Convergence of Payments and Document Processing

Probably my most anticipated educational session at the TAWPI Show this August in Boston will be (believe it or not) taking place at 3:30pm on Sunday. If you haven't yet checked out the session's taking place on Sunday you better look again at the program. Some great stuff there.. The session I'm talking about is entitled; The Convergence of Payments & Document Processing- Opportunities & Challenges.

We've got some heavy hitters from the TAWPI board sitting on this panel namely Bob Young from Verizon, Joe Sass US Bank, Linda Dollens Indiana Department of Revenue, Mark Stevens OPEX, Bruce Wallace Wells Fargo and our moderator will be Doug Hartsema JP Morgan Chase.

What's more interesting however is the topic and really how much of a reality the convergence of payments and document processing is today. It is interesting for me to sit in the middle and look over both sides of the fence. With Check 21 becoming a reality it opens the doors to all sorts of providers out there to jump into the fun. Some vendors who have traditionally been looked at as only document capture guys cannot be categorized as such anymore like a, Kofax, ReadSoft, AnyDoc, etc. and other's who have been looked at more as strictly check capture folks, WAUSAU, Metavante, NetDeposit, J&B Software, Alogent, etc. are or will soon begin to cross-pollunate into both business applications. The landscape is getting hazy when it comes to who to go with for a check or document capture provider and more and guys who have never clashed against each other in RFP's will begin to do so. It won't matter anymore whether the document is a Check or an EOB.

Another interesting trend to think about in this convergence game between check and document and seems to be more under the radar screen are these large outsourcing check processing and remittance processing companies offering more traditional forms processing services on top of their check processing services. Not a far jump for them either. The thing is, I don't think the Service Bureau's who are strictly focused on forms processing are seeing this coming down the road...

Regardless, this session on Sunday shouldn't be missed.