Wachovia's new image-based remittance processing system: Wachovia resolves integration issues

Today, Jun 2000 by Haley, John R

One key featureo f the new image-based processing system at Wachovia is its ability to format data and present it exactly as it looked when output from their legacy data system.

Best-of-breed applications allow you to mix and match the most powerful software packages on the market to create a solution customized to the needs of your company. When the implementation proceeds smoothly and all the pieces work well together, the best-of-breed approach can create a significant competitive advantage. Yet many implementations stall because of difficulties integrating the various systems.

When Wachovia was building its new remittance processing system, its project team knew it was worth the extra effort to connect the different packages. A minor component of one of the software packages was the key to making the pieces work together.

In early 1997, Wachovia made the decision to build an imaging-based remittance processing system. Wachovia consistently has been named one of the best providers of treasury management services, leading the industry in customer satisfaction. So when its customers started asking for imaging, Wachovia began to look for a way to deliver the capabilities customers wanted.

From the beginning, Wachovia focused on how the remittance system would be used by both customers and in-house support staff. Fortunately for the remittance team, a strategic decision on check image storage had been made years earlier. The decision was to have all of the bank's check images stored in one central location. Wachovia had developed its own enterprise-wide check image archive to store checks from all departments including the remittance area along with whatever supporting documentation might be needed: adding machine tapes, invoices, remittances, letters and other correspondence, even the envelope in which the check was mailed.

"The Check Image Archive gives instant access to all of the images related to a deposit," said Terry Beck, director of item and image processing for Silas Technologies, a wholly-- owned subsidiary of Wachovia that now markets the check image archive solution to other banks. "Within minutes after a deposit is closed out, Wachovia's remittance customers can look at the documents and make ship/no-ship decisions the same day. They no longer have to wait until the next day when they receive their remittance package. Wachovia's customer support staff also has access to the data and images and can pull up information immediately to help their clients."

The next component to be chosen by the remittance team was the imaging software. Wachovia needed software that could provide images in the right format for the archive. IA Corporation's RemitVision, one of the leading systems used by banks to automate remittance processing operations, was able to meet that requirement.

IA's software scans the checks and remittance documents and turns them into digital images. The documents are organized in electronic folders. Wachovia then uses a data entry system to key information from those images and append that information to the image.

The operations staff was very content with their old data entry system. However, the system would have to be replaced. It was not Y2K compliant and would not work with the new imaging system. "We wanted software with the same or better functionality than our old system and a package that could carry us into the new millennium," said Chris D. Ledford, vice president of Wachovia Operational Services Corporation.

Viking Software Services had software that met Wachovia's requirements. Viking's new VDE Images ran under Microsoft Windows NT and promised the same or better performance. It offered customization options that would allow Wachovia to keep the same look and feel as the old data entry system, easing the conversion for the data entry operators. In addition, Viking could help with the 500 programming jobs that would have to be converted. And VDE Images would allow Wachovia to key from paper or images with the same job setup-an important factor since the data entry system would be moving from paper to images in stages.

"We examined several data entry packages, but Viking's was the one that best met our needs," said Ledford. "We had been very satisfied with the way our old system worked and expected to have to settle for less when we converted. Fortunately, we got much more."

The next question was whether Wachovia would be able to integrate VDE Images with the other components of the imaging application. Data formatting was the major concern-- would VDE Images be able to import and export data in formats that would work with the other best-of-breed components?

"We knew our software could be integrated easily," said Sherrill Lindsay, the sales representative at Viking who worked with Ledford. "Our API is one of the strongest parts of the product. But we had to convince Wachovia."

"Wachovia gave us the format in which the data would be delivered to us and the format for the data when we were finished with it," Lindsay added. "We were able to show that it was no problem to import and export data in those formats."