Leahy
helps Banesco grow from a Single Application
Into an Enterprise-Wide System
When
Banesco Financial Organization purchased five
banks in January of 1997, the rules for its electronic
document management (EDM) system changed dramatically.
An EDM system uses a document scanner and computer software
to convert paper documents to electronic images. The
images can then be stored on computer disks. "Banesco
suddenly had 10 times more documents to convert than
it did before," says Oscar Vazquez, v.p. of international
operations at
Leahy Document & Information Management,
Inc. Leahy is a Ft. Lauderdale, FL-based VAR with 70
employees. About one-third of Leahy’s customers
are in Latin America, including Banesco, which is the
fifth largest bank in Venezuela. Banesco is headquartered
in Caracas. In addition to providing banking services
– it is the largest provider of automobile loans
in Venezuela – Banesco also sells insurance.
In
January of 1997, Banesco purchased five banks from the
Venezuelan government. The government had taken over
the banks during a national financial crisis. "When
Banesco acquired the banks, Leahy had just completed
the design of an EDM system for Banesco’s mortgage
documents," says Vazquez. "We had invested
almost a year in defining the hardware and software
the system should include. But we immediately realized
it would not work with the larger volume of documents."
Throwing
Out the Book
Leahy
had gone so far as to write a manual which outlined
the procedures Banesco was to follow in order for its
EDM system to work effectively. "Leahy has been
in the document conversion business for over 20 years.
Through experience, we’ve learned that a successful
EDM installation requires controlling business’
document paths," explains Steve Leichtman, president
of Leahy. "To control document paths, a VAR needs
to learn about them. This can be done by sitting down
with business’ managers and asking where documents
enter a business, how they are used and who needs to
access them. With this information, a VAR can define
a system that account for everything from preparation
of documents for scanning (which includes who is going
to remove the staples) to making sure the right users
end up with the right documents."
When
Banesco added the mortgages from the five banks it purchased,
additional document paths for Banesco’s EDM system
were created. "This was especially complicated
because, in Venezuela, there is no standard format for
putting together a mortgage. Each of the five banks
Banesco purchased was using different formats for its
mortgages," says Vazquez.
One
Third Of Sale Generated By Consulting Fees
It
took almost another year before Leahy completed its
revision of the design for Banesco’s EDM system
and began the installation. Leahy received daily consulting
fees for its design work. "I flew To Venezuela
about eight times during the two years," says Vazquez.
"Leahy specialists in areas like scanning and networks
also went to Banesco to study the project. We also worked
at our office experimenting with different software
and hardware configurations and writing the manual."
The
final cost of the system was approximately $150,000.
Over a third of which was for the design of the system.
"It only took us about a week to do the installation,
once we figured out which direction we were heading,"
says Vazquez.
Building
On A Previous Installation
Banesco’s
confidence that the money invested in Leahy’s design
was going to pay off was likely influenced by the design
of a previous installation Leahy had done for Banesco.
In 1994, Leahy had installed a system to electronically
distribute daily financial reports to Banesco’s
50-plus branch offices. "Before that installation,
Banesco was distributing the reports with its own courier
service. In Venezuela, you don’t have the luxury
of Federal Express or Airborne. In addition to the expense
of the courier service, because of bad roads, often
the daily reports were taking more than a day to be
delivered," says Vazquez.
Leahy
won the installation by designing a system to distribute
Banesco’s COLD reports through Banesco’s
existing IBM AS/400 mainframe computer network. "Our
competitors wanted Banesco to install a wide area network
of personal computers. That was the only way their COLD
software could substitute the reports to the branch
offices," says Vazquez. "Macrosoft’s
MacroFiche COLD software, which we resell has
an AS/400 module which allows COLD documents to be viewed
on mainframe terminals."
Macrosoft
is a Rochester, MI-based software developer with 14
sales offices in the United States and over 50 reseller
partners in foreign countries. The price of the COLD
installation was between $50,000 and $70,000 and included
10 concurrent seats of MacroFiche. This mean that 10
users could be logged on to the COLD software at one
time.
Since
the installation, Banesco has added 20 more COLD licenses
at about $500 each. Banesco also has an installation
price. "This include unlimited phone support and
upgrades. When we originally installed the system, Banesco
was using MacroFiche version 2.5 for DOS. Now version
6.0 for Windows is installed," says Vazquez. The
upgrades are handled by emailing an executable file
from Leahy’s Ft. Lauderdale headquarters.
Establishing
Foreign Partnerships
Leahy
was introduced to Banesco through a partner in Caracas.
"Some of our foreign partners work for companies
like Kodak and Unisys. They contact us when one of their
customers inquires about an EDM or COLD installation.
Depending on their technical expertise and the size
of the installation, our partners either buy software
from us and install it themselves with our support,
or, they bring us in to install it for them. For the
Banesco installation, we paid our partner a percentage
of the COLD sales as a finder’s fee. Since then,
we have been working directly with Banesco," says
Vazquez.
Using
One Installation As A Bridge To Another
About
a year after the COLD installation, discussion began
between Banesco and Leahy on an EDM system. "Banesco’s
Information systems manager were familiar with EDM and
began to ask us if it could help them. Eventually, they
told us if we could help them cost-justify the installation,
they would purchase a system," says Vazquez.
Working
for a consulting fee, Leahy helped Banesco determine
that, by improving the processing of its mortgage documents,
Banesco would be able to increase the volume of mortgages
it issued. "At first we started out just discussing,
in general what an EDM system could do. As we moved
along, we became more specific and started determining
which hardware and software product would fit where."
Installation
Continues To Grow
The
EDM installation, which was completed in late 1997,
included two Bell & Howell 6338 scanners,
Macrosoft’s MacroImage EDM system with
Pegasus-OFS storage management software and
Doculex image capture software. Macrosoft’s
Synergy global information software is used to connect
the COLD and the EDM system.
"Actually,
that is only the first phase of the installation,"
Vazquez says. "The second phase will include a
jukebox to store the document image files on. The first
phase also is only for scanning mortgages at Banesco’s
Caracas headquarters. The second phase will include
five additional scanning stations at branch offices."
Vazquez adds that he recently discussed future projects
with the management information systems director at
Banesco. "He told me Banesco’s next five MIS
projects will all likely be EDM projects."
Macrosoft’s
Synergy system will allow Banesco to integrate all of
its report information, documents, check images, correspondence
and third-party application information within a single
system. "This unique capability from Macrosoft
increases the desire to incorporate the EDM throughout
the enterprise," says Vazquez.
As
printed in Business Systems Magazine, March 1998, By
Ralph Gammon
|
