Turning Data into Decisions with Proven Automation Technology

Hello, everyone. I'm Janine Donnelly, manager of webinars for Independent Banker magazine. And on behalf of the ICBA and Independent Banker, I'd like to welcome you to our presentation, Turning Data into Decisions with Proven Automation Technology. We will be holding a q and a session at the end of the webinar, but feel free to ask a question or add a comment at any time during the event by entering it into the q and a panel. If you experience technical difficulties during the webinar, please use the Q and A panel to alert us, and someone will assist you. You may download a PDF version of today's slide deck by clicking on the drop down menu labeled event resources. You'll find that on the left side of your screen, and know that you can download those right from the platform without being disconnected from the webinar. Today's webinar is sponsored by Alligent, an ICBA preferred service provider. Alligent provides proven end to end check processing, or I should say check payment processing, digital online, mobile banking, and information management platforms to financial institutions. Their unique approach captures and digitizes entire transactions and loan management workflows so that information is readily available across the enterprise. And with that, I'd like to turn it over to your first speaker for today, Cameron Marks, director of product management at Alligent. Cameron, you now have the floor. Thank you, Janine. It's my pleasure to be presenting with you today. And just a little bit of background on myself. I've worked in in the fintech industry for about ten year or twenty years now, both for financial solutions providers as well as, directly with the bank. With me presenting is is Jen Mitchell. Jen, would you like to introduce yourself? Absolutely. I'm Jen Mitchell. I'm the VP of sales on the Accu account side. I have actually been with the product for twenty years in June and, getting my feet wet on some other products that Allergan offers. Great. Thanks, Jen. So we'll take you through our agenda today. We'll we'll do a brief, dialogue about Allergan and and who we are and what we do, and then we'll dive into to discussing information life cycle management, what that means and how it's implemented. And then we'll talk through, meaningful process automation, how to put that data you have, to work for you. And then we'll we'll close with a a question and answer session. So about Allergan. Allergan is a a technology solutions provider for financial institutions, And our goal is to enable banks to provide better customer support and improved process efficiencies. And to that end, we have three main product areas. Our payments products enable streamlined teller and back office with enablement for businesses and customers. Our digital banking platform offers an enhanced customer experience through self-service and analytics capabilities. And then the the solution suite that we're gonna talk about today is our process automation suite, and this enables the digitization of documents as they flow into your organization, and it enables self-service access for customers as well as decision making capabilities for your organization. At Alligent, we talk about automating the entire transaction ecosystem, and this manifests in our cross product and third party integrations, creating an interconnected platform, which you can use to make informed business decisions. So with a focus on our process automation suite, today, we'll talk about that decision making process with a foundation in best practices for the information life cycle management of documents and information. So with respect to the proliferation of data in this digital age, the ability to manage the life cycle of information is critical. With our presentation today, we'll focus on the journey of documents from creation to disposal. We'll highlight the process for categorizing, storing, archiving, and ultimately deleting documents based on their relevance over time. And we'll explore how doing this enables better decision making. So understanding the life cycle. When when considering the life cycle of information, we understand that every document goes through distinct phases, creation, utilization, archiving, and disposal. At the outset, documents are created to serve a purpose, whether it's recording transactions, applying for a loan, or facilitating communication. However, as time progresses, the relevance and utility of these documents may fluctuate, and this necessitates careful management to ensure organizational efficiency and compliance. So to facilitate accessibility, documents must be tagged with metadata. This enables easy retrieval and classification. Whether it's by document type, department, date, or relevance, the categorization lays the foundation for effective management. By organizing documents effectively, financial institutions can streamline workflows and enhance productivity. And along their journey through a financial institution, it's important that documents remain accessible. A process that facilitates archival and retrieval is crucial for compliance purposes, regulatory requirements, and historical preservation. With an efficient archival system in place, knowledge workers can retrieve information swiftly, mitigating risks and facilitating informed decision making. And while it may seem counterintuitive, when done properly following retention guidelines, deleting documents is a critical aspect of information governance. Retaining obsolete or redundant documents not only consumes valuable storage space, but also poses security compliance risks. Implementing robust retention policies ensures that documents are retained for the requisite period and disposed of securely when no longer needed. By adhering to these policies, organizations can minimize clutter, reduce legal liability, and maintain data integrity. So information lifecycle management is a holistic process that helps your financial institution harness the power of information at your fingertips, enabling improved regulatory compliance and better decision making capabilities. From here, we'll explore five areas of life cycle management, policy development, compliance and regulation, metadata management, audit and monitoring, and training and awareness. In addition to exploring these areas, we'll also offer practical examples in solutioning and applying these principles in the decision making process. So now we'll talk about policy development. As a highly regulated industry, financial institutions face unique challenges in managing policies effectively. A comprehensive solution will serve to streamline policy development, ensuring compliance, security and efficiency. Where regulatory compliance is paramount, the systematic organization, storage and retrieval of electronic documents and content will streamline operations and prevent silos of information within your organization. This ensures the consistent application of the policy. A robust information management solution provides the infrastructure needed to manage policies efficiently and securely. Metadata management is essential for regulatory compliance, and we'll dive into some of the specifics in a few minutes. But as it relates to policy creation, metadata provides for additional context and information about documents, enabling efficient categorization and retrieval. For instance, metadata may include details such as an account owner, compliance status, associated regulations, and key terms for searchability, assuring adherence to regulatory requirements. Maintaining strict access controls is imperative in safeguarding sensitive documents within financial institutions. Solutions that incorporate robust access controls allow administrators to define access levels and permissions based on roles and responsibilities. This ensures that only authorized personnel can access, modify, or use documents as part of a business process. And this mitigates the risk of data breaches or unauthorized disclosures. And finally, determining appropriate retention periods is essential for managing documents in compliance with regulatory obligations. Financial institutions must adhere to strict retention requirements imposed by regulatory authorities. Information management solutions facilitate the application of these requirements by auto automating retention schedules and providing alerts for document expiration, review, and disposal. So creating and implementing an information management policy along with appropriate tools and solutions serves to minimize compliance risks by automating steps that would otherwise be left to individual interpretation. Alignment between a software solution and your information management policy is important as the solution should implement the policy. So so with that, I'll hand over to Jen to talk about a practical implementation for implementing the policy. Thank you, Cam. Alright. So as Cam said, you know, when you're looking for something, you really want that software to be able to implement the policy in an electronic format. So something along the lines of this after account customer page here. Sorry about that. The policy will align with your current paper format based on that customer account and collateral type. Once in the electronic format and the system has built out what the requirements for the customer are, you can then identify the additional requirements needed for that specific customer, setting the dates for those documents, adding file names, and identifying documents that will need to be set up on an automatic schedule to align with your imaging process that you put into place. With the customer information laid out to fit your financial institution's requirements, you can begin to manage the rest of the account for that customer. The core will import all associated loans that will enforce the image requirements based on the loan type from the core. Once the loan documents are updated to fit the needs for your specific loan by adding the date, changing file names, and adding some document comments that are needed, the loan is now set up in an electronic format and following your bank's process and policy. The last piece is the collateral. With a good process in place, you can manage all of your collateral for one loan easily. With the information imported from the core, users are able to see collateral description, specific requirements for that collateral based on that collateral type, and review the collateral documents directly within that software, and it's easily reviewed keywords so you can do good searches on this, and you're able to pull this information anytime. Along with defining specific requirements based on information from the data, your software should allow the flexibility to add specific groups of documents depending on a customer type, loan type, or collateral type. You might have a consumer mortgage loan that has imported from the core, but it does require construction documents because it's a construction loan. Those documents need to be viewable and available when that is the requirement of that loan. So in this example here, you can see there is a construction group that is specific to a loan type. And the final result should be a way to track what is not imaged into the file. Ideally, the exception tracking is automated based on prepping that customer's complete credit, loan, and collateral file. The exception should be easily reported on and shared with all types of users in the bank, from the lending assistance to the management, automated, allowing them access to the reporting, being able to see anything that's available or is not available for each of the customers, loans, and collateral. Flexibility in reporting is important. The report should have the ability to sort and group on lenders, exceptions, dates, branches, or any other information required that is available within the system. No matter what type of electronic filing system you choose, you should have all the ability to show the policy You should have the ability to show the policy you have implemented in your electronic format. Pam, back to you. Alright. Thanks, Jen. So now that the policy is established along with tools to manage the policy, ongoing monitoring comes to the forefront in the form of compliance and regulation. So financial institutions are subject to a myriad of regulatory requirements as you know, and these regulations mandate strict protocols for the handling, storage, and protection of customer data and financial documents. In addition to external regulations, financial institutions establish robust internal policies to ensure compliance and mitigate risk. And these policies dictate procedures for document storage, access control, data retention, and disaster recovery. By adhering to internal policies, institutions can create a framework for consistent and secure document management practices. Data privacy is a cornerstone of compliance efforts. Account holders trust banks with sensitive personal and financial information, and it's imperative that the data is safeguarded against unauthorized access or disclosure. Compliance with regulations ensures that customer data is collected, stored, and processed in a transparent and secure manner with stringent measures in place to protect privacy rights. Ensuring the security of stored documents requires a multifaceted approach. Encryption technologies, firewalls, and intrusion detection systems can create a perimeter around your data and information against cyber threats. Regular security audits and vulnerability assessments help identify and address potential weaknesses in your document storage system. Moreover, employee training and awareness programs are essential in fostering a culture of security consciousness throughout the organization. This should also include solution specific training, which we'll touch on in a little more detail later. Access control is another crucial aspect of compliance and regulation. Instituting role based access control ensures that only authorized personnel can view, modify, or delete sensitive documents, Adopting the principle of the least privilege when implementing granular access controls, financial institutions can limit the risk of unauthorized data breaches and limit users' access rights to only what is strictly required to do their jobs. Compliance and regulation play a pivotal role in shaping our document storage practices within a financial institution. By adhering to industry standards, regulations and internal policies, institutions can uphold data privacy, enhance security and maintain the trust of their customers. Through continuous diligence and investment in robust document management systems, banks can navigate the complex landscape of compliance while safeguarding sensitive information from potential threats. So, again, I'd like to turn it over to Jen, to talk about practical implementation as it relates to, security groups, document access reports, and then at the document level, redactions and annotations. Great. Thank you, Kim. So the software that is utilized should have some type of role based security built into the system. The security should allow certain users the ability to add new images electronically from paper documents, scans, and the ability to manipulate those documents once they're in the system to add, delete, and edit. Other users might have the ability to set up the customer and account documents that are needed for that specific type or what we call prep the file for imaging. So there's some different roles that need to be set up within that system. Other security levels should allow for full access to the system and have the ability to build out new requirements based on regulation changes and updates. One very important access level is the viewing of certain documents. There may be documents that you do not want certain individuals within the bank to access, and you can hide those specific documents. There may be other documents that management or auditors want a report to review who is viewing those certain documents and how often. And then documents that are viewed by all users should have some type of document redaction to hide specific information. This keeps information secure on the document and allows for bank users to have additional access without the ability to review that sensitive information directly on the images. Allowing for annotation gives users the ability to make notes that are viewable to everyone that may have been on the original paper format. Should you no longer use the paper and you've gone completely electronic, you need a way to identify specific document comments directly on the image. Software that allows for user role based setup as well as security on viewing, redaction, and annotation should all be considered when determining to put your, imaging policy in place. Cam? Alright. Thanks. So the the next act aspect of data management that we'll discuss holds immense significance, especially for financial institutions, and that is metadata management for electronic documents. Metadata is the data about your data. In the context of electronic documents, it provides essential information about the content, structure, and context of each document, enabling efficient organization, searchability, retrieval, and decision making. In an industry where information is not just valuable but also highly regulated, having a robust metadata management system is indispensable. It ensures compliance with regulatory requirements and facilitates audits and it streamlines your operations. So one of the primary benefits of metadata management is efficient organization. By assigning relevant tags and attributes to each document, we can categorize and classify them based on various criteria such as date, type, client, or transaction. This not only simplifies storage but also enhances accessibility. Imagine having a vast repository of documents without an efficient search mechanism. It would be akin to searching for a needle in a haystack. By indexing key information such as document, document titles, authors, dates, and keywords, we empower users to quickly locate the precise document they need need, saving valuable time and resources. Organization and searchability are only part of the equation. Document retrieval puts the metadata to use as needed to support business processes. Metadata enables sophisticated retrieval mechanisms, including advanced search queries, filters, and even algorithms and business process automation. This means that users can not only find documents quickly, but also discover related or relevant information that they might not have known even existed. Keyword search serves as the backbone of meta metadata based search. By carefully selecting and assigning relevant keywords to each document, we create a rich tapestry of interconnected information. Indexes, on the other hand, act as signposts, guiding users to the right documents with precision and accuracy. Solutions that can automatically classify documents, extract indexes, and apply metadata upon ingestion serve to create a rich repository of information dynamically without that user interaction. So with respect to to practical implementation around data management, Jen is gonna talk to us about our template configuration and how that is is relevant when applying metadata automatically to your documents. And then also talk about third party integrations enabling a financial ecosystem to populate that data into your document management system. K. So starting with a template configuration, building document templates allows us to define metadata for a document type. When a specific type of document enters the system, in this case, an account statement document that's on the screen there, it will automatically assign metadata for the document and set retention dates and security group. From a third party integration, so just a different approach to this. In order to manage efficiencies at your bank, third party integration should be considered a must have. From an LOS system, we have some type of export that can be utilized to import into the system to manage the in images gathering gathered during the application process. It can also share data that was gathered that you want to keep with your live files throughout the life of the loan. LOS integrations keep your process automated by pushing the information and images automatically without any manual intervention from that LOS system into your your imaging product. Next is the esign documents, same type of idea. As esign documents allow for that same type of automation, the esign product will go out, request those those signing, request signing from your customer on those documents, and then those documents will push back to the financial institution. The signed documents will go back into some type of holding tank where then they can be pushed into an imaging product. Very efficient when you're trying to get those signed documents into an imaging system to match your image imaging policy. Once in the imaging system, you can manage any additional metadata or keywords that you might wanna keep for searching capabilities in the future. Back to Cam. Alright. So audit and monitoring for electronic documents stored by by bank can help detect violations or anomalies, and conducting audits to assess the effectiveness of your information management policy are crucial elements in safeguarding the data within financial systems. A tsunami of electronic documents inundate financial institutions daily, ranging from transaction records to sensitive client information. Each document represents a piece of the financial puzzle and ensuring their integrity is not just a matter of compliance, but a cornerstone of trust and reliability in the industry. Document governance policies are rules and regulations set in place to govern the creation, access, modification, and deletion of electronic documents. With robust governance policies, but without them, KS can ensue, and and this leaves documents vulnerable to unauthorized access, tampering, or deletion. Effective governance policies establish clear protocols for handle for document handling, access controls, and encryption standards, and retention periods. They serve as the backbone of document management, providing a road map for maintaining integrity and compliance within your institution. Implementing document and information policies is a good first step. The real challenge lies in detecting violations or anomalies within these policies, and this involves continuous monitoring of document activities, user access patterns, and system logs to identify any deviations from established protocols, Demonstrating effective and consistent policy implementation is where audits come into place. Regular audits serve as a litmus test evaluating the strength and efficacy of governance measures while identifying areas for improvement. Auditors delve deep into the document management system, scrutinizing access logs, permission, encryption protocols, and compliance with regulatory standards. Through meticulous examination, audits provide insights into potential vulnerabilities, gaps in security protocols, and lapses in compliance. Auditing protocols and monitoring electronic documents are not just administrative tasks. They're vital components of maintaining trust and integrity and security within the financial ecosystem. And by establishing robust governance policies, detecting violations or anomalies, and conducting thorough audits, we can ensure that our electronic documents remain safeguarded against threats. And with regard to the practical implementation and audit and monitoring, Jen's going to talk about an an auditor view to the documents, as well as talking about on-site versus off-site audits and audit reporting. Check. Perfect. Thank you. Alright. So when auditors request information from your bank, offering an electronic file with the exact layout of what your users see makes sense to everyone. Auditors want the ability to see the full audit listing, each of the customers and all the documents tied to that customer, all accounts requested for that customer, and with the ability to identify all borrowers and their credit information as well. So that's what you see there. That's, so you really want this audit to have a layout just as you would with your paper files. You know, you you have this stack and you're passing it over to the auditors. You want an electronic way to pass that paper file, with all credit, all loan, all collateral information right over to them. Audits can really be done two different ways. Today, we have we still have examiners and and auditors who come on-site, and we have them off-site. If auditors are still coming to your bank and you have a few you still have a few options on how you can share that information, it's obviously, you can share that information via the audit or some type of export that was prepared from your software, or you can allow your auditors access to specific customers and accounts based on their user role within the system. This can be done by defining exactly what customers and accounts can be accessed by them. That way, they have full reign within the product, and they can then go in, review what they need to, view documents, go to their audit. For off-site audits, once you gather all that information requested from them, so you have your list, You've gathered everything you need. You can then share that information with the auditors, typically via email or through a secured website, or most of them have a share now where they'd like you to drop your files on their secured web site so then they can go ahead and pull up that information and start redeeming those files. Not all audit requests are outside the bank. Internal audits of document input, changes, and deletes are important to internal processes and training opportunities as well. The imaging software should offer the ability to review the individual images based on a date or an event. So if something's changed, something's updated, deleted, whatever that might be, there needs to be some type of audit logging and audit recording available. Whether an external audit or an internal audit, you really want your imaging software to give you the ability to share, review, and report on the requested information. Back to you, Kent. So another key challenge faced by financial institution is is ensuring consistency across the document document process. Standardization is paramount. It streamlines operations. It minimizes errors and enhances scalability. And by establishing standardized procedures, institutions can create a cohesive framework that promotes efficiency and mitigates risks associated with ad hoc approaches. So through targeted training initiatives and heightened awareness, institutions can optimize their workflows, reducing redundancy and accelerating turnaround times. From document creation to storage and retrieval, every step in the process can be fine tuned to maximize efficiency and productivity. Best practices serve as guiding principles for excellence in electronic document management. Training programs should not only educate staff on these practices, but also instill a culture that prioritizes their implementation. And the adherence to best practices fosters trust both internally and among clients. And by embracing a mindset of perpetual enhancement, financial institutions can stay ahead of evolving trends and regulatory requirements. Training and awareness initiatives should be dynamic and adapting to emerging technologies and industry developments, and regular assessments and feedback mechanisms enable institutions to identify areas for improvement and implement targeted solutions. So we'll talk we'll hand back over to Jen, and we'll talk about, the assessing the vendor capability to provide training because that's an important piece as well, as well as the policy education in your financial institution and and monitoring for regulatory and policy updates, that come down as well as investment in the solution to ensure, longevity. The training is typically provided by the vendor for for whatever imaging solution, you decide to go with. Training can be completed typically in a lot in a live atmosphere, live web based training sessions, or utilizing some type of of online training videos. Training is typically offered by a user type, such as a scanner or administrator, or by a specific feature that's available. Initial live web based training is offered to all banks that implement our imaging solution. That same training can be offered to any new employees or employees who need to review training for ongoing education of the imaging system. Continuing education in the bank when implementing the policy or making changes to the policy are key to keeping your employees educated on the software and also on your policies. AlloGen is is diligent in keeping our software up to date to fit all regulatory changes and requirements as most imaging systems are. These types of changes will be shared via training videos and live web based training. Training is essential when managing an imaging policy to keep all employees up to date on changes, new features, and new processes that the bank will implement within the software over time. Cam, back to you. Alright. So so far, we've talked through policy development, compliance and regulation, metadata management, audit and monitoring, and and the importance of training and awareness with your solution. So at this point, we'd like to shift the focus to meaningful process automation. And so we'll turn it back to Jen to talk through what it means to to streamline your business objectives, utilizing a software management solution. So a product like Accu account is a product that was built specifically to help banks implement an imaging policy electronically. Imaging into a product like AccuAccount is made easy with several ways to input paper as well as electronic documents. Security setup for users allows you to determine what type of access and input method fits your policy. Alongside the imaging, the integrated exception tracking allows your employees to manage the missing documents, expiring or expired documents, as well as any tasks that need to be completed for a customer or document within the system. These exceptions are easily identified on the customer page within the Accu account or by utilizing any type of automated reporting. Consistency is important when managing your customers and accounts. Accu account was built with that consistency in mind, managing the import of data from the core, the automated setup of documents required based on the customer, loan, and collateral type, and then even the built in exception tracking that the system works hand in hand with the images to give you a full three sixty view of your customer. With AccuAccount, your bank will save time, you'll save money, and you'll be more efficient with less manual processes. And at this time, I'm gonna send it back to Janine for q and a. Great. Thanks, Jen. We do have some questions before we get started. I just wanna let you know that the links on this slide are actually live links. So go ahead and click on those. They will open in a separate window and be available to you following the webinar. And with that, the first question is, do you have examples of policies that other banks have put in place that could help us get started? Janine, I'll take that. Yes. We do, actually. We do have a policy, just a a template that we can share with you. There in there, there's some questions that you might wanna ask as you're going through and building out your own policy, but it'll at least get you started down that right path. Definitely. Okay. How about this one? Do we define our own templates, or is there predefined templates for every organization? So, actually, you can it it can go either way. You can use our predefined templates that we offer, or you have the ability during the implementation to customize exactly what fits your bank or financial institution's needs, and that's gonna be based off of customer account, collateral. You get to build out and define exactly what you wanna see from a document standpoint, from a, from a layout, on the customer side, and even down to the specific documents and defining schedules on those documents. Okay. Great. How long does it take to implement a full system for imaging? Yeah. Yeah. I'll take this one. I think certainly it depends, on a couple of factors, primarily around, the conversion of data or migration, from your original system. But, typically, we see our customers, can be implemented in in around six months. Oh, that's great. Okay. The next one is, do you have an API for the interfaces? Yeah. I'll I'll take that one as well, Janine. You know, I talked about, creating an ecosystem, and and that applies within, you know, the Alligent solutions, but it also extends to to third parties. Whether it's your core or another third party, solution provider, we've created an API whereby, those external, parties connect access the document management system and and interact with it. Great. Okay. Seeing no more questions, I wanna thank everyone for attending today's webinar. And I also wanna thank Cam and Jen for sharing their expertise with us today. Later this week, watch for our follow-up email. It will contain a link to the recording of today's webinar that you can forward on to your colleagues or leadership. And that concludes our webinar. Thanks again, and enjoy the rest of your day.