Banking New Year’s Resolutions

Every year, millions of people make New Year’s resolutions, hoping to make positive changes in areas that are commonly difficult to address. With the COVID crisis and severe staffing shortages on the rise, the banking industry would benefit from a resolution revolving around analyzing their Core system parameters. This analysis could lead to changes that may help with overall efficiency and limit bad or inaccurate data. The following suggestions can help to fulfill this beneficial resolution.

Activate Features and Improve Functionality

During every conversion, a banker is typically overhead saying something like, “I know there are beneficial features in the Core system we aren’t utilizing.” As habitual creatures resistive to change, it’s easy to use what is known and never explore or reach out to discover what else is available. It’s a common problem but can be avoided with the following tactics.

• Form Assessment Team: Create an essential team of several bank members to identify and discuss the top items of interest for future planning, development, and implementation.
• Review Documentation: The Core system has detailed documentation on the available settings/parameter fields and features. The Assessment Team can thoroughly review any available documentation, manuals, and release notes to provide ample background knowledge to start the process.
• Stay Current: Any Core system upgrades throughout the year are well documented with Release Notes and training webinars or videos on the new features. Staying on top of these changes can keep the bank as efficient as possible. For example, the Insite Core system added a Loan payoff calculator that can originate the payoff transactions from a single screen without manual transactions. This feature minimizes errors and increases the payoff efficiencies. The upgrade documentation (see: HOW TO: Calculate and Payoff a Loan) can be reviewed quickly due to the limited changes and provide great benefits to your institution.

Consult Experts and Increase Efficiency

Conversion team members from the Core system are valuable resources that are experts in the field. They are constantly involved in setting up the parameters for new banks and establishing and maintaining the best practices for their banks.

• Identify some current conversion staff members to help answer questions. Any questions that your institution may have on the settings/parameters are commonly asked by hundreds of other bankers during their conversion process. This group of individuals provides insight and suggestions/responses that are invaluable.
• The conversion team is able to provide guidance on common setup and best practices for features. The team can identify trickle-down effects (i.e., if XYZ is changed, how will it affect any other items) to help minimize risk and potential issues.
• The Core system has a test/mock data area that can be configured to test out setting/parameter changes. A support/conversion team member can assist in setting up an area to run test processes or updates to verify the changes before making it in the live data area.

Standardize Products and Reduce Errors

When setting up new accounts, mistakes and typos can account for a big percentage of bad, missing, or incorrect data, leading to bigger problems for your bank. If the new account template/products are properly utilized, they can circumvent these types of issues altogether.

• The templates/products can be setup/reviewed by your bank with a Core system support staff member or conversion staff.
• The bank new account team member at your institution should be included in the review and asked what fields they must constantly input manually, adjust, or correct during/after the new account setup. This feedback is critical to identifying any necessary changes and to avoid missing, incorrect or bad data.
• The Core system upgrades can have updates to the templates/settings that could improve efficiencies. For example, the Insite Core system added a default option on Loan template/products to default the Tax ID number to the Borrower number field in a recent upgrade. The Borrower number was a manual input field prior to this change. A change to this product field can prevent the need for manual entry to avoid a potential for bad data input.

By using the tactics detailed in this post, your bank can make significant improvements toward overall efficiency and accuracy. It is important to remain diligent to review, analyze, and take full advantages of your Core system. These procedures ensure your bank is streamlined and running full speed into the future.

About Automated Systems, Inc.
Since 1981, Automated Systems, Inc. has been a leader in providing innovative core banking, digital banking, and data processing solutions to community banks nationwide.  An array of integrated applications provide partnered banks with tailored, cost-effective, competitive choices.  ASI delivers industry-leading technology backed by unparalleled in-house conversion, training and support teams; paving the way for progressive, top-notch customer service.  ASI corporate headquarters are located at 1201 Libra Drive, Lincoln, NE 68512, 1.800.279.7312.  For more information about banking solutions from ASI, visit www.asiweb.com.

About Insite Data Services
IDS data application hosting services combines secure and cost-effective core banking applications, enterprise-class servers and storage, and proven virtualization technology.  IDS hosts all of the bank’s servers in secure data centers that use state of the art security systems including identity verification and biometric scanning.  Insite Data Services also offers IDS On-Time, a full-service solution dedicated to back-office bank processing.  These operations experts allow partnered banks to focus on their most important asset, their customers.  For more information visit www.insitedataservices.com.