Superior Credit Union, based in Northwestern Ontario, is the first to offer e-Documents, a new feature available through MemberDirect® Online, MemberDirect® Integrated and MemberDirect® Small Business, which allows financial institutions to provide their members a single portal to retrieve any banking document related to their financial institution.
"We saw e-Documents as a way to add value for our members, while at the same time reduce procedural inefficiencies and lower the demand on our frontline staff", says Allison Kasper, CEO of Superior Credit Union. "It comes down to service delivery. If our members can access their banking documents at a time that's convenient for them, wherever they are, that's better service and happier members."
Roler Document Management worked with Central 1 and Superior Credit Union to pilot the new feature. Doxim, a provider of e-statements to credit unions, is also planning to launch its version of a MemberDirect® compatible e-Documents feature later in the year. Additionally, credit unions and financial institutions that already have document retrieval systems in place can work with Central 1 to add e-Documents to MemberDirect® Online and MemberDirect® Integrated.
"For Superior, piloting e-documents was a smart move", says Kasper. "The opportunity to be first to market in Canada with a new feature demonstrates to our membership we are nimble and offer market-leading features. We're a small credit union and can find it tough to compete against the big banks, so to offer T5's online before Royal (Royal Bank of Canada) is a big win."
Since Superior CU is already offering e-Statements, e-Documents is the next logical step. "For us, it's a low risk / high reward decision", says Kasper.
Dean Capotosto, Vice President, Sales, at Roler views the feature as a natural step in the progression of online data storing behavior. "As cloud computing (storing personal data and images online) becomes more commonplace and acceptable for confidential information, members will start to expect features like e-Documents as standard for financial institutions", says Capotosto. "The good news is, for institutions already implementing electronic statements, widening the offer to include commonly used items, like tax forms, is relatively straightforward."
One of the primary benefits of adopting e-Documents is that it reduces the time taken by staff and members to find and retrieve important banking documents. While Superior Credit Union has completed the pilot by offering tax forms, e-Documents can help financial institutions offer any number of banking documents, including tax forms, insurance forms, mortgage documents and regulatory correspondence. It can also replace costly and often-ignored marketing collateral that regularly accompanies printed statements.
"Ideally, we are working towards a future where all of our members' banking documents are conveniently located in one place on-line," says Kasper. "This reduces the number of calls from members requesting documents, as well as reduces the search time for our support staff to retrieve them. We've started with tax forms and expect to offer more in the near future."
Of course, there's also the cost savings that make e-Documents attractive. As an example, if credit union A (CUA) has 10,000 members, it sends out 10,000 paper statements per month. Assuming a 30% adoption rate of MemberDirect® Online or MemberDirect® Integrated, CUA can expect to reduce its printed statements by 3,000 a month.
At a cost of 80 cents per statement including postage, handling and printing costs, that translates into $2,400 in savings per month and $28,800 per year. Now add to that the yearly printing, handling and mailing costs associated with tax forms, insurance forms, regulatory policies, marketing collateral etc. — the savings quickly start to add up.
There are also advantages with compliance because e-Documents has on file original signed documents. Capotosto from Roler explains: "Audit trails are created with every activity which happens within the document management platform and cannot be altered. Any revisions that happen to a document are recorded down to the user. Documents, no matter how often they are revised, are maintained in the system in their original form, and cannot be deleted. In addition, user rights/permissions are customized based on each credit union's needs, and therefore access can be restricted on individual documents or entire document classes eliminating any chance of information being shared, viewed or modified by unauthorized staff or members."
While too early in the initial launch to properly measure adoption, Kasper is confident the feature will be well received. "And the best thing is, offering this feature will help increase the use of MemberDirect® amongst our members."
Central 1 Technology and Payment Services