As check electronification progresses, image exchange capability is becoming a business imperative for financial institutions of all sizes to remain competitive. It is evident that this is the direction in which the industry is moving.
ŽA Viewpointe Whitepaper
Eight Steps
to Image Exchange
As check electronification progresses, image exchange capability is becoming a business imperative for financial institutions of all sizes to remain competitive. It is evident that this is the direction in which the industry is moving. (For a look at the inroads being made in the industry by check electronification and exchange, visit www.viewpointe.com/files/ImageExchangelnroads.pdf.)
The faster financial institutions can get involved in check electronification and check image exchange, the sooner they can:. Eliminate the high costs of maintaining a manual infrastructure for paper processing.. Provide more value to customers through innovative new products and services enabled by check electronification and exchange.
For those financial institutions that have not yet started image exchange, there's no time like the present A Simpler, to get involved. The check image exchange process has become simpler, faster and more consistent Faster Process across the industry since the Check Clearing for the Twenty-First Century Act (Check 21) went into effect in October 2004. Organizations that got involved in the early days - vendors, channels and financial institutions - climbed a steep learning curve as they transitioned from a paper to an electronic environment. Now, their experience has paid off. Defined processes for implementation are now in place and potential stumbling blocks - and how to avoid or overcome them - have been identified.
Image technologies continue to evolve and improve, helping smooth and shorten the image exchange process for institutions of all sizes. The industry is steadily marching toward the goals of interoperability and standardization of file formats, coding and messaging. What's more, vendors' products have matured and generally can be customized without compromising their interoperability.
Today, image-enabled financial institutions with a universal file transmittal system in place generally can get image exchange up and running in as little as 90 days. After that, adding another partner or connecting to a network may take only four weeks.
This whitepaper puts forward an eight-step process that can help guide financial institutions of all sizes through a timely and smooth implementation of check image exchange.T he Eight Steps of Implementation The path to image exchange can be broken down into just eight basic steps. These steps are designed as a guide; each financial institution will have to customize the process according to its own specific objectives.
Step 1 Develop an image strategy. Because the decision on whether or not to proceed with image exchange can have far-reaching implications on a financial institution's competitive positioning, the business case that's developed must go beyond technological considerations. The impact on the organization as a whole - and how image exchange aligns with corporate strategy - must be considered. An effective business case should answer questions such as: What are our business objectives for image exchange?; How will image exchange support our corporate objectives?; How will image exchange save costs?; What revenue-generating opportunities will it provide?; and How will our business be affected if we choose not to implement image exchange now?
Step 2 Image-enable check-processing operations. For most financial institutions that are considering image exchange, this step is a fait accompli. Any institutions that have not yet become image-enabled must first decide if they are going to do image capture in-house or outsource that function to a third-party service provider. Financial institutions that decide to do image capture in-house must first install up-to-date cameras on their capture equipment. Using those cameras to image checks, their processing system must then be able to create a file with MICR information and other needed data in the standard X9.37 file format for transmission. Financial institutions should keep in mind that, while the ideal scenario is to image-enable Day 2 processes, Day 2 enablement is not mandatory for exchanging images.
The financial institution implementing image exchange must be committed to eventually taking the paper out of its check process. With this goal in mind, the institution must plan when and how each aspec... [download for more]
