CNLBancshares Inc. of Orlando says it has reduced data processing errors, improved the performance of its technology staff and saved money by automating nightly operations with a scripting tool.
Now CNL says it is broadening its use of the tool from Network Automation Inc. of Los Angeles.
Jay A. McLaughlin, a senior vice president at CNL and its director of information technology, said that each night his $1.6 billion-asset company performs a set of routine processes for its three banks: updating customer accounts on its core processing system, taking in files from outsourcers, exporting data to other systems, archiving information and keeping its online banking and voice systems in synch.
"It's a pretty laborious, manually intensive process. Somebody has to baby-sit each step of the process," McLaughlin said in an interview last week. And because of CNL's multibank operation, "each process has to be done three times."
After an informal review, the company chose Network Automation's AutoMate scripting application.
The previous process was "quite taxing on my team" of 10 information technology staff members, he said. "It's very easy to fat-finger a key or do something for one bank that you meant to do for another."
CNL now uses the scripting technology to run a business intelligence application overnight when other system demands are low, McLaughlin said. "We use customized Crystal Reports pretty heavily," and with more than 100 daily reports, "it's pretty taxing on the server."
Most recently, CNL wrote a script to log in to its own Web site every 10 minutes to validate that the site is operating, he said.
The scripting application has proven quite versatile, McLaughlin said. "With the economy the way it is, you want to do more with less."
