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Optika Provides Solution to Tokyo-Mitsubishi’s Processing Needs
 
 
Tokyo-Mitsubishi International plc (TMI) is a subsidiary of the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Limited, the world’s largest bank. As such, it is a major player in international capital markets and one of its major focuses is on derivatives. Since the bank receives and transmits daily approximately 1,200 SWIFT and telex messages as part of its day-to-day business, the backing up of large volumes of documentation is required. TMI works with regularly changing floating rates and payment schedules, thus requiring excellent and efficient communication both internally and between external parties of derivative deals.
 

Initially, TMI was most concerned with its filing process. The bank had 18 filing cabinets filled with documentation back up, requiring additional staff and a growing amount of office space. Derivative deals have an average life span of 4-5 years and require files to be easily accessible on a regular basis. TMI needed a solution to not only replace the numerous filing cabinets, but also to solve the bank’s overall paper problems. TMI decided to install a complete document management, imaging and storage system and chose the FilePower® product suite from Optika Imaging Systems, Inc. Optika’s Business Solutions Partner, Norsk Data, initially installed Optika’s report management system (Computer Output to Laser Disk technology), FPreport™.
 

RETURN ON INVESTMENT

"Our employees now have instant and direct access to information which is stored electronically on optical disk," said Martin Higgs, Associate Director and Head of Derivative Settlements in the Operations Department at TMI. "Automating this particular business process has dramatically increased information processing and retrieval, greatly enhancing the company’s efficiency and effectiveness in the derivative deal market."

To become an even more efficient paperless organization, TMI installed Optika’s PowerFlow™ workflow management system, which is integrated with FPreport. PowerFlow electronically routes, manages, monitors, coordinates and processes all information, dramatically reducing manual routing of telexes within TMI. "FilePower provided us with an easy storage and retrieval system which responded to our need to save space while allowing multi-user and instant access in addition to providing us with a solution to our security requirements," said Higgs.

Benefits
TMI now offers increasingly efficient customer service due to the instant access of documents provided by the system. The majority of documents previously in filing cabinets are now stored on optical disk, with minimal cost in transferring information. Employees can access these documents instantly, and even have the ability to view multiple documents simultaneously. This has freed up office space and allowed TMI employees to virtually eliminate the long hours previously wasted in the filing process. "Our business has seen a dramatic increase in productivity because employees can quickly perform computer searches for information instead of manually paging through volumes of documents. Cost savings from reducing the need for photocopying and printing have also been significant," said Higgs.
 
Before Optika
TMI’s access to 18 filing cabinets, spread over 100 square feet of office space, created enormous possibilities for misfiles, removal of files, documents that were not replaced promptly, and in the worst case, complete loss of files. In general security terms, the bank had no back up files, raising concerns about disaster recovery. In addition to wasting labour resources in the filing process, TMI also used manual labour to route and file all daily telexes and faxes, creating an inadequate communication process between parties of related derivative deals.

With Optika
Today, it is clear that the integrated Optika product suite is revolutionising TMI’s paper-intensive work environment. In the operations department, a large proportion of paper has been removed. Optika provides a first class storage and retrieval system for derivative deals. A large part of the processing of deals is now completely automatic, facilitating communication between parties vital to each deal’s success. Deal tickets are scanned into the system at the onset of the deal and optically filed when received by the operations team. Most importantly, should there be a disaster situation, the information is already optically stored and mirrored, automatically sending all information down the line to TMI's disaster recovery site at a remote location. The Optika system also provides an automated process for routing and indexing of faxes and telexes. PowerFlow routes the outgoing telexes into the imaging system and automatically codes each with a deal number and document type. When the reply is confirmed, the system converts the file, polls the directory, reads the deal number and document type, adds the record, indexes it and adds it to the file; all without the use of manual labour.

Future
Plans are already underway to introduce the Optika solution into TMI’s accounting department. All the heads of departments who previously signed off purchase requisition forms will now become system users. As this process becomes automatic, TMI will rid itself of even more paper. Similarly, the personnel department will soon be able to store personnel and payroll records on the imaging system. Optika’s leading technology has clearly made its mark on TMI. An internal examination of TMI’s credit, compliance and legal departments is underway to determine possible implementation of Optika’s FilePower suite throughout the enterprise. "Optika’s imaging system is continuing to meet our needs and we are able to offer our customers an improved and efficient service. As more and more employees within the bank use imaging, we can only continue to improve upon that service," said Higgs. "Optika's integrated suite of products provides us with a flexibility that allows expansion from the departmental level to a large-scale enterprise-wide solution without having to redesign the system."
 
This success story courtesy of Optika Imaging Systems.

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