Are You Budgeting for Document Management?

Sponsored by Bluepoint Solutions 

Have you (finally) decided to invest in upgrading your content and document management practices? Congratulations! Providing excellent member service and appealing to the tech-hungry Millennial generation starts with getting your back office operations under control. You’ve completed the important first step. Chances are, you’ve begun looking at solutions that might meet your credit union's needs. And your inbox is already inundated with different vendors touting all the bells and whistles of various technology. How do you know which are the absolute must-have features—the ones that will save your credit union money and resources right now and position you for growth in the future? This is the key question that should guide your search for the best solution for you—and facilitate RFP creation as well. Replacing a document management system (or enterprise content management system—ECM in today’s terminology) is a significant investment. You can avoid over- or under-buying to support your growth by ensuring that you include these five requirements:

1. total paper elimination of even hidden or duplicate records;
2. a truly universal repository for all types of content (documents, emails, audio/video files, photos) and for all purposes (member and internal/HR-related);
3. support for decentralized scanning from multiple branches and locations, to allow immediate digital capture and immediate access to scanned documents;
4. ability to integrate with existing systems (such as e-signature, core, item processing, loan origination), to avoid costly manual interventions; and
5. member-centric file structure to keep each member’s documents together and match the way you actually do business.

Unless your ECM solution covers these essential bases, your credit union may miss out on much of the immediate value of today’s ECM technology. Worse, you will miss out on the ability to share any document with members through your online and mobile banking platforms right now, and on all the future developments in interactive member services. Now, that’s bang for your buck.

Alissa Fry-Harris is the director of marketing for CUES Supplier member Bluepoint Solutions, Henderson, Nevada. Bluepoint Solutions recently published a new white paper, Five Ways Document Imaging Will Help Your Credit Union Face the Future, which offers insights and specific guidance for applying advanced document imaging to promote your credit union’s growth now and in the future. The white paper also explores how current ECM technology can support mobile and self-service member interactions.

Pilot programs allow CUs to practice managing the security of electronic loan closings in this "Loan Zone" column from Credit Union Management. Also read "Automating Lending."

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