Halifax/Bank of
Scotland, Isle of Man

The Halifax/Bank of Scotland (HBOS) Group, just honored by widely-read financial publication The Banker as “U.K. Bank of the Year”, has dramatically upgraded its ability to serve global customers with an Internet-based enterprise paperless office solution from Laserfiche.

Bank of Scotland International, which is part of the HBOS Group, shares nearly one million customer documents with remote offices on the Isle of Man and Jersey, separated by 500 miles. With a few keystrokes, 225 employees on the islands can instantly access customer information, eliminating the old system of faxing queries between the islands.

Customers on six continents rely on the Bank of Scotland International for a wide variety of financial services, including wealth protection, estate planning, international movement of funds and access to investment opportunities.

Given the level of customer enquiries received daily, and the number of new accounts, Laserfiche was needed to help reduce workers’ reliance on paper and handle customer service faster and more efficiently.

“As we explored various document imaging systems, we knew our choice had to be cost-effective,” says Ranald Caldwell, Bank of Scotland International’s Director and Head of Operations. “Laserfiche will reduce our processing costs, improve disaster recovery and clearly enhance customer service. We forecast a full project payback within two years.”

Viking Office Systems Ltd. on the Isle of Man provided not only the Laserfiche solution, but also extensive training and implementation assistance. Viking officials recently accompanied Caldwell to Laserfiche corporate headquarters in Long Beach, CA, for advanced product training and strategic planning sessions.

“We set up a simple seven-step process to help the Bank of Scotland make the transition from paper-reliant to paper-free,” says Harvey Burgess of Viking. “Laserfiche has a solid reputation as an easy-to-use product. Our specially-designed plan gave employees time to get comfortable with the new software, but we also made sure things moved along efficiently to keep the Bank of Scotland on schedule with their proposed return on investment.”