Banking & Financial Services White Paper Film gains new digital relevance in mortgage, cash management services By Michael C. Maxwell, Director, Digital Archive Products Business Imaging Systems Eastman Kodak Company In today's banks, the click of keyboards and the hum of computer terminals have all but replaced the sound of shuffling paper--evidence that financial services, like so many other industries, is being transformed by digital information management technologies. This is especially true in today's hotly competitive mortgage banking and cash management arenas. Here digital imaging technologies are one of the chief means financial institutions use to deliver better customer service, streamline operations and operate more economically. In large measure, the appearance of these digital technologies reflects new strategic approaches in today's mortgage banking and cash management fields. The CCIM (Customer-Centric Information Management) strategy applied in these areas, for instance, calls for financial institutions to examine, and in some cases dramatically change, their departmental structure and the way they operate. For instance, as financial institutions encourage commercial customers to explore the benefits of non-return checking, digital technologies, such as those that can quickly find and retrieve checks or be used for reconciling and auditing, will offer an important competitive edge. In the mortgage banking and cash management fields, among others, several emerging digital imaging technologies are providing welcome--and cost effective--alternatives to the way these services have been traditionally provided, and a way to fulfill the CCIM criteria. Digital archive writers One such solution is the digital archive writer--a first of its kind product that is already transforming the way financial operations provide key services. A look at the first digital archive writer available in the marketplace--the Kodak Digital Science Document Archive (DA) Writer--illustrates the added functionality this new technology brings to key banking applications. The DA Writer converts digital check images and other documents to human-readable images on 16 mm microfilm using simple commands. This enables financial organizations to store infrequently accessed digital documents cost-effectively while assuring future access from film, a proven archival medium. The DA Writer can work with an organization's existing digital imaging system. It operates by committing digital images to microfilm at up to 25,000 duplex check images, or 14,000 letter-size images, per hour--working, in concept, similarly to a laser line printer. The DA Writer converts and prints digital images to film, giving digital image--normally a transitory and time-vulnerable data type--a permanence that until now was accorded only to paper- and film-based applications. Along with the digital image, the DA Writer adds film indexing attributes to ensure ease of access of the digital document image from film. The index can reside on the film, providing enhanced reference and access capability over traditional microfilm. Film scanners allow users to access images on film. The scanned film image is easily delivered to a PC or workstation using simple commands. Mortgage banking Mortgage sales, a significant business for many financial institutions, requires the transfer of massive amounts of documentation between the seller and buyer institutions. The collection and transferal of these documents is among the costliest aspects of mortgage sales, creating significant overhead both in out-of-pocket costs and the absorption of labor, hardware and other company resources. Digital archive writer technology represents an important advance for the mortgage banking industry. For instance, the technology streamlines the assembling and transfer of mortgage files during sales of "blocks" of mortgages. Digital archive writers can complete this once labor-intensive and costly process quickly and efficiently, freeing up valuable internal resources while saving money. There is no need to print or exchange massive paper files; instead, digital archive writers can move file images directly to film with less demand on system or personnel resources. This added functionality speeds the mortgage file delivery process, ensures accurate file transfer, eases file storage requirements for the mortgage buyer and, most important to those working in this competitive area of financial services, saves money. Commercial cash management In another area--cash management for corporate accounts--the handling of information, specifically check images, is traditionally a high overhead proposition. In recent years, cash management services has begun to provide CD-based technology to store and retrieve check images for large accounts; however, CD technology is cost-justifiable for only large commercial accounts. Smaller accounts generally do not warrant the use of the latest in imaging technology. It is in these low-end applications that digital archive writer technology pays real dividends. In cash management, digital archive writers are also bringing about important changes. Again, the value resides in the added functionality the product brings. Typically, the film copy is produced after several passes on the camera sorter. However, when using a digital imaging system along with a digital archive writer, the bank can sort the images for even the smallest account and write the images to film. For the bank, digital archive writers provide vastly improved efficiencies and dramatically reduced administrative costs over traditional paper- and film-based systems for these smaller accounts. Because the check imaging system sorts check images, not the checks themselves, sorting is also improved. This greatly reduces sorter passes--a costly processing step--and streamlines overall processing. When used with a digital archive writer such as the Kodak's DA Writer, a check imaging system can send the images to the unit to write an account's checks contiguously to film. This enables all customers to have a film copy of their checks, sorted in check number sequence, for lower costs. It also provides the bank another service that sharpens the competitive edge. With electronic check scanners, check image quality is usually equal to or better than what traditional optical imaging technologies provide. This is because many of the variables that affect quality have been eliminated, or significantly reduced. This improved image quality means improved customer satisfaction--and again a better competitive edge. Improved customer service--the watchword for financial services in the coming decade, and a cornerstone of the CCIM strategy--is a key benefit digital archive writers bring to the ever-more competitive commercial cash management business. With an ability to "write" digital check images and indexing directly to film in a single pass, digital archive writers give cash management organizations an important new service they can offer customers, which, in turn, strengthens their competitive position in the marketplace. In the commercial cash management arena, digital archive writers offer a significant value, one that is made all the better by the cost savings the product brings to the financial institutions that use it--potentially 3-5% savings for the typical operation. In the coming years, mortgage banking, cash management and other industries will continue to seek solutions to help manage growing information demands for ever-lower costs. Today, digital imaging technologies, such as digital archive writers, are at the forefront of the industry trend to help organizations meet the requirements of an evolving, sometimes unpredictable marketplace. These organizations are doing more with less, delivering superior customer service and improving business performance. Kodak Business Imaging Systems serves customers at more than 10,000 installations in the Americas, Europe and the Pacific Rim by providing a range of document imaging solutions for financial services and other industries. Eastman Kodak Company, 901 Elmgrove Road, Rochester, NY 14653-6324, 1-800-243-8811. http://www. kodak.com. Michael C. Maxwell, Director, Digital Archive Products, Business Imaging Systems for Eastman Kodak Company, leads Kodak's Digital Archive initiative.
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