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Lockbox Outsourcing Grows Interest as Community Banks and Billers Determine Savings and Process Improvements are Too Good to Pass Up
In 1999, a visit to a lockbox outsourcing vendor would have left most banks and billers intrigued but probably not ready to jump. They weren't going to trade their processes for the marginal benefits that they perceived. Nine years later, if those banks and billers take a second look at lockbox outsourcing, they will be dazzled. Lockbox providers today have better technology, their service offerings have been expanded, and best practices evident in more places. They also have more certifications (such as SAS 70), which help guarantee consistency, quality and improved operational management.
Banks and billers are coming away so impressed that more of them are concluding that they need what these lockbox providers are offering. This is certainly the experience at Image Remit, the outsourcing division of lockbox solutions provider Cash Management Solutions (CMS). Founded in 1999, Image Remit now provides third-party and end-user remittance processing services to the financial, insurance, and utility industries, among others. Currently serving from four East Coast facilities, more sites are being developed.
Image Remit's experience mirrors that of a growing segment of the lockbox market. "The current lockbox landscape continues to evolve from primarily a payments process, to a document and information management process that may include a payment," said Ralph GaIIo, senior vice president and account manager, for Image Remit. "While treasurers and CFOs still need financial information, more of them are expecting that transaction information be used to feed their legacy systems and various reporting mechanisms."
And they want this information as fast and complete as possible, added former banker Walter Elkins, chief business development officer for Image Remit and CMS, both of Clearwater, FL.
To be sure, banks have long viewed the lockbox as another tool for inticing corporate customers to bring their deposits and lending needs to the bank. "In many cases, lockbox was viewed as a necessary evil or treated as a loss leader," noted Scott Sapia, director of marketing at Image Remit. But bankers are now being challenged...