Banking Case Studies

Investment Bank
Investment Bank Saves by Investing in docHarbor

An international investment bank had a three-dimensional challenge for docHarbor.

They wanted to integrate their financial accounting system to include reports and customer documents (reports, statements, 1099s and transaction confirmations) to reduce costs and improve the function of back-office personnel, brokers and clients throughout North America, Europe and Asia. The client (investment customer) would be able to access accounts transparently and seamlessly by accessing the company's website.

Deploying the docHarbor Online Application Program Interface (API) Toolkit enabled both internal and external customers to access authorized information from the docHarbor repository. There, all appropriate information dealing with transaction history and account status is captured along with all required client communication (under SEC and Sarbanes-Oxley).

Not only do investment professionals have quick and complete access to documents, clients logging on to their accounts via the investment bank website are treated to a personalized and private response anytime, day or night.

Certainly, the bank reduced storage costs of back-office reports, made more profitable use of its employees' time while virtually eliminating distribution costs associated with a broker need for paper reports. Personalized client communications and service now aid the investment bank with a new competitive advantage.

The docHarbor Online solution proved another great worth with uninterrupted service during period during and following the 2001 New York tragedy.

Northeast Bank
Banker says "Mission Accomplished" - On Day One

With major money in its care and major costs at stake, the challenge was singular and profound. This Northeast bank had as its single strategic operational goal to streamline document access and thus to improve customer service for its nationwide institutional asset management group. And it turned the mission over to the docHarbor Online web presentment service.

The result was "mission accomplished" the first day the service went online. But the story doesn't end there.

By electronically streamlining access to customer statements, tens of thousands of dollars in cash savings were realized each month simply by eliminating the mounds of paper formerly needed simply to send customer statements to internal customer service personnel, clients themselves and third party representatives. In terms of paper, processing, and distribution, the actual cash savings was calculated to have added a six-figure return to the bank's bottom line. That was in print savings alone by the end of the first year.

Getting back to the primary mission, as stunning as that turned out to be, hidden savings began to add up too in terms of labor savings as most questions were (and remain) resolved with the first call.

Speaking of labor savings and getting back to that first day, the bank reported that because no special training was required, most users were fully functional in the first hour.

Regional Community Bank
Documents to Bank On

With a booming personal loan and mortgage business, the last thing one successful and growing regional community bank needed was to get bogged down by its documents, but that is exactly what was happening.

The bank was running out of physical space where it could store and easily get hold of legal, documents. Files were often misfiled, and there were insufficient controls regarding access to sensitive consumer information. But worst of all, the standard practice in researching any file was the tried-and-true, yet costly-and-cumbersome way - retrieve the physical file, copy it, fill out a fax sheet, and send it to the requesting client or branch - days or sometimes weeks later. The result was obvious...costly, inundated processes, which was having an impact on the bank's ability to process new loans.

The solution turns out to have been as simple as opening an account with docHarbor and to outsource the non-business core banking process of document management. docHarbor scanned the documents, imaged the document back-files, indexed and ingested the documents to the docHarbor repository. Once that was done, searching and retrieving loan or mortgage files became fast, simple, and streamlined - but only for authorized personnel. Document requests are now addressed immediately. Often while the requestor is still on the phone, documents are printed and ready to be faxed or securely e-mailed. docHarbor even developed a "day-forward" document imaging system to scan new loan files on an as-needed basis - ready for the docHarbor Online web presentment solution.