To improve sales and service efficiency, Bank of Boston Corp. is installing software that generates electronic forms.
The software, developed by JetForm Corp., will enable the bank to store forms electronically and to merge customer information and other mainframe processing data into electronic forms that can be printed via personal computers.
The $44.6 billion-asset bank will use the software to automate all forms related to customer service in its more than 300 retail branches and telebanking call centers in New England.
Rollout of the system will begin this fall and continue through 1996, bank officials said.
The project is part of the bank's retail workstation initiative - a multiyear effort to deploy a new client/server branch automation network for its entire organization.
In January, the bank signed a contract estimated at $30 million with International Business Machines Corp. for hardware, software, and networking equipment.
The deal includes PCs running IBM's OS/2 operating system and application software from Dallas-based Argo Data Resource Corp.
The forms-generation software will be integrated with these systems.
Information related to areas such as loan processing and customer account transactions will be fed from the bank's IBM mainframe and PC network environments and processed through the electronic forms server. The server, in turn, will route the forms to a networked printer.
George Swick, project manager for the bank's retail workstation initiative, said the deployment of the electronic forms system will help accelerate the bank's transformation to a sales-and-service culture.
"Our sales and service associates will be able to spend more time focusing on the customer's needs and less time retrieving and filling out paper forms," he said.
"JetForm offers the most efficient way to eliminate the costly and cumbersome use of paper forms and improve process efficiency."
Mr. Swick said the system will allow the bank to replace the overnight mailing of loan closing documents with real-time generation of legal- quality documents over the network. This will help the bank to process loans more quickly, he said.
