Application
Corporate Global Utility for Electronic Document Management
Customer Profile
Bankers Trust Company (BTCo) is the principal banking subsidiary of
Bankers Trust New York Corporation, the nation's ninth largest banking
company, with assets of more than $100 billion and more than 14,000 employees
worldwide. BTCo's mission is to assist corporations, governments, institutions,
and high net worth individuals worldwide in the productive management of
their assets and risks. BTCo and its affiliates specialize in risk management,
financing, advisory, investment
management, and transaction processing services for clients, and also
take proprietary positions in securities, currencies, and other instruments.
The Opportunity
In this competitive, global market, the quality of client services is
a key differentiator. The financial industry, and commercial banks in particular,
have a fiduciary responsibility to clients that requires speed and security
in processing transactions. Critical deadlines are imposed by regulatory
agencies, and stiff financial
penalties are the result of failure to meet them.
In the mid-1980s, with these concerns in mind, BTCo began searching for workflow and document-imaging technology to increase the efficiency of its paper-intensive operations, worldwide. Its technology strategy was to look beyond document-imaging solutions for individual departments, to the creation of a global utility for electronic document management (EDM) that would give BTCo a competitive edge.
BTCo has built a solid infrastructure of technology and support for EDM as a global utility. Since application development are decentralized functions within BTCo, each of the business lines implement their own unique applications. But, they look to the corporate technology infrastructure to manage vendor relations, determine product strategy and direction, provide technology consulting services, ensure system availability in centralized data centers, maintain the corporate network, and provide support services. The enterprise-wide approach of offering a corporate utility for imaging and workflow should allow BTCo to expand the capability to additional users' desktops for a reduced per seat cost.
The FileNET Solution
BTCo's solution was the adoption of a single workflow and document-management model, one that was scalable and could integrate with the company's chosen component standards. Over the past nine years, BTCo has invested $10 million in EDM, including three FileNET utility systems in New York, London, and Australia. More than 1,500 workstations worldwide are image-enabled, using the Bankers Trust corporate wide-area network.
BTCo installed its first FileNET system in early 1987 to manage mortgage custody documentation for its Corporate Trust and Agency Group (CTAG). The system tracks the collection of mortgages, which form the collateral for mortgage-based securities. Key to this business is the ability to receive a large quantity of paper documentation on mortgages from an institution and validate them within a specified time. BTCo's ability to do this quickly directly affects its bid for the mortgages and, ultimately, the company's profit. FileNET's WorkFlo and document-imaging solution increased the productivity of CTAG's professional staff by 35 percent. What's more, it enabled the company to bid for new business opportunities that it would not have been able to assume with a manual, paper-based system.
An additional application was developed for the Shareholder Relations department to more efficiently handle client inquiries. All transaction support documents, such as call notices, instruction sheets, 1099 tax forms issued, and transfer journals, are now available on FileNET image-enabled workstations. This allows the customer service operator to view all pertinent documents for resolving inquiries while the shareholder is on the telephone. The system can also print copies of the original documents on demand.
Another successful application of FileNET technology is in Australia.
In 1991, Bankers Trust Australia Limited, a BTCo affiliate, purchased a
FileNET system to more productively manage $7 billion worth of mutual funds
invested by more than 200,000 clients. The company's paper problem extended
to17,000 boxes of client records that consumed one-third of an entire floor
of office space at its Sydney headquarters. Bankers Trust Australia redesigned
its funds management and
administrative processes using FileNET's WorkFlo software. In less
than a year, productivity increased 30 percent in Client Services and 25
percent in Administration.
At the Australian affiliate, WorkFlo is used extensively to manage all aspects of individual retirement accounts and mutual funds, from application processing, transfers, and account changes, to redemptions and disbursements. More than 130 users, including all of the customer service operators in Client Services, use FileNET to gain quick access to electronic client files. In Client Services, which receives more than 2,000 calls per day, operators previously had to manually locate the client's paperwork. Today, with immediate, on-line access to documents, they can handle most inquiries in the initial call.
The Bottom Line
FileNET's WorkFlo and document-imaging solution enables BTCo to cost-effectively and efficiently achieve its goals for paperless information exchange. Since 1987, the company has realized significant business improvements and cost savings in many business areas, including:
This success story courtesy of FileNet Corporation.