The People’s Credit Union is a community credit union that has served the people of Rhode Island since 1922. Located in Rhode Island, Peoples has six branch locations.  Each branch uses iDentifi.eSign to capture electronic signatures for transactions, new accounts and account maintenance.  The Credit Union uses iDentifi.eReceipt for electronic transaction processing, iDentifi.Trak for monitoring required documents and iDentifi workflows for efficient and streamlined verification and quality control.

The Credit Union uses Pax units for eSign processing on the teller line and Topaz units for new account processing.  Currently, electronic signatures are used for all over-the-counter teller transactions as well as all deposit related documents, such as, new consumer and business account signature cards, safe deposit box agreements, account maintenance forms, IRA administration documents, ATM/Debit Card agreements and so much more.

The eSign functionality has brought many benefits to the Credit Union including increased operational efficiency, stronger controls and security, enhanced member service and a decrease in our operational tasks and costs.

Tellers are able to process transactions faster, with minimal paper to clutter their teller stations.  Documents are automatically uploaded to the iDentifi web system reducing the possibility of getting misplaced while complementing our clean desk policy.

Teller and new account staff now have instant access to member and account documents and our research requests are now completed in just a few minutes whereas before, staff had to wait (sometimes days) while operations staff sifted through paper files that were locked in vaults and file cabinets.

In addition, now that we have streamlined operations and eliminated the need for filing paper documents, the Credit Union is able to take on more strategic projects without having to hire new staff to support these goals.   Bethany Cottrell, Core Systems Manager, People's Credit Union

The eReceipt functionality enables the Credit Union to process member transactions quickly, securely and efficiently.  Electronic receipts are automatically stored to the iDentifi web system.  If a member needs a copy, tellers can quickly and easily pull and print copies of receipts.  Receipts processed through the drive-up include a barcode and are quickly and easily scanned into document storage as part of the tellers everyday process.  The eReceipt module is easily customizable which allowed the Credit Union to choose which transactions require an eReceipt and which do not.

The iDentifi system provided the Credit Union with customizable and easy to use security and retention tools.  Access has been limited to only those individuals that have a business need, including auditors who may need access to very specific documents for auditing purposes.  In addition, People’s has set very detailed retention schedules eliminating the need to manually track documents that need to be securely destroyed.

The People’s Credit Union also utilizes iDentifi workflows for both quality control purposes and approvals of any scanned loan documents and deposit related eSign documents.  Documents are automatically placed in the beginning stage of the work flow.  Operational staff are able to easily move documents throughout each step of the workflow process until all documents are completed and approved.  Users use the sticky note feature to notate any comments or approvals.

iDentifi.Trak is the newest module that the Credit Union has added to its processes.   iDentifi.Trak allows the Credit Union to monitor specific documents to ensure they have been loaded into the iDentifi system.  Our operations staff use the robust reporting that is included in the iDentifi.Trak system to monitor pending items and exceptions.  On a regular basis, the iDentifi system looks to see if any missing documents have been added to the system to automatically clear out any exceptions.

Over the next year or so, People's Credit Union hopes to expand eSign to all loan related documents.  This will be the last accomplishment in our goal of converting to a paperless environment.

The iDentifi.Net ECM Suite from Integra Business Systems, Inc. provides document management solutions addressing today’s challenging needs for ROI, secure storage of documents and information; while aiding you with regulatory and compliance issues.

We couldn't do it without you! We're celebrating the Holidays with Santa, as another successful year, 2014 comes to a close.  We are reminded once again, our greatest achievement is the relationships we have developed over the years with you, our customers, our partners, our employees and our friends, of which most are synonymous.  Thank you! 

Please enjoy a relaxing, peaceful and safe holiday season and don't forget to celebrate like Santa!

Seasons Greetings from Integra Business Systems, Inc.

Integra Business Systems, Inc. Professional Services Group (PSG) teamed up with the Support Group (SG) to challenge a team made up of the Development Group (DG) and last but not least, a team made up of the Implementation Group (IG) to participate in a canned/boxed good sculpture challenge.

The challenge was created by Christie Russell, Manager of the Professional Services Group to help support an upcoming event by the Feed the Bay Charitable Foundation, of which she is actively involved.

The Feed the Bay 2014 Event  is coming on 3/23.   This event is used to stock up on food for many homeless and food pantry organizations around the Tampa Bay area.

The challenge to Integra employees to bring some canned goods and then each team prepared a sculpture with the canned goods received.   The sculptures were built in the offices of the various teams and are pictured here.

Sculptures needed to be completed by  1 PM on March 21^st and were to be delivered to Feed the Bay on March 23^rd.

Open Technology Solutions (OTS) is the CUSO for Bethpage Federal Credit Union, Bellco and SECU, which have over $10.5 billion in combined assets.

The three partner Credit Unions are supported by a centralized Operations Center called S3 – Shared Service Solutions, LLC.  Each Credit Union has their own iDentifi Server running on their network.

Scan stations are located at S3, to assist in making correspondence available in one business day.  Multi-function printers are also used to scan general mail (including loan payments, collections, insurance, etc.) totaling over thousands of documents per week across all three Credit Unions.  This has made the elimination of Mail/Courier service possible.

Bethpage and Bellco are running the iDentifi.WEB repository with hundreds of users employing electronic signature, e-receipt, scan stations and E-Report.  Bellco and SECU also run the iDentifi.Trak module to avoid audit exceptions.  Tracking includes automatic e-mail notifications and reports when documents are pending or in exception.  Exceptions are automatically cleared when documents are added into the iDentifi.WEB repository.  If documents are recurring; ticklers are automatically reset at the point of recurrence.

E-Receipt (for paperless receipts) works with signature pads, as well as with Ingencio and Pax units at the teller, which interface with the Verifast Solution from Fiserv/Open Solutions Inc.  This one unit can be used for swiping and signature.  The Credit Unions are using the dual logo feature of e-Receipt for shared branch transactions.

All three credit unions are using e-sign for loan documents and new account signature cards.  Documents are scanned with automatic indexing provided through barcodes that integrate with core by reading the core data file for indexing.

It is ideal to have one central repository for all your information.  The iDentifi.WEB repository imports the following automatically:

• Velocity and Empower Loan Documents
• XDI Akcelerant Collection Notices
• IRA Documents

Information can be accessed through Fiserv/Open Solutions DNA Core, or directly through the KWYK (Key What You Know) search engine which is part of the .NET iDentifi.WEB repository.

E-Report is not just limited to the downloaded Fiserv/Open Solutions reports, but also includes auto indexing of Elan Reports, WITS (wire transfer reports from Pathfinder), FDR Reports, IS Reports, ERAS Reports, Fidelity Reports, Co-Op reports and abandoned property reports.  Conversions can be supported from the legacy systems; Synergy, DocStar, Spoolview and Aace.

Posted under "Thought Leaders" on the cbanc website  cbancnetwork.com

According to IDC (International Data Corp) – between now and 2020…  there will be 44X the growth in information BUT… only 1.4X growth in IT professionals.  For example, according to MBA Online there are 294 billion emails sent every day.  To give you an idea of the impact it would take the US Postal Service two (2) years to process that many pieces of mail.  Every day 172 million people visit Facebook, 2 million Blog posts are written (guilty as charged), enough posts to fill Time Magazine for 770 million years!

So why are we waiting to manage and store all this information?  According to an AIIM, the leading trade association in a Enterprise Content Management (ECM) survey, “the problem is we don’t think we have a problem!” The number one answer to the survey is “management is still dragging their feet;” followed by “people still want to hold onto their paper.”  Finally, “people still think they need a wet signature (signature on paper)” …and so on.

Yet AIIM also asked the following question, “How much more productive do you think your organization would be…with ECM?”  The median answer is “at least 33% more productive.”  So where is Enterprise Content Management (ECM) headed?  We see the traditional ECM model moving from document centric to people centric, open and collaborative, community oriented and so on…  A focus on the customer, rather than on products, is a critical ingredient for financial institutions to maintain and grow their business with their customers. 

ECM is an effective approach to helping financial institutions manage the information, the content necessary to achieve a customer-centric focus.  As business and consumer customers become empowered by social media and pervasive communications, they are starting to realize they have choices for their financial services. These trends are reshaping the financial industry and are putting financial institutions into a more competitive atmosphere than before.

Technology innovations today and into the future have been turned up-side-down! It used to be business drove innovation, today people do.  So how do you manage the information tsunami so your customers don’t end up knowing more about your products and services than you do?  That is the imperative for going paperless and more.

We have moved from an era of the PC, to the internet and today the cloud.  Each subsequent move has happened more rapidly.  You can see how things were processed from the document, to the web page and today it’s an interaction.  Consider the best known companies.  Look how over time we have moved the cheese from IBM to Microsoft and now to Facebook.  Content has moved from microfiche to image, to document, to content to social business systems?  We see financial institutions moving from the PC to the web and mobile devices, but not nearly as quickly as their customers and the growth in the devices themselves.  What’s next?  Go paperless.

What are 2 or 3 greatest misperceptions associated with implementing doc imaging?

Centralized scanning (capture) is NOT the only way to control the document imaging capture and workflow.  Scanners become increasingly powerful and inexpensive.  Scanners for less than $1,000 include features such as duplex and color document capture.  Software as a Service (SaaS) and in-house web-server based ECM applications offer  click-once deployment, employ barcode recognition, forms recognition and e-signature technologies which allow for a more automated and accurate method of capture.  Centralized capture out!  Distributed capture in!

Your ECM implementation happens overnight.  False!  Technologies such as report archive and a basic backfile scanning application, like signature cards may be in place in weeks, but careful planning and best practices while employing ECM applications for all new account and loan products, HR, accounting, Accounts Payable and so on take time and teamwork.

You're going to go "completely" paperless.  False!  There are going to be documents you have to keep, such as a mortgage and a deed.  Your lawyer must decide.

How long is a ‘typical’ timeline to get a doc imaging system up and running?

If the ECM vendor provides "templates" for the applications the customer wishes to implement and best practices guidelines during the pre-implementation stage and during implementation a "typical" document imaging implementation timeline will be 30-90 days.  If the customer is exceptionally well organized in terms of defining their applications and indexes it can be 30-45 days.  The customer must provide good feedback and be fully engaged.

Who is best suited to serve as the project owner for implementation: IT, the business line being imaged, or some other area?

The IT department or IT consultant needs to be involved as well as the business line managers of the department or organization being implemented but the ECM project owner should be a person that has project management skills.  They might not have all the answers but have the ability to get the answers and keep the project on track internally and be an advocate to promote the system throughout the organization.

Besides loan origination, what are 3 other areas that should be considered for doc imaging?

Deposits, Operations, Legal, HR, AP, Vendor Management, Facilities Management Wire transfer and more...

Are there any business lines or areas that are NOT good candidates for doc imaging? Why?

There are areas that will be more challenging than others.  If you are new to ECM, pick an area of the institution where there is a quick ROI like new account signature cards, new account documents, consumer loans, HR then make your way to more challenging are such as commercial mortgages.  The primary concern will always be the same best practices and teamwork.

What recommendations can be made to minimize staff keeping ‘ghost files’?

If you cannot access the content, image files, documents and reports easily and quickly from anywhere across the organization, you will most likely have people keeping ghost files.  This means stop the flow by capturing documents at their originating point within your organization and conquering the backfile as well.  A scanning service is a good way to get that done.  It is usually easy though for the bank themselves to go back and scan in all the old signature cards.  This is a good way to be successful right off the bat.  It has a good impact on the customer and the staff.

I recently did a survey and analysis at a multi-billion financial institution and I expressly advised them they would never catch up with their backfile if they didn’t capture their documents at the source (branch) or in the field and utilize e-signature and auto-indexing methods whenever possible.  Centralized capture is out!  Distributed capture is in!  Managing social business content lags far behind, but we are storing more content from more and more channels of communication.

Can some docs be destroyed immediately after imaging? Any docs that can NOT be destroyed?

This list is extensive and requires the advice from the financial institutions legal counsel.  As a general rule, keep everything seven years. Keep the Mortgage, Release of Mortgage and Note permanently.

For more information or an ROI analysis of your needs to go paperless contact sales@identifi.net or visit our website www.franprocess.wpengine.com. 

There’s a great series on the History Channel, called “Life After People”.  The series explores what happens to our cities, buildings and bridges without people to maintain them.  In just days, our very infrastructure we take for granted, our tunnels and subways will become flooded.  Transportation will cease.  Power will be cut.  Our planet begins to look like this (click on thumbnails).

Here is a trailer to the series.  Living After People.

Most of our competitor’s Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions, a.k.a., document imaging or COLD, are considered ancillary (secondary) products.  What happens when your provider’s resources are pulled from ECM product development to concentrate their resources on their core competency?

There's a series is in the works, it’s called “Living without Legacy”.  It’s about living with an erosion in talent; living with meager or no updates; living with Band-Aid fixes (patches).

Technology is not slowing down, it’s speeding up.  The faster technology changes the faster software applications must change to keep you competitive in your industry.

Integra Business Systems, Inc. develops ECM products for financial institutions and the financial services industry.  We own our technology.    We develop in ASP.Net and .Net.  Our iDentifi.net (follow link) product line is web-based.

To learn more about the products you need and best practices, go to the post, Imaging Horsepower, a post on this Blog which has appeared in both ICBA Magazine and online at Credit Union Magazine.

Imaging Horsepower is now available on Credit Union Magazine's website.

http://www.creditunionmagazine.com/articles/imaging-horsepower?

A successful ECM implementation means credit union staff must find the software easy to use. An ECM application using the ubiquitous browser is a good choice for searching for documents. Who isn’t familiar with the Internet browser? This reduces the cost and time to train employees, especially in positions with high turnover.