SunTrust first partnered with CheckWorks, Inc. in 1998, to provide image management, retrieval and delivery technology to the back office of Item Processing, and in particular, to General Ledger Reconcilement, Proof, Balancing, Exceptions, Returns, and Research. In 1998-99, CheckWorks developed ImageExplorer/Network, an image retrieval, distribution and management solution, that was first installed in the SunTrust Operations Center in Orlando, Florida. This suite, made up of various image utilities, a Java® viewer and a host manager, enabled SunTrust to deliver images to the back office PC workstations and to quickly resolve Reconcilement, Exceptions and Large Single-Item Deposit issues.

ImageExplorer/Network had a profound impact on SunTrust’s capture methods. The entire second capture for image re-handled items was eliminated since each item had already been captured after the prime capture pass.

Reconcilement personnel were relieved of the long hours spent searching for physical items or microfilmed images to complete their work. Part of the success of ImageExplorer/Network involved retrieval programs developed by SunTrust that automatically identified and loaded images from the All Items file into ImageExplorer/Network, specific to the work being performed by Reconcilement. This automated retrieval program was also utilized by Large Single-Item Deposits, Reject Repair and Exceptions Non-Post.

As has been the case with most financial institutions, the cost of image archives has been cost prohibitive, in terms of using them on a large scale. For several years, SunTrust stored its images temporarily in local CIMS (Check Image Management System) and CheckVision® archives. In the back office, these short term archives were more than adequate for time-sensitive operations such as General Ledger Reconcilement, Exceptions and Reject Repair.

As the organization as a whole saw the potential for an image-enabled enterprise, cameras were installed on the IBM 3890s at all of the capture sites. Simultaneously, archive costs came down, and SunTrust explored a relationship with Viewpointe Archive Services.

These departments, that once required physical items or photocopies of microfilm images, are now able to retrieve these same images at the desktop. This is a far cry from the old days of searching through trays of physical items, losing precious time in the process. Today’s solution has reduced once time-consuming, labor-intensive daily processes to a couple of hours’ work.

Each morning, the Reconcilement department must balance the bank’s internal, or General Ledger, accounts. This work has to be reviewed, verified and corrected early and quickly, to ensure that out-of-balance conditions, including teller over and shorts, as well as suspect transactions are identified.

Prior to image, General Ledger tickets were sorted each day and the physical items were provided to the Reconcilement area. When CheckWorks’ ImageExplorer/Network was installed, the shipping of physical G/L tickets came to a halt. Additionally, errors were reduced to a fraction from what they had been when back office personnel had to perform daily manual reconcilement and balancing of internal accounts, the Fed account and "due from" bank statements.

Finally, the amount of time and the number of employees it had once taken to perform these functions by noon each day decreased from three shifts down to just one.

CheckWorks’ ImageExplorer/Network, and now ImageExplorer/Enterprise, has been implemented successfully in the Special Handling Department in the Proof area, where large-deposit item verification is performed. These deposits of $10,000 or more are made up of one check and one deposit slip. Special Handling reviews each of these items early in the day to catch encoding errors, thus preventing any exposure on the part of the bank, or any inconvenience to customers.

Special Handling needed a way to view images of these large single-item deposits on a screen, rather than having to hunt down the physical items that could have found their way into Reject Repair or Exceptions. SunTrust developed filter programs that went against the All Items database and sorted out the images for large, single-item deposits. These images were then broken into groups of items, making it possible to share work.

The efforts of the Special Handling group were transformed by CheckWorks’ ImageExplorer/Network, from a highly time-consuming and manual process, to one in which large-dollar deposits could be reviewed systematically on a screen, with a summary list of items on the left, and the corresponding images displayed on the right. The CheckWorks Java™ viewer provided various image manipulation features, including zoom, brightness and grayscale controls.

Employees are now able to sit at their desks and review items, with a much higher success rate in catching problematic transactions. Since these items have been captured as images, they no longer have to be re-processed. Job quality and satisfaction have increased, and work can be shared and distributed quickly and easily.