Use Marquee Accounts To Gain ECM Sales
A successful ECM (enterprise content management) installation for the Pennsylvania Department of the Treasury helped this integrator attract additional government and banking clients.
While few VARs would attribute the overall success or failure of their businesses to a single customer, many have one specific account that is the crown jewel of their client base. Perhaps it’s a Fortune 500 company whose name alone attracts attention, or maybe it’s a vertical organization whose specialized business requirements you addressed with a customized solution. Either way, these clients not only provide a source of recurring revenue, they are also invaluable references that can help draw droves of new business to your door. For IMR Limited, this one key client is the Pennsylvania Department of the Treasury.
IMR Limited used its knowledge of the banking industry and payment processing to address the issues the Department of the Treasury faced with the disbursement of Supplemental Security Income (SSI). SSI is a federal income supplement program administered by the Social Security Administration (SSA); however, several states (including Pennsylvania) contracted through the SSA to provide disbursement of funds. When the agreement was first drawn in the early 90s, the processing costs per disbursement didn’t seem problematic. However, these fees were tied to the Consumer Price Index and steadily began to rise over the years. It got to the point that if the Department of the Treasury continued to issue SSI payments in its current fashion, it would cost the state almost $10 per disbursement or a total of $35 million a year in processing fees.
Furthermore, there was no way to reconcile a disbursement on the back end using the system the Department of the Treasury had in place. “The previous operational process allowed for three requests for reissue of payments to be made annually by a beneficiary before fraud investigations were initiated,” says John Eyler, principal of IMR Limited. “In effect, a recipient could request and receive three additional payments — a 25% increase in the annual benefit — and go undetected. There was nothing in the agency’s system that allowed it to identify a duplicate payment or issue a stop payment.”
Use Customized Workflows To Automate Disbursement Processing
IMR Limited addressed these issues with a system that combined several customized workflows with Hyland Software’s OnBase content management software. Disbursement data is now received from the Department of Public Welfare and processed into the OnBase content management system. OnBase then creates a COLD (computer output to laser disc) report that identifies accounts and generates the data file for disbursement. A print file is generated and paper checks are created on a high-speed laser printer and mailed. A separate electronic file is submitted in ACH (automated clearinghouse) format to National City Bank for disbursement to direct deposit accounts.
The Fedline (the Department of Treasury’s Web connection to the Federal Reserve Bank) imports electronic data and TIFF images of checks to OnBase where it is automatically cross-referenced with and linked to the COLD file. An exception report identifies discrepancies between the original and processed data from the Federal Reserve Banks. Suspect checks are reviewed using this report, and a new report is then created that provides the Federal Reserve with nonpayment information.
The OnBase system extends throughout all Treasury offices and to 110 County Assistance Offices, allowing employees in these locations to review payment reissue requests in real time. The system can be queried for all payment information, including display of cashed checks and signatures and any routing errors of electronic payments, and appropriate actions can be taken immediately.
The OnBase system IMR Limited developed significantly reduced the Department of the Treasury’s disbursement costs and allowed for immediate back end payment reconciliation. The system handled its first run of 295,000 disbursements in January 2005, and the processing efficiencies gained by the system allowed the Department of the Treasury to realize a full payback on its initial $2 million investment halfway through this first run. The system went on to save the Treasury $12,429,486 from January 2005 to June 2005.
The success of the installation has benefited IMR Limited as well. “The workflows we developed and integrations we performed for the Department of the Treasury provided us with a lot of additional skills that have helped us attract some large national banking prospects,” says Eyler. “The success of the solution has also led to additional large scale opportunities within the Pennsylvania state government and other state government operations.”