint was an easy decision. We truly feel they’re invested in our success, and they are a solid business partner we can count on now and well on into the future.”
Summit Credit Union uses a sophisticated content management and remote deposit capture strategy leveraging the following Bluepoint products: ImagePoint Teller Capture, Receipt Manager, ImagePoint Consumer Capture, and its member-centric Enterprise Content Management platform. ImagePoint Teller captures checks real-time, at the point of presentment improving operational efficiencies, cost savings, fraud prevention and the overall member experience. Receipt Manager integrates with the existing teller transaction flow, storing the receipt data electronically and making it available to authorized users throughout the entire credit union. Bluepoint’s Enterprise Content Management platform integrates with ImagePoint Teller and Receipt Manager to provide a flexible, member-centric file system to manage all scanned and imported documents electronically, and create valuable reporting tools to analyze and review member data. The credit union has also recently implemented Bluepoint’s consumer capture solution, ImagePoint Remote, providing members with the convenience of depositing checks anytime, from any location.
“We’ve been very pleased with the results and the continued support we receive from the Bluepoint team of professionals,” said Whitehurst. “We are very happy to add the disaster recovery solution. This will allow us to comply with regulatory requirements for reporting and data storage and provide assurance that if a disaster occurs, our members will not be impacted by data loss or operations interruptions. ”
“We are pleased to extend and expand our relationship with Summit and look forward to working with them for years to come,” said founder and CEO of Bluepoint Solutions, Hal Tilbury. “We understand the challenges facing credit unions and the fierce competition in today’s market. As a result, we continue to invest in our technology to ensure our clients are using modern, sophisticated solutions to operate efficiently and effectively. Our renewal rates remain year over year above 98 percent.”
About Summit Credit Union
Summit Credit Union is a not-for-profit financial cooperative wholly owned, operated, and governed by its members. Our operational scope depends solely on the ideas, concerns, and desires of member owners, as the membership’s well being and the credit union’s well being are interdependent. Summit Credit Union’s guiding principles of “people helping people” and “for service, not for profit” is necessitated by our very structure, and is thereby not optional. Media Contact: Sam Whitehurst, direct: 336-662-6250 or swhitehurst@summitcu.org.
About Bluepoint Solutions
Vista, Calif.-based Bluepoint Solutions is a leading innovator in remote deposit capture (RDC), image-based item processing, enterprise content 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. For more information, visit www.bluepointsolutions.com.

Originally Appeared in American Banker: Jan. 26, 2010
Hampden Bank has partnered with Open Solutions and Bluepoint Solutions to install the providers’ jointly-developed check imaging system, tMagic Teller Capture, at the teller windows. Hampden Bank’s senior vice president, Sheryl Shinn, spoke with American Banker about how shortening the line of tellers for branch capture scanners, thereby reducing teller overtime at the end of the day, helped persuade the bank to make the switch. She went on to describe additional benefits of savings on outsourcing, increased per-item deposit fee income and improved customer service. Dave Reim, product manager in Open Solutions’ imaging systems unit, added that these efficiencies are available because the tMagic system connects directly to Hampden’s core processing software.  See American Banker for the full story.

Appeared in Credit Union Journal: Jan. 18, 2010

Bluepoint Solutions makes its teller capture and receipt processing product suites available in a rental program, helping financial institutions leverage technology without making large capital expenditures. Click here to view the article in its entirety (requires subscription).

Is There Any Steak Behind the Sizzle?

By Andrew Tilbury

When home capture first hit the market, it generated considerable buzz among credit union executives.  Several salient questions emerged from the discussion.  Would home capture evolve into a wide-spread technology or would it remain a niche product?  Would fraud be so significant as to make the application pointless?  Would anyone use it once it was offered?  And, most importantly, would it be a good fit for my credit union’s members?

In the Fall of 2009, Bluepoint Solutions conducted an in-depth study focused on credit unions and remote deposit capture solutions.  We took a random sampling of credit unions with assets ranging from $100 million to $1 billion and asked what remote capture points of presentment they were currently using and what plans they had for implementing home capture.  Over 200 credit unions participated in our study and the results shed light on the future of home capture.

52% of the respondents surveyed indicated that they had a remote capture solution in place:  63% use branch capture, 20% use teller, and 9% use ATM capture.  Only 4% use merchant capture and another 4% use home capture.  This indicates that remote deposit capture is at the beginning of its life cycle.  As credit union executives realize the efficiencies they can gain by capturing check images at the first possible point of presentment, there will be a steady increase in the use of remote deposit capture solutions.

When asked about future plans for implementing home capture, 42% of the respondents said they already had initiatives in place to offer home capture.  Another 46% were exploring it, but had not yet decided whether they would ultimately proceed with installation.  Considering the high amount of interest in home capture, credit unions should, at the very least, take a serious look at home capture and ask whether or not it is a service that will appeal to their members.

Convenience for Your Members, Growth for Your Credit Union
It is clear that credit unions see an industry-wide movement toward home capture, but why is the technology so appealing to end-users?  The overarching reason is convenience.  Home capture eliminates trips to the branch or the ATM, working around branch hours and holidays, waiting in line at the branch, and finding an ATM.  Customers like the flexibility of making deposits any time, from any place.

In addition to the benefits to consumers, home capture has significant benefits for credit unions.  Take Digital Federal Credit Union as an example.  They launched their home capture solution “PC Deposit” in March 2008, and within a year had 15% of their member base sign up for the service.  They receive about 9,000 deposits per month totaling about $13.5 million.  This has created an entirely new channel for receiving deposits from members.1   Another good example is USAA.  After they launched their home capture application “Deposit@Home” in 2005, they experienced a near-doubling of their deposit growth.2  Both of these examples show the dramatic and positive impact that home capture can have on a credit union’s growth strategy.  Both of these show how a credit union can use this technology not only to fulfill a demand from their members, but also to increase deposits, retain existing members, and attract more members.

Risky Business?
It sometimes seems that the newer the technology, the more prevalent the fraud associated with it.  However, with home capture, this is not the case.  There are established risk mitigation strategies in place that credit unions can effectively use to reduce instances of fraud.

The first strategy is to apply know-your-customer (KYC) best practices.  Many credit unions use KYC techniques to identify various groups within their membership who are their low-risk customers.  This is typically done with a combination of criteria such as age of account, overall member relationship, history of returned items, and general account history.  You can apply these standards to segment your members and then offer home capture as a premium service to select members.

In addition to KYC methods, a viable home capture solution must have integrated fraud mitigation that includes duplicate detection and CAR/LAR validation.  This is done by using a single, real-time database for all deposited items, regardless of the original point-of-presentment.  Using a combination of a KYC, duplicate detection, and CAR/LAR validation, you can create a robust system for mitigating fraud that covers all points of presentment, including home capture.

Is Home Capture the Right Fit for Your Members?
How will you know if your membership will respond well to home capture?  There are a few key indicators that will give you a glimpse of potential adoption rates.  Are your members spread over a wide geographic area?  Do they typically live a long distance from a branch?  Do you receive a disproportionately large amount of deposits in the mail?  Do your members frequently use online banking, bill pay, and mobile banking?  Is your membership based on a certain occupation that requires them to be mobile or move frequently?  Does your typical member fit a younger, technologically savvy demographic profile?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you should closely examine implementing a home capture solution.   If not, you run the risk of missing a major opportunity to provide a valuable service to your members, and this could create a service gap that could be filled by a competing financial institution.

Licensing vs. Outsourcing
Even after applying relevant business cases, there may still be uncertainty surrounding the projected adoption rates of home capture among consumers.  This has made credit union executives and boards reluctant to invest in a technology with no proven track record.

One way to address this challenge is to outsource home capture to a third party provider.  This software-as-a-service model eliminates the upfront cost of licenses and takes the strain off of your IT department.  This allows you to bring home capture to market quickly and test the response among your membership.  It is a pay-as-you-go model that typically involves a nominal setup cost and a small per-item processing fee.  However, if you are confident that your members will respond positively to home capture, licensing is probably the better option.  The upfront costs will be higher, but, in the long run, your credit union will benefit from full-ownership of the technology and lower per-item processing costs.

Final Thought
Evaluating home capture for your membership is a simple but essential process.  You must first decide if your credit union’s members will respond to the technology and, second, if you can use it as an effective tool in your marketing and growth strategy to prevent members from defecting to other institutions and also using it to attract new members.  The one thing you cannot do is ignore it.

Originally published by Callahan & Associates in Technology@CU, 3Q09

Originally Appeared in Credit Union Times:  Jan. 6, 2010

Mazuma Credit Union partners with Bluepoint Solutions to offer remote deposit capture of checks from an ATM. In addition to added security and member convenience, members gain faster access to funds. The credit union was able to reduce courier trips to the machines, saving approximately $11,000 in the first six months. Click here to view the article in its entirety.

Originally Appeared in Credit Union Journal: Dec. 21, 2009
During the 2009 BAI Retail Delivery Conference and Expo., Bluepoint Solutions’ Chief Marketing Officer, Dick Drew, sat down with Credit Union Journal’s Editor-in-Chief, Frank Diekman to discuss the state of consumer capture and opportunities afforded to credit unions as banks continue to focus on merchant capture.

Reduce Costs at Every Step in the Process

To continue to receive the benefits of efficiency and cost saving created by these strategies, don’t forget to do everything possible to make the entire system easy for people to learn and use and easy for your IT department to maintain.

Simplify all user interfaces and make them straightforward to use, with hot-keys, mouse functions, clear layouts, and other tools used by GUI designers.

Finally, consider the ease with which your IT department and its contractors can respond to user questions, make minor changes and regular upgrades, and administer remotely.