Equipment Upgrades Enhance Efficiency & Service

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March 2, 2011 | COMMENTS

Financial institutions expect equipment and solutions that not only are cheaper, faster, and easier to use and maintain but that also provide a competitive advantage and enhance the consumer experience. These goals are not at all impossible, according to Jack Malinowski, chief technology officer with Benchmark Technology Group, writing in Independent Banker.

Malinowski’s equipment recommendations fall into five areas.

1. Teller-capture software. The most efficient way to handle paper checks is to capture images of them for electronic clearing right at the teller window. The transaction can be balanced before the member leaves, eliminating costly post-closing balancing exceptions.

Teller-capture software promises to eliminate deposit and withdrawal tickets, expedite funds availability to address expected changes in Regulation CC, improve teller efficiency, reduce costs, speed member service, and eliminate the mid-day cutoff.

This software could provide tangible savings by eliminating various forms, couriers, and hardware. Additional savings could come from redeploying employees and significantly reducing keying errors, float, fraud, end-of-day balancing, and next-day balancing exceptions.

By converting all checks and documents to electronic images, all downstream processes become enabled toward an evolving digital infrastructure.

2. Cash recyclers. In many redesigned branches, the teller line is considered a sales barrier. One resulting challenge in open environments is to secure cash that could be distributed among several islands or pods in the lobby.

Cash recyclers and cash dispensers can serve as electronic vaults that work in spaces large or small. Even in traditional branches, these accurate devices provide faster transaction processing, giving tellers more face time for cross-selling. Middleware integrates cash recyclers or dispensers into teller system software.

Institutions moving to enter new markets quickly and save brick-and-mortar building costs can open branches in leased storefronts, an ideal environment to use cash recyclers to secure money.

3. Remote deposit capture. The next frontier for RDC is the small merchant who makes about 10 transactions a week. The appropriate software allows small-business owners to use their personal home scanners and mobile phones to process checks. It’s a channel in demand by consumers who will likely provide the incentive for financial institutions to provide the service. Selective enrollment is an option to mitigate the risks of these services.

The new generation of RDC is web-based and provides rapid enrollment, easy setup, flexibility in scanners, accessible reporting, more fraud detection, and integration with business accounting systems. For existing remote deposit systems, available upgrades include more accessible reporting, flexible deposit workflows, enhanced fraud detection, and integration with merchant payment systems.

4. Intelligent deposit ATMs. Deposit ATMs are now in their third generation, offering a single deposit module that can accept up to 50 bills or checks in bulk, eliminating single feeding.

This feature streamlines the deposit workflow for the customer and makes the ATM a viable channel for merchant check deposit. Merchants with the option of making deposits into intelligent-deposit ATMs then have access to those funds a day earlier.

As of March 15, ATMs also will be subject to new accessibility standards under the Americans with Disabilities Act. (For more information visit cunastrategicservices.com, enter Diebold in the search box.) 

5. Mobile computing. With new tablets such as the iPad, an entire new computing platform is flooding the market. In addition to enhancing employee productivity, deploying tablets among key staff can position an institution as a technology leader that could attract affluent and younger consumers.

Mobile computing devices appeal to entrepreneurs and young consumers who have grown up with advanced technology and use it to do business when, where, and how they want. Financial institutions that want to target Gen Y consumers will need to open accounts and take loan applications at a coffee shop or on campus rather than waiting for prospects to stop by a branch.

On tablets, with the right apps, electronic forms can easily be displayed, signed at any location, and e-mailed to members for their records.

These advances in equipment are fairly new, but they're already helping to bolster consumer confidence and enable employees to serve clients more efficiently. Digital technologies can be expected to contribute to efficient regulatory exams. Ultimately, they’re a key element in the competition among community-based financial institutions.