Posted by Mark Brousseau
After years of being relegated to the sidelines as a result of the economic downturn, attendees at this week's AFP Annual Conference at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas, appeared to be back in the buying game, reports Mario Villarreal (mvillarreal@usdataworks.com), president and COO of Houston-based US Dataworks, Inc. (www.usdataworks.com). As evidence, Villarreal pointed to the advertised 30 percent bump in attendance, better booth traffic, and the more substantive conversations with prospects compared to last year.
"After several years of sitting through vendor presentations and strategizing internally about enterprise payments, many of the organizations at AFP appeared ready to buy," Villarreal said. "Based on the conversations we had at AFP, I think we will see a significant number of enterprise payments deals close next year." Villarreal said banks, in particular, appeared interested in enterprise payments.
Two key factors are driving the demand for enterprise payments, Villarreal said. First, operations have reached the breaking point in terms of effectively managing their existing payment silos. By consolidating all of their paper-based and electronic payment channels onto a single platform, organizations can reduce cost, eliminate redundant systems and processes, improve availability, gain better visibility into their payments, and apply consistent controls across their payment streams.
Second, organizations are more confident that they will have the budget necessary next year to kick-off an enterprise payments initiative. Furthermore, banks may be looking to make internal investments that deliver a reasonable rate of return rather than parking their cash and earning a measly 25 basis points, Villarreal said. "By no means are operations flush with cash, but IT budget dollars are loosening up for projects with a clear ROI, and enterprise payments fit that bill," he said.
What do you think?
Showing posts with label AFP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AFP. Show all posts
Monday, November 15, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
Customer loyalty to banks drops significantly
Posted by Mark Brousseau
While the U.S. economy may be showing signs of a modest recovery, retail banks continue to struggle with their most basic mission: satisfying customers. In fact, a recent consumer survey reveals that overall satisfaction of retail banking customers has decreased for a fourth consecutive year, to 748 on 1,000-point scale, primarily due to low marks in customer service, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2010 U.S. Retail Banking Satisfaction Study.
To gauge consumer attitudes, J.D. Power recently surveyed nearly 48,000 retail bank customers across the United States. Respondents were asked to rate their bank on a variety of topics encompassing account activities; account information; bank facility; fees; problem resolution; and product offerings.
Results of the study show that poor customer service is the most common reason why customers switched banks in 2010. According to the study, 37 percent of customers who changed their primary banking relationship in 2010 did so because of poor customer service at their previous bank. This represents a real missed opportunity for banks, according to the study.
“As retail banking customers become considerably less loyal, banks need to focus on getting the fundamentals right,” said Michael Beird, director of the banking practice at J.D. Power and Associates. “Banks who get back to the basics—such as maintaining a clean branch and greeting customers as they enter the branch—may help to alleviate some of the distress customers are feeling and increase overall satisfaction.”
Performing simple service acts such as greeting customers as they enter the branch, offering additional assistance, and thanking them for their business may increase overall satisfaction by nearly 50 index points. However, less than one-half of customers reported experiencing those services.
Loyalty suffers
J.D. Power and Associates research indicates a clear connection between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Generally speaking, satisfied customers are loyal customers. On the flipside, customers who report lower levels of satisfaction are much more likely to switch service providers, no matter the industry.
According to the study, expressed loyalty to banks, which is measured by the percentage of customers saying they will “definitely not switch” in the next 12 months, has fallen significantly during the past three years. It was only 34 percent in 2010, compared with 46 percent in 2007. Further, the gap between larger and smaller banks is considerable, with 40 percent of customers at smaller banks reporting that they will definitely not switch, compared with 33 percent at larger banks.
High fees often cited as reason for switching
Fees continue to have a major impact on customer loyalty, as well. According to the study, 29 percent of customers who switched banks in 2010 cited high fees as their reason for leaving. The study also finds that customers can be highly satisfied even when paying fees, provided that they receive sufficient value for the price paid. Fee-paying customers with above-average fee satisfaction indicate better experiences with branch access and appearance, promptness of being served, and the bank’s Web site navigation and range of services.
“While fees have a significant impact on customer satisfaction, banks can mitigate this effect by giving the customer choices,” said Beird. “Customers tend to be considerably less dissatisfied when they have different overdraft options, such as transferring from a savings account or sending a balance alert.”
The way customers bank is changing
As technology continues to infiltrate every aspect of daily life, banks too need to adapt to changing customer preferences. According to the study, 51 percent of customers report a preference to bank online—an increase from 44 percent in 2008. In addition, 7 percent of customers report using a mobile device to check balances, transfer funds, and pay bills.
What do you think?
While the U.S. economy may be showing signs of a modest recovery, retail banks continue to struggle with their most basic mission: satisfying customers. In fact, a recent consumer survey reveals that overall satisfaction of retail banking customers has decreased for a fourth consecutive year, to 748 on 1,000-point scale, primarily due to low marks in customer service, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2010 U.S. Retail Banking Satisfaction Study.
To gauge consumer attitudes, J.D. Power recently surveyed nearly 48,000 retail bank customers across the United States. Respondents were asked to rate their bank on a variety of topics encompassing account activities; account information; bank facility; fees; problem resolution; and product offerings.
Results of the study show that poor customer service is the most common reason why customers switched banks in 2010. According to the study, 37 percent of customers who changed their primary banking relationship in 2010 did so because of poor customer service at their previous bank. This represents a real missed opportunity for banks, according to the study.
“As retail banking customers become considerably less loyal, banks need to focus on getting the fundamentals right,” said Michael Beird, director of the banking practice at J.D. Power and Associates. “Banks who get back to the basics—such as maintaining a clean branch and greeting customers as they enter the branch—may help to alleviate some of the distress customers are feeling and increase overall satisfaction.”
Performing simple service acts such as greeting customers as they enter the branch, offering additional assistance, and thanking them for their business may increase overall satisfaction by nearly 50 index points. However, less than one-half of customers reported experiencing those services.
Loyalty suffers
J.D. Power and Associates research indicates a clear connection between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Generally speaking, satisfied customers are loyal customers. On the flipside, customers who report lower levels of satisfaction are much more likely to switch service providers, no matter the industry.
According to the study, expressed loyalty to banks, which is measured by the percentage of customers saying they will “definitely not switch” in the next 12 months, has fallen significantly during the past three years. It was only 34 percent in 2010, compared with 46 percent in 2007. Further, the gap between larger and smaller banks is considerable, with 40 percent of customers at smaller banks reporting that they will definitely not switch, compared with 33 percent at larger banks.
High fees often cited as reason for switching
Fees continue to have a major impact on customer loyalty, as well. According to the study, 29 percent of customers who switched banks in 2010 cited high fees as their reason for leaving. The study also finds that customers can be highly satisfied even when paying fees, provided that they receive sufficient value for the price paid. Fee-paying customers with above-average fee satisfaction indicate better experiences with branch access and appearance, promptness of being served, and the bank’s Web site navigation and range of services.
“While fees have a significant impact on customer satisfaction, banks can mitigate this effect by giving the customer choices,” said Beird. “Customers tend to be considerably less dissatisfied when they have different overdraft options, such as transferring from a savings account or sending a balance alert.”
The way customers bank is changing
As technology continues to infiltrate every aspect of daily life, banks too need to adapt to changing customer preferences. According to the study, 51 percent of customers report a preference to bank online—an increase from 44 percent in 2008. In addition, 7 percent of customers report using a mobile device to check balances, transfer funds, and pay bills.
What do you think?
Sunday, April 11, 2010
How AP Trends Impact AR
Posted by Mark Brousseau
AP trends highlighted in IAPP's recent AP Automation Study are driving the need for enterprise payments hubs. Mario Villarreal, president and COO of US Dataworks (mvillarreal@usdataworks.com) explains:
Organizations that are still on the fence about the need for an enterprise payments hub may feel like they've received a proverbial shove after reading the results of a new study on accounts payable (AP) trends conducted by International Accounts Payable Professionals (IAPP), based in Orlando, FL.
IAPP's study found that while the overwhelming number of organizations still make payments via paper check (97 percent), more organizations are using automated clearing house network/electronic funds transfer (79 percent), wire transfer (59 percent) and purchasing cards (50 percent). The move towards these electronic payment channels is driven by the unique attributes they offer, the IAPP study found. ACH/electronic funds eliminates most of the costs associated with paper checks. Wire payments are primarily used for sending payments internationally. Purchasing cards enable front-line employees to make purchases within minutes instead of days, while eliminating paperwork.
While electronic payments are building momentum, the IAPP study suggests that paper checks may have staying power: an eye-popping 91 percent of invoice dollars are still paid via paper check. Similarly, AP departments also are still overwhelmingly using the mail to submit remittances advices (82 percent); it is standard, IAPP's study finds, for the envelope with the paper check to also contain the remittance advice.
So why worry about what's happening in AP? Because those payments will eventually find their way into an organization's A/R department. And most corporate remittance operations are currently structured in silos to support individual payments types, such as check, ACH, wire, and purchasing card. Each of these payments types has its own fraud and compliance components, resulting in redundant systems, lack of transparency across channels, potential processing delays, and less than optimal customer service.
Based on the results of IAPP's study, these payments processing challenges may get worse.
Enter Enterprise Payments Hubs
That's where enterprise payments hubs come in.
An enterprise payments hub allows billers to realize working capital management improvements with a single platform for processing all paper-based and electronic payments and clearing channel, in turn, driving Straight Through Processing (STP) of receivables.
An enterprise payments hub provides a consolidated, end-to-end transaction processing platform that offers integration with legacy payments and receivables systems and processes, resulting in an aggregated and centralized payments processing solution. An enterprise payments hub is capable of managing the entire payments lifecycle including payments processing, check processing, payments decisioning, and returns management -- all critical to receivables management.
Increased visibility can be realized through the use of consolidated payment monitoring and reporting, giving a more complete view of a company’s cash position. This helps companies gain centralized control of their cash and more accurate visibility into their payments and receivables.
The centralized reporting provided by an enterprise payments hub can provide internal business intelligence that can point to new revenue streams and increased cost efficiencies. Companies that can effectively view, analyze, and act on this payment information can react more quickly to receivables trends and customer service inquiries, while improving forecasting and budgeting.
An enterprise payments hub is especially effective when the multiple payments channels of an organization are centralized, as standalone systems and processes can be significantly reduced. For example, an enterprise payments hub can enhance workflow, data management and payment routing, and facilitate common processes and administration across all payment channels. This functionality eliminates manual processes, accelerates exceptions handling, increases corporate agility, and improves float. These capabilities also provide a platform for straight-through-processing (STP). Similarly, an enterprise payments hub reduces bank fees by facilitating least cost, best fit clearing.
The Bottom Line
With an enterprise payments hub, organizations can better realize the benefits of working capital management. Companies are now able to gain control and visibility over their payments processing and receivables management, which in turn offers treasurers new cash management tools. For instance, consolidating payments information in an enterprise payments hub produces a more accurate and timely view of payments. Payment streams also are consolidated for clearing. The end result is that least cost, best fit routing can be applied to payments to reduce fees and improve float.
With AP departments adopting a wider range of payment mechanisms, billers can't afford to sit on the fence any longer. To remain cost competitive -- and keep up with industry standards for accuracy and speed -- they'll need an enterprise payments hub.
What do you think?
AP trends highlighted in IAPP's recent AP Automation Study are driving the need for enterprise payments hubs. Mario Villarreal, president and COO of US Dataworks (mvillarreal@usdataworks.com) explains:
Organizations that are still on the fence about the need for an enterprise payments hub may feel like they've received a proverbial shove after reading the results of a new study on accounts payable (AP) trends conducted by International Accounts Payable Professionals (IAPP), based in Orlando, FL.
IAPP's study found that while the overwhelming number of organizations still make payments via paper check (97 percent), more organizations are using automated clearing house network/electronic funds transfer (79 percent), wire transfer (59 percent) and purchasing cards (50 percent). The move towards these electronic payment channels is driven by the unique attributes they offer, the IAPP study found. ACH/electronic funds eliminates most of the costs associated with paper checks. Wire payments are primarily used for sending payments internationally. Purchasing cards enable front-line employees to make purchases within minutes instead of days, while eliminating paperwork.
While electronic payments are building momentum, the IAPP study suggests that paper checks may have staying power: an eye-popping 91 percent of invoice dollars are still paid via paper check. Similarly, AP departments also are still overwhelmingly using the mail to submit remittances advices (82 percent); it is standard, IAPP's study finds, for the envelope with the paper check to also contain the remittance advice.
So why worry about what's happening in AP? Because those payments will eventually find their way into an organization's A/R department. And most corporate remittance operations are currently structured in silos to support individual payments types, such as check, ACH, wire, and purchasing card. Each of these payments types has its own fraud and compliance components, resulting in redundant systems, lack of transparency across channels, potential processing delays, and less than optimal customer service.
Based on the results of IAPP's study, these payments processing challenges may get worse.
Enter Enterprise Payments Hubs
That's where enterprise payments hubs come in.
An enterprise payments hub allows billers to realize working capital management improvements with a single platform for processing all paper-based and electronic payments and clearing channel, in turn, driving Straight Through Processing (STP) of receivables.
An enterprise payments hub provides a consolidated, end-to-end transaction processing platform that offers integration with legacy payments and receivables systems and processes, resulting in an aggregated and centralized payments processing solution. An enterprise payments hub is capable of managing the entire payments lifecycle including payments processing, check processing, payments decisioning, and returns management -- all critical to receivables management.
Increased visibility can be realized through the use of consolidated payment monitoring and reporting, giving a more complete view of a company’s cash position. This helps companies gain centralized control of their cash and more accurate visibility into their payments and receivables.
The centralized reporting provided by an enterprise payments hub can provide internal business intelligence that can point to new revenue streams and increased cost efficiencies. Companies that can effectively view, analyze, and act on this payment information can react more quickly to receivables trends and customer service inquiries, while improving forecasting and budgeting.
An enterprise payments hub is especially effective when the multiple payments channels of an organization are centralized, as standalone systems and processes can be significantly reduced. For example, an enterprise payments hub can enhance workflow, data management and payment routing, and facilitate common processes and administration across all payment channels. This functionality eliminates manual processes, accelerates exceptions handling, increases corporate agility, and improves float. These capabilities also provide a platform for straight-through-processing (STP). Similarly, an enterprise payments hub reduces bank fees by facilitating least cost, best fit clearing.
The Bottom Line
With an enterprise payments hub, organizations can better realize the benefits of working capital management. Companies are now able to gain control and visibility over their payments processing and receivables management, which in turn offers treasurers new cash management tools. For instance, consolidating payments information in an enterprise payments hub produces a more accurate and timely view of payments. Payment streams also are consolidated for clearing. The end result is that least cost, best fit routing can be applied to payments to reduce fees and improve float.
With AP departments adopting a wider range of payment mechanisms, billers can't afford to sit on the fence any longer. To remain cost competitive -- and keep up with industry standards for accuracy and speed -- they'll need an enterprise payments hub.
What do you think?
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
News from the AFP Conference: Tuesday
Posted by Mark Brousseau
Bottomline Enhances Global Cash Management Platform
Today at the AFP Annual Conference in San Francisco, Bottomline Technologies announced new functionality for its WebSeries Global Cash Management platform, enabling banks to leverage industry standard messages for faster, more efficient cash reporting.
Through these new cash reporting capabilities, banks can send account statements and advices to corporate clients and correspondent banks. As the demand for real-time reporting among corporates and financial institutions continues to increase, WebSeries’ new functionality, which includes Nostro reporting, allows bank admin users to quickly and easily configure clients to receive statements and advices as needs and business requirements evolve.
“By leveraging industry standard messages, banks can quickly overcome many of the difficulties associated with efficient cash reporting. These new reporting capabilities are another example of Bottomline’s continuing commitment to helping banking customers support the needs of corporate clients through innovative features and functionality,” said Eric Campbell, Chief Technology Officer of Bottomline Technologies.
Bottomline Enhances Global Cash Management Platform
Today at the AFP Annual Conference in San Francisco, Bottomline Technologies announced new functionality for its WebSeries Global Cash Management platform, enabling banks to leverage industry standard messages for faster, more efficient cash reporting.
Through these new cash reporting capabilities, banks can send account statements and advices to corporate clients and correspondent banks. As the demand for real-time reporting among corporates and financial institutions continues to increase, WebSeries’ new functionality, which includes Nostro reporting, allows bank admin users to quickly and easily configure clients to receive statements and advices as needs and business requirements evolve.
“By leveraging industry standard messages, banks can quickly overcome many of the difficulties associated with efficient cash reporting. These new reporting capabilities are another example of Bottomline’s continuing commitment to helping banking customers support the needs of corporate clients through innovative features and functionality,” said Eric Campbell, Chief Technology Officer of Bottomline Technologies.
CFOs and Treasurers Maintain Recessionary View
Posted by Mark Brousseau
Even as the U.S. economy has exhibited signs of stability in recent months, financial professionals have not seen solid evidence that business conditions have turned the corner.
The vast majority of attendees to the annual conference of the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) believe the U.S. economy remains in a recession, despite indications of economic growth in the third quarter. Their uncertain outlook for near-term business conditions parallels expectations that their organizations will not resume hiring or capital spending, which they had halted over the past year, according to an on-site survey conducted yesterday.
Just 11 percent of responding conference attendees -- which include CFOs, treasurers and other treasury and finance executives representing companies of a median size of $1.5 billion in annual revenues -- believe that the U.S. economy is out of the recession. The outlook for the near-term is not much more optimistic. Just 20 percent of survey respondents believe the recession will end before of the year while 69 percent expect the recession will continue well into 2010.
"AFP members have played a critical role in maintaining the financial stability of their organizations through the recession," said Jim Kaitz, president and CEO of AFP. "As we look ahead, AFP will continue to work with policymakers to ensure that financial regulatory reform is balanced and represents the needs of financial professionals. We are confident that responsible regulation will foster stable and secure financial markets."
Asked whether their organizations would be apt to increase or decrease payrolls in the next six months, nearly two-thirds of financial professionals say they expect to maintain payrolls at current levels. Of those responding, 22 percent expect company payrolls to shrink further while just 14 percent anticipate that their organization will resume hiring over the next six months.
Similarly, the overwhelming majority of survey respondents expect to either maintain or further cut capital spending over the next six months. Just 21 percent of financial professionals anticipate their organization will increase capital spending in the coming months.
As employment and capital spending have stabilized, so has their companies' access to capital. More than half of respondents indicate that their organizations' access to capital stabilized over the past six months. Further, the area where capital access may have improved is among companies that have utilized the debt markets -- 31 percent of organizations have had improved access to debt markets over the past six months. Access to banking lending has improved for 22 percent of respondents while a similar percentage report improvements in raising capital in the equity markets.
When asked about the greatest risk to their organization's ability to prosper in 2010, financial professionals were most likely to identify one of two threats: failure of consumer demand to materialize (30 percent) and the possibility of a double dip recession (28 percent). Consistent with the reported stability in capital markets above, only 12 percent of survey respondents see a loss of access to capital as the greatest risk to their organization.
Even as the U.S. economy has exhibited signs of stability in recent months, financial professionals have not seen solid evidence that business conditions have turned the corner.
The vast majority of attendees to the annual conference of the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) believe the U.S. economy remains in a recession, despite indications of economic growth in the third quarter. Their uncertain outlook for near-term business conditions parallels expectations that their organizations will not resume hiring or capital spending, which they had halted over the past year, according to an on-site survey conducted yesterday.
Just 11 percent of responding conference attendees -- which include CFOs, treasurers and other treasury and finance executives representing companies of a median size of $1.5 billion in annual revenues -- believe that the U.S. economy is out of the recession. The outlook for the near-term is not much more optimistic. Just 20 percent of survey respondents believe the recession will end before of the year while 69 percent expect the recession will continue well into 2010.
"AFP members have played a critical role in maintaining the financial stability of their organizations through the recession," said Jim Kaitz, president and CEO of AFP. "As we look ahead, AFP will continue to work with policymakers to ensure that financial regulatory reform is balanced and represents the needs of financial professionals. We are confident that responsible regulation will foster stable and secure financial markets."
Asked whether their organizations would be apt to increase or decrease payrolls in the next six months, nearly two-thirds of financial professionals say they expect to maintain payrolls at current levels. Of those responding, 22 percent expect company payrolls to shrink further while just 14 percent anticipate that their organization will resume hiring over the next six months.
Similarly, the overwhelming majority of survey respondents expect to either maintain or further cut capital spending over the next six months. Just 21 percent of financial professionals anticipate their organization will increase capital spending in the coming months.
As employment and capital spending have stabilized, so has their companies' access to capital. More than half of respondents indicate that their organizations' access to capital stabilized over the past six months. Further, the area where capital access may have improved is among companies that have utilized the debt markets -- 31 percent of organizations have had improved access to debt markets over the past six months. Access to banking lending has improved for 22 percent of respondents while a similar percentage report improvements in raising capital in the equity markets.
When asked about the greatest risk to their organization's ability to prosper in 2010, financial professionals were most likely to identify one of two threats: failure of consumer demand to materialize (30 percent) and the possibility of a double dip recession (28 percent). Consistent with the reported stability in capital markets above, only 12 percent of survey respondents see a loss of access to capital as the greatest risk to their organization.
Monday, October 5, 2009
News from the AFP Conference: Monday
Posted by Mark Brousseau
Garda Cash Logistics Offers “Virtual Vaults”
At the AFP Annual Conference in San Francisco today, Garda Cash Logistics announced it is partnering with Bluepoint Solutions to deliver image-based cash vault processing, including image capture and image exchange of deposits and payments.
“With the advent of Check 21, we realized we could offer our clients a cost-effective solution to help expand their footprints and reduce costs,” said Patricia Marr, Vice President of Product Management at Garda. “By expanding our existing vault services to include image-based cash logistic services, our clients can effectively capture and exchange images received through Garda’s vault network, significantly accelerating deposit capture, posting and presentment. Working with Bluepoint, vaults can now be accessed electronically.”
Working with Bluepoint, Garda’s virtual vaults have the capability to immediately scan, process and balance mixed deposits of both cash and check documents. In addition to check processing, Bluepoint supports the image capture of paper tickets used to issue credit for cash deposits or cash adjustments, giving Garda the ability to provide direct billing data to banks. Garda’s centralized deposit balancing process captures, truncates, balances and adjusts check deposits for each of its customers. Check images are then formatted as X9.37 files for posting or bank-to-bank image exchange. Managed in an ASP environment, Bluepoint manages and corrects any exceptions to immediately adjust and balance the received deposit. Within the vault checks are scanned and the images are sent to Bluepoint’s centralized server where items are repaired if needed and then immediately balanced. The consolidation of the check processing in an ASP environment enables highly trained personnel to manage this functionality – enabling the vaults to stay in balance.
“In today’s uncertain financial environment, a bank cannot afford to lose sight of its core competencies – growing its deposit base and improving customer service,” said Hal Tilbury, president and CEO of Bluepoint Solutions. “Garda’s image-based virtual vault solution enables financial institutions to increase funds availability, expand geographically and more accurately manage deposits – all without adding additional resources. Specifically, this service helps banks attract and better serve commercial customers.”
US Dataworks Showcases Enterprise Payments Platform
US Dataworks is showcasing its enterprise payments platform, Clearingworks, this week at the AFP Annual Conference.
By using Clearingworks to automate multi-channel transaction processing and clearing, US Dataworks says organizations can significantly improve operational efficiency, reduce cost and more effectively manage converging paper-based and electronic payments processes -- all key requirements in our challenging economy.
Visitors to the US Dataworks expo booth (No. 314) can meet company representatives and see an overview of Clearingworks, including its components for ACH, WEB, Tel and remittance processing, check processing, payments decisioning, and returns management.
"US Dataworks' enterprise payments platform is flexible, enables continuous change and provides financial institutions and service bureaus with the infrastructure to better manage their entire transaction environment," commented US Dataworks President and COO Mario Villarreal. "Banks and billers currently face tremendous pressures to upgrade their payments platforms to handle the ever-expanding variety of emerging payment channels, all under limited budgets. The good news is that Clearingworks is a proven solution to simplify complex payment collections processing and reduce costs."
"US Dataworks is uniquely positioned to help banks, billers and service providers reduce payments processing and clearing costs and improve operational efficiency," said Villarreal. "No other company has the full range of capabilities that banks and billers need to streamline the entire transaction lifecycle, including payments processing, check processing, payments, remote deposit capture, payments decisioning and routing, and returns management."
3i Infotech, Regulus and J&B Showcase Revenue Chain Solutions
3i Infotech, Regulus Group and J&B Software are demonstrating how to uncover total cost of ownership savings within the corporate revenue chain at the AFP Annual Conference in San Francisco this week. The companies are exhibiting their billing, remittance processing, imaging, remote capture, electronic deposit and other products and services at the show.
By taking a consultative approach to evaluating a company’s cash collection processes, 3i Infotech says its companies not only uncover areas of inefficiency and cost savings, but deliver solutions for all parts of the entire revenue chain, whether the need is for outsourced, in-house, hybrid or managed solutions. And since these solutions come from a single vendor, management is simplified and management expenses are greatly reduced, 3i Infotech says.
“Because of the importance of the revenue cycle process to an organization, many companies become so focused on their day-to-day treasury operations that they often miss the savings opportunities in front of them,” said Kathy Hamburger, CEO and president of 3i Infotech, North America. “3i Infotech delivers a full suite of revenue chain solutions, not just one or two pieces, so we understand that the impact of the end-to-end revenue chain extends well beyond the treasury department to include finance, marketing, customer service and more. We help companies find ways to improve processes and reduce total cost of ownership from the production floor to the executive suite.”
Garda Cash Logistics Offers “Virtual Vaults”
At the AFP Annual Conference in San Francisco today, Garda Cash Logistics announced it is partnering with Bluepoint Solutions to deliver image-based cash vault processing, including image capture and image exchange of deposits and payments.
“With the advent of Check 21, we realized we could offer our clients a cost-effective solution to help expand their footprints and reduce costs,” said Patricia Marr, Vice President of Product Management at Garda. “By expanding our existing vault services to include image-based cash logistic services, our clients can effectively capture and exchange images received through Garda’s vault network, significantly accelerating deposit capture, posting and presentment. Working with Bluepoint, vaults can now be accessed electronically.”
Working with Bluepoint, Garda’s virtual vaults have the capability to immediately scan, process and balance mixed deposits of both cash and check documents. In addition to check processing, Bluepoint supports the image capture of paper tickets used to issue credit for cash deposits or cash adjustments, giving Garda the ability to provide direct billing data to banks. Garda’s centralized deposit balancing process captures, truncates, balances and adjusts check deposits for each of its customers. Check images are then formatted as X9.37 files for posting or bank-to-bank image exchange. Managed in an ASP environment, Bluepoint manages and corrects any exceptions to immediately adjust and balance the received deposit. Within the vault checks are scanned and the images are sent to Bluepoint’s centralized server where items are repaired if needed and then immediately balanced. The consolidation of the check processing in an ASP environment enables highly trained personnel to manage this functionality – enabling the vaults to stay in balance.
“In today’s uncertain financial environment, a bank cannot afford to lose sight of its core competencies – growing its deposit base and improving customer service,” said Hal Tilbury, president and CEO of Bluepoint Solutions. “Garda’s image-based virtual vault solution enables financial institutions to increase funds availability, expand geographically and more accurately manage deposits – all without adding additional resources. Specifically, this service helps banks attract and better serve commercial customers.”
US Dataworks Showcases Enterprise Payments Platform
US Dataworks is showcasing its enterprise payments platform, Clearingworks, this week at the AFP Annual Conference.
By using Clearingworks to automate multi-channel transaction processing and clearing, US Dataworks says organizations can significantly improve operational efficiency, reduce cost and more effectively manage converging paper-based and electronic payments processes -- all key requirements in our challenging economy.
Visitors to the US Dataworks expo booth (No. 314) can meet company representatives and see an overview of Clearingworks, including its components for ACH, WEB, Tel and remittance processing, check processing, payments decisioning, and returns management.
"US Dataworks' enterprise payments platform is flexible, enables continuous change and provides financial institutions and service bureaus with the infrastructure to better manage their entire transaction environment," commented US Dataworks President and COO Mario Villarreal. "Banks and billers currently face tremendous pressures to upgrade their payments platforms to handle the ever-expanding variety of emerging payment channels, all under limited budgets. The good news is that Clearingworks is a proven solution to simplify complex payment collections processing and reduce costs."
"US Dataworks is uniquely positioned to help banks, billers and service providers reduce payments processing and clearing costs and improve operational efficiency," said Villarreal. "No other company has the full range of capabilities that banks and billers need to streamline the entire transaction lifecycle, including payments processing, check processing, payments, remote deposit capture, payments decisioning and routing, and returns management."
3i Infotech, Regulus and J&B Showcase Revenue Chain Solutions
3i Infotech, Regulus Group and J&B Software are demonstrating how to uncover total cost of ownership savings within the corporate revenue chain at the AFP Annual Conference in San Francisco this week. The companies are exhibiting their billing, remittance processing, imaging, remote capture, electronic deposit and other products and services at the show.
By taking a consultative approach to evaluating a company’s cash collection processes, 3i Infotech says its companies not only uncover areas of inefficiency and cost savings, but deliver solutions for all parts of the entire revenue chain, whether the need is for outsourced, in-house, hybrid or managed solutions. And since these solutions come from a single vendor, management is simplified and management expenses are greatly reduced, 3i Infotech says.
“Because of the importance of the revenue cycle process to an organization, many companies become so focused on their day-to-day treasury operations that they often miss the savings opportunities in front of them,” said Kathy Hamburger, CEO and president of 3i Infotech, North America. “3i Infotech delivers a full suite of revenue chain solutions, not just one or two pieces, so we understand that the impact of the end-to-end revenue chain extends well beyond the treasury department to include finance, marketing, customer service and more. We help companies find ways to improve processes and reduce total cost of ownership from the production floor to the executive suite.”
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