SHAZAM's renewed commitment: Technology for the future of community banking

Northwestern Financial Review, Oct 15-Oct 31, 2003

More than a quarter century ago, SHAZAM pioneered technology allowing community financial institutions access to the electronic payments system. Today, access is even more crucial as community financial institutions face increased competitive pressure to provide electronic convenience at an affordable cost.

SHAZAM is committed to helping community financial institutions meet the challenges of the future. Therefore, SHAZAM is redoubling efforts to provide community financial institutions the same technology resources, at a competitive price.

Online EFT Program Management

SHAZAM has recently introduced a new online report and data file distribution feature to SHAZAM Access, its web-based EFT administrative application. Using the new feature, SHAZAM financial institutions can quickly and efficiently download essential reports and data files via their personal computers and existing Internet connections. SHAZAM is the first major regional EFT network to provide this type of functionality.

Launched in 2002, SHAZAM Access assists financial institutions to successfully manage their EFT programs. SHAZAM Access subscribers are able to view cardholders' transactions in near real time and control their ATM and card programs online.

The new report distribution feature will save financial institutions both time and money. Because it is web-based, it offers many benefits over conventional methods including faster download times and user-friendly navigation.

Arvest Bank Operations, a SHAZAM financial institution, has witnessed the efficiency of online reports first-hand. "We are very pleased with the progress SHAZAM has made helping our organization reduce the amount of time and resources involved in managing our EFT program," said Tom Galloway, Arvest Bank Operations. "With the addition of this new feature in SHAZAM Access, we reduced file transmission times from hours to minutes."

In addition to online report distribution, SHAZAM will soon implement two-way file exchanges between SHAZAM and financial institutions. Internet delivery of files will increase efficiency for both parties. In many cases, the new technology will reduce file transfer time dramatically, freeing up staffing resources within the financial institution.

The development of SHAZAM Access has once again illustrated SHAZAM's ability to deliver innovative solutions for community financial institutions. SHAZAM is not new to pioneering EFT technology. Founded 27 years ago, SHAZAM was one of the first EFT networks in the nation and the first to develop the single-message model that revolutionized the delivery of EFT services. Today, SHAZAM continues to own its hardware and software, allowing the network to maintain its independence and control of its systems.

"As an organization owned and controlled by community financial institutions, SHAZAM is clearly committed to helping our customers compete in today's EFT industry," said Mike Hollinger, SHAZAM Executive Vice President and COO. "The introduction of our online report distribution feature, along with our constant effort to provide more efficient services, is one of the many ways we provide community financial institutions the tools they need to remain successful."

Building the Future of Community Banking

In the upcoming months, SHAZAM will be focusing a significant amount of resources on the migration from its legacy systems to a new Hewlett-Packard Non-Stop Server. The HP Non-Stop Server offers the highest availability in the industry and will leverage SHAZAM's existing high performance network. The HP platform will also provide SHAZAM with a cost-effective, scalable solution. This migration will increase processing capabilities, while allowing SHAZAM to quickly bring new products and services to market.

In the next year, SHAZAM will transition its development efforts from Assembler and COBOL to object-oriented languages, such as Java and C++. These programming languages, along with the architecture SHAZAM has chosen, will enable highly efficient collaborative design processes and allow the network to deploy new products faster than ever before.

While this phased migration will appear transparent to SHAZAM financial institutions, the results will affect every aspect of the SHAZAM network. The development occurring behind the scenes today will guide SHAZAM and our community financial institutions into the next quarter century and beyond.