NationsBank Corp. has signed a $1.6 million contract with IA Corp. for an imaging and workflow application to automate the bank's trust support centers.
The system, called WorkVision, integrates image capture and storage with the electronic routing of documents.
Under the contract, IA Corp., Emeryville, Calif., will customize the system to automate the flow of documents throughout the centers to improve processing time, said company officials.
The system, which runs in a client-server environment, will be installed in both the administrative trust services and the specialized portfolio services groups at NationsBank's Dallas and Atlanta offices.
The Dallas office will be on-line by early 1995 and Atlanta will follow soon after, said Warren Butler, vice president and senior project manager for NationsBank's trust imaging services.
According to Mr. Butler, the optical storage system will allow the bank to store larger volumes of information and have quicker access to data, enabling inquiries to be answered while customers are on the phone.
The customization of the system will come in handy for the workflow process, said Mr. Butler. On a daily basis, the bank's service centers receive hundreds of documents pertaining to accounts, he said. Those papers must be manually routed, which increases the time to process them, he said.
With the new system, any paper that is generated through the mail or phone inquiries will be eliminated, said Mr. Butler, and documents will be routed electronically. This will cut down on the time to process documents and will decrease the risk of losing them, he said.
Charlotte, N.C.-based NationsBank, with assets of $164 billion, is already using a wide area network to connect its Dallas and Atlanta offices. Once in place, the workflow application will also be linked to the two sites, creating "an inherent disaster recovery plan," said Mr. Butler, because there will be two sites for storage of information.
Mr. Butler said the bank expects most savings to be in productivity. The bank "sees this as an improvement in customer service, and as a way to compete better against niche players, such as mutual and brokerage fund companies," he said.
