Solution Overview - Credit Union
Changing Seasons Credit Union was established over 40 years ago as Bangor Hydro Federal Credit Union to serve the needs of the employees of Bangor Hydro Electric Company. In 2007 the credit union built their first office and became known as Changing Seasons Federal Credit Union, adding services to include the local area towns.
Until 2013, Changing Seasons FCU was very much a paper-based business. Employee records, loan documents and other supporting documents were filed into traditional file cabinets lined in rows in various places around their offices. This "transaction-based" filing system was how things had been done for many years. Technology had certainly provided important workplace improvements in previous decades, including software designed specifically for credit unions, but in this competitive and highly-regulated industry, nothing was addressing the fact that they were dependent on excessive amounts of hardcopy paperwork.
Regulations require that credit unions retain member account-related information for seven years. At Changing Seasons FCU, all currently-active files were then kept in file cabinets in their primary office space, while older files were stored in less-handy locations in the same building, typically in plastic file boxes rather than metal file cabinets. The files were organized by member number, with no easy way to cross reference files using other criteria.
The CEO of Changing Seasons FCU, Sue Cross, is uniformly thrilled at the performance of the three main components of the solution. Sue commented, "We have actually been able to back scan about 70% of our loan docs as of now. And we are almost 100% on our new consumer loan docs (in conjunction with DocuSign). We are working on back scanning all of our membership docs as
well. Within a couple of months, we will be getting rid of about 15 filing cabinets!!!! Now that everyone has been scanning for a while, everyone loves it!"
The Challenge
Endeavoring to transform a company to significantly different business processes comes with high risks – hopefully the rewards outweigh the risks. Changing Seasons FCU was not one of the early adopters of electronic document management (EDM) systems – these types of solutions had been available for years – so fortunately they could use the experience from those folks to help them make lower-risk decisions on how to roll out such a system. The key challenges facing the technical team at Changing Seasons FCU as they planned the transition to an EDM system were:
- getting users of the system rapidly proficient at using it
- achieving clear and immediate improvements
- long-term viability of system
- seamless integration into the existing environment
- minimizing the need for new equipment purchases
For Changing Seasons FCU, it was clear that paperwork was still a necessary evil of their industry. A wide variety of paperwork still needs to be conducted between credit unions and their members, and in many cases, the paperwork needs to be reproducible for many years after. The key was to minimize the presence of the hardcopy paperwork, without losing anything in the process. To do this, the first step was to get an incoming document immediately into a digital format easily reproducible on either paper or a computer screen.
The other half of the challenge was in addressing the demand for better disaster recovery systems and procedures. Paper files are susceptible to a wide variety of malicious, accidental, and naturally-caused attacks. Another key aspect of the evolution away from paper would ideally minimize the chances of such an attack from having any serious impact on Changing Season's ability to keep its operations running smoothly.
Solution
Changing Seasons FCU chose to integrate three products to help them minimize the impact of hardcopy paper on their business:
EasyFile™ with DocBuild Plus™ Paperless Workflow
DocBuild Plus seamlessly integrates with the EasyFile CMS software, automatically notifying key personnel that newly-scanned documents have arrived and are ready to be added to the EDM (i.e. EasyFile). Before being stored in EasyFile, "indexing" information must be associated with each document. This data describes the key traits of the document, and is used subsequently
for accessing it and organizing it with others. Once stored in EasyFile's repository, the paper is no longer needed – all that's necessary is a computer on Changing Seasons FCU network with the appropriate privileges.
DocBuild Plus™ for DocuSign®: eSign & Authenticate
DocBuild Plus integrates with your DocuSign account to provide complete creation-to- completion paperless workflow. With a single click... your document automatically uploads and launches in your DocuSign Console... saving you time and completing transactions faster.
Using DocuSign's world-class digital transaction management, documents can have templates
'automatch' or selected and applied, then routed, reviewed, completed and signed by your
recipients, and automatically returned back to you for further action or archival.
Kodak™ SCANMATE i940
These reliable and user friendly scanners allow Changing Seasons FCU to scan/capture the documents into EasyFile with a single press of a button. Their compact size allows them to fit into any workspace needed.
Results
Sue Cross went on the share "All of our staff has been using it for quite some time and everyone really likes it. Although it does take getting used to, in the end it is really worth it."
Sue pointed to a number of other key improvements that the system brought to the business:
- Much faster access to current and non-current documents
- Streamlined workflow including seamless interface to DocuSign within 2-3 steps.
- No misplaced or otherwise lost files
- Better and more effective disaster recovery
- Simultaneous access to a document by multiple users at multiple sites
- Having secure remote access to files (over the internet) when needed
- Better security against natural disaster, malicious attack, and mishandling
- More stringent safeguards against member privacy/confidentiality
Changing Seasons FCU has seen huge economic benefits by using EasyFile and DocBuild Plus.
The care and attention ScanPoint provides to its' clients from end to end is second to none.
About Information to Imaging Technologies.
Information to Imaging Technologies is a leader in paperless workflow technology, now fueled by eSignature®. Our EasyFile™, DocBuild Plus™, and Virtual TWAIN™ products are used by 1,000's of individuals and companies from all verticals including, insurance, finance, healthcare, government, technology, legal and others. Fortune 50-1,000, SMB's and all sizes of government and organizations achieve the benefits of our solutions within their workflow.
