Selecting a Corporate Remote deposit Solution is serious business

By Robin Ferrari, Director of Corporate Marketing, iStream Imaging®, Inc.

Financial institutions in the 21^st Century have big technology decisions to make, from 'Internet Banking and Branch Capture' to 'Teller Capture and Corporate Remote Deposit Capture'. Although each choice is important to your business, only one is revolutionary to your customer, or better yet, your deposit base: Corporate Remote Deposit Capture (RDC). The introduction of Corporate RDC technology and the Check 21 Law has made your customer king. The customer can now choose to conduct their financial transactions anywhere at anytime. Since deposit balances give an institution the power to leverage money, this mobility can put a scare into any size institution.

What's driving institutions to offer Corporate RDC?
Whether an institution views RDC as an essential survival strategy, is interested in offering cutting edge technology, or offers RDC simply because their customers requested it, implementing a solid solution is paramount. But don't settle for just any solution. This is your institution's deposit future. Remember, the RDC solution makes it easy for your customer to select any financial institution, maybe one that's more customer-focused. This new era of deposit portability should be reason enough to seriously evaluate Corporate RDC solutions.

Five Points to Consider When Evaluating Corporate RDC Solutions:
1.) Do Your Homework . Ask your customers. It's that simple. This may seem different than your usual research, but this product is for the customer. Remember, deposits are king and your customer brings you deposits. Just because your core processor offers a solution doesn't make it the best solution for your customer. Corporate RDC will turn into a commodity so be sure it's a solution your customer likes and wants to keep when the competition comes knocking on their door.

2.) A Viable, Flexible Solution Provider. What does this really mean?
Evaluate the provider's level of commitment (watch out for "here's the software, good luck implementing and supporting").

• Evaluate the provider's ability to implement enhancements for you and your customer.
• Evaluate the provider's perspective on the technology, as related to your customer.
• Evaluate the deposit process, technology, security, image quality, ease of use and installation, etc.
• Will this product or provider grow with your institution and your customer?

3.) Value Added Benefits That Retain Your Customer. Consider other elements of the solution or solution provider that will tie your customer to your financial institution and maintain value to the customer. For example, does the solution offer integration into the customer's accounting software, or proactively catch mistakes and offer other back-office efficiencies to ease the burden of paperwork, posting, corrections, etc?

4.) Understand Your Institution's Needs and Involvement. Being a financial institution today is challenging. Your specialty is money, not necessarily technology. The technology is a method to manage the money and is forcing you to become more and more technology savvy. Do you have the time and resources to implement Corporate RDC in an active, heavily involved role? Are you looking for a completely in-house solution or an entirely outsourced one (they do exist)? Or do you want to pick and choose, managing back end proofing, clearing and settlement, but washing your hands of the sell, install, deployment, and software and hardware maintenance? How quickly do you need a solution?

5.) Consider the Present and Future Market of Remote Deposit. How will technology change? How will laws and regulations change? Will third party entities resell the solution like other payment processing products? The technology is rapidly changing, the laws and regulations are not far behind and third party entities are already out in the market soliciting your customers. Don't let this scare you, but motivate you to take the selection of a Corporate RDC solution as serious business.

Not all Corporate RDC solutions are made equal. Offering your customer a solution is one thing; offering your customer a reliable RDC solution built with their needs in mind is completely different. That's why choosing the right solution and partner is important to your institution's future.

Ferrari is director of corporate marketing for iStream Imaging ® Inc.

Stream Imaging® , which is endorsed by FIPCO® , is a Brookfield-based provider of remote deposit solutions whose core strategy is to minimize the costs of check handling while maximizing productivity for businesses and financial institutions. The company provides remote deposit solutions in 43 states penetrating over 2,500 users nationwide. For more information, contact the FIPCO Customer Service Department at (800) 722-3498 or fipcosales@fipco.com.