Ambler Savings Moves Toward the Future by Expanding its Use of OIT Solutions
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Ambler Savings has been helping the community since 1874, when a group of citizens first met with the purpose of organizing a Building and Loan Association. Since then, Ambler Savings has grown and changed along with the community.
Throughout the years, the needs of its customers have also changed. With loans, savings accounts, checking accounts, MAC and Debit cards, Ambler Savings has continued to respond to the changes in the financial environment without sacrificing the relationships it has built with its customers. Keeping relationships intact while growing is not always an easy undertaking.
The Original Solution
To make this task easier, Ambler Savings chose to license Optical Image Technology, Inc.'s (OIT) DocFinity® COLD-ERM product. The licensing was facilitated by a partnership established between OIT and NCR. NCR would install and support OIT's DocFinity COLD-ERM product at banks just like Ambler Savings. Since the point that NCR originally installed the system, Ambler Savings has been working closely with DocFinity COLD-ERM. Ambler Savings would send its data to NCR who would process that data accordingly. The reports were then sent back to the bank. Operating at Ambler Savings' site, OIT's DocFinity COLD-ERM would manage the reports.
DocFinity COLD-ERM would handle Ambler Savings' computer-generated reports for more efficient storage, improved management and rapid access. DocFinity COLD-ERM allowed the bank to archive, index, store, manage and retrieve computer output. By eliminating unnecessary printing and microfiche production, Ambler Savings observed substantial savings and an increase in customer service almost immediately.
A Need for Change
Ambler Savings continued to grow along with the surrounding community. The institution soon found a need to expand to keep up with the growth and expansion. For this reason, Ambler Savings decided to move its Loan Department to a new building, with operations at both locations.
Unfortunately, this move meant that the employees would need to go between buildings to get the important financial documents to which they would need access. In addition to inconvenience, this also brought up security issues. If the documents would be traveling between buildings, there was an increased risk of misplacing them. It was obvious to the organization that this would be unacceptable and it would need to find an innovative solution to meet the challenges they were facing. Ambler Savings had built its reputation on helping the community, so it was mandatory that customer service always remain a top priority.
"Ambler Savings is a perfect example of a bank who is eager to move beyond the status quo," states Scott Buchart, President of OIT. "OIT's Total Solution can help Ambler Savings grow effortlessly along with the needs of its customers."
So, once again, Ambler Savings turned to OIT's DocFinity Solution for assistance with its customer relationship management.
The Next Step
Ambler chose to upgrade products from an Xbase to SQL product, a move from 16 bit to 32 bit systems. Ambler savings will continue to use OIT's DocFinity COLD-ERM to process and store NCR and other computer-generated data. They will also use DocFinity AutoARCHIVE to monitor the large volumes of reports and apply templates to them.
DocFinity AutoARCHIVE monitors the host for spool files and sends them to Archive for processing as soon as the files enter the queue. Ambler Savings can also easily "attach" graphical form overlays that look just like the original form on which the data was printed. Both DocFinity COLD-ERM and AutoARCHIVE have enhanced Ambler Savings' situation by easing the work of the bank's employees while improving customer service.
In addition to DocFinity COLD-ERM and AutoARCHIVE, Ambler Savings has decided to expand its system to include OIT's DocFinity Imaging. The employees will scan pertinent documents, such as loan documents, into the system. The users will then access all needed information via a Wide Area Network (WAN). Ambler Savings is using a MS SQL Server Database and an NT Server. They have licensed DocFinity Imaging for five users.
With DocFinity Imaging, the employees at Ambler Savings can quickly locate and view the information they require. Once accessed, they can fax, print and add annotations to existing files. It is even possible to share the information simultaneously and even use email to attach and send a document directly from the DocFinity Imaging program.
"We are very excited about Ambler Savings' decision to add DocFinity Imaging to its current solution," says Mr. Buchart. "This is a significant step for the future of efficiency and customer service at this bank."
The Future
Ambler is already looking at possible future enhancements. These include the Barcode Reader Module, and DocFinity IntraVIEWER®.
Ambler Savings is exploring the possibility of helping to automate their indexing in various ways. Ambler Savings will explore the use of the DocFinity Barcode Reader Module to bypass the manual indexing of scanned images. The barcode recognition capability will eliminate the need to manually index scanned pages, thus increasing both productivity and accuracy. This module is a way to help automate the indexing process and increase the accuracy of indexing.
DocFinity IntraVIEWER will provide Ambler Savings with a low cost, efficient way of accessing current and historical information from any location via a standard web browser, such as Netscape or Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Users can retrieve AND workflow ANY object that is stored within OIT's DocFinity Software. Users at Ambler Savings will be able to simply issue a request via DocFinity IntraVIEWER to the SQL database. When the security is approved, the data is retrieved from the storage device and transmitted over the web to the user's screen.
The Moral of the Story
By embracing the latest technologies, Ambler Savings has made a deliberate decision to renew its commitment to the community. Long standing relationships will be strengthened and many new relationships will be formed because of this undertaking. Customer service will continue to improve, costs will go down, and most importantly, Ambler Savings will flourish in today's highly competitive financial market.
