We made a decision in late '92 to do an upgrade. The decision we made was to move from internal data-processing to an outsource arrangement with Marshall & Ilsley out in Milwaukee. We made the conversion this year to enhance marketing, customer service, customer information, management information, and to provide controls on the data and on the company.
We are right now in the post-conversion cleanup. We're into phase two, which deals with customer service and sales, and marketing through platform automation.
There are benefits in buying technology through a contract when it buys service, as opposed to trying to develop an in-house system, which is cost-prohibitive.
That is a very interesting question because we're looking at that right now.
We have client-service technology involving PCs and a wide-area network. We're doing this through our data-processing provider, which is EDS.
We"re going into document-imaging, and we're already into opticals. We're putting all the mundane tasks of the platform on the network.
We have probably $75,000 in equipment. We feel it will cost $250,000 to $500,000 more to finish the job.
The most important thing is for you to have a reason to spend this much money. For community banks, delivery of services is the name of the game, particularly if you are competing with superregionals.
We are very upgraded already. We have UFS from NCR. We were the first anywhere in the world to get it. It's a very modern system.
Beyond that, we plan to continue to upgrade so people can bank with us without coming to the bank.
We also have a system where you can use the telephone to check on the account. We were one of the first to offer this. We have always been early with our technology.
We have no set price. We will spend whatever it takes to get it. We do not outsource at all.
The last upgrade, the UFS upgrade, was two to three years ago. We have no regular schedule. We upgrade as we think it is appropriate. We work it into our strategic planning.
