10,952
items processed per month
3,770
cheques forwarded per month
20
internal teams routed to
2
daily deliveries
1
same-day SLA to 5pm
100%
of letters converted into digital information
Executive Summary
- The customer is a digital-only bank with millions of customers.
- The bank’s monthly mail volume has grown roughly 10x since Restore Information Management took over the mailroom, from 1,000 items to an average of 10,952 per month.
- Every letter is scanned to BS 10008, the British Standard for evidential weight and legal admissibility of electronic information.
- Every letter is processed the same day it arrives, to a 5pm SLA.
- Each letter is processed into digital data, preserving the bank’s efficient digital workflows
A leading UK digital bank needed to make sure that physical post wouldn’t interfere with the efficiencies and cost-savings of its digital processes. Restore Information Management’s digital mailroom service helped the bank to grow without having to worry about staffing, equipping, and keeping mailrooms compliant.
A bank that’s digital by design
The customer has been a digital-only bank, with no branches or counters, since it opened its (metaphorical) doors. By keeping everything digital from the outset, the bank has enjoyed the efficiencies and time-savings provided by digital working.
But while the majority of customer interactions are handled via the app or email, even a digital-only bank can’t escape the need to process paper.
The challenge: handling increasing volumes of physical mail as a digital business.
Even though the bank encourages customers to get in touch via the app or by email, sometimes people contact them by physical post. Sometimes it’s required by regulation and legislation. Sometimes it’s driven purely by customer preference. Either way, the bank needed a way to handle paper entering its digital-only business.
To begin with, it ran its own mailroom. But as its popularity grew, the bank found itself outgrowing its mailroom. With its growth showing no signs of stopping, this would mean opening another mailroom. And another. And another. Each demanding an investment of time and money to find and pay for office space, hire staff, acquire and install equipment. All of it, and the processes to run it, needing to be kept compliant with ever-evolving regulations.
So the bank made a smarter choice: it chose to let Restore Information Management take the headache away.
The solution: physical mail in, digital data out
We had two priorities when we set up the bank’s digital mailroom:
- Our digitisation should be even faster than the bank’s in-house function. Staff should get the information even faster than ever.
- And the scan should be as good as the original. If staff wished they had the paper version, we’d have failed.
But we knew we already had the infrastructure to deliver on both.
Twice a day, at 6am and 8am, the bank’s post arrives at one of our digital mailrooms. Any cheques that are incorrectly sent to us are forwarded on to the bank’s facilities. (While we can handle digital cheque processing, the bank already had a facility set up.) And any parcels are forwarded to the bank too.
Everything else is opened and classified before being scanned. Our digital mailrooms are fitted with the fast, high quality scanners that scan to BS 10008, the British Standard for Evidential Weight and Legal Admissibility of Electronic Information. That means that our scans are so clear that they are legally as good as the original paper copy.
We capture data from each item received and route each document to one of 20 internal teams we work with. Each file is held securely within our EDMOnline platform, available 24/7 should the bank’s staff need it. We also generate a cover letter for any original documents that need returning to customers and post them back to them. And all of this is done by 5pm the same day the letter was received, without fail.
Any documents not being returned to customers are then held securely for 30 days. (We know something about secure storage, with a UK-wide network of local, ultra-secure facilities that give Fort Knox imposter syndrome.) And once the originals are no longer needed, we securely destroy them to BS EN 15713, the British standard for secure destruction of confidential material. All of which means the bank’s staff never touch the paper. Not because they’re scared of papercuts, but because they want to preserve their digital processes.
The results: digital efficiencies preserved through 10X growth
The bank’s mail volumes have grown tenfold since Restore Information Management took over. That could have meant ten times the office space needed, ten times the staff, ten times the tech and ten times the compliance headache. Not to mention handling the peaks and troughs of varying demand. But a future-proofed, compliant, process-preserving mailroom is our bread and butter.
Even better than that, the bank benefits from Management Information it never had before. Return-to-sender patterns. Peak periods. Volumes by team, type, or time.
Most importantly, the efficiency of the bank’s digital processes is perfectly preserved. Mail arrives to their teams as data, not paper, and it reaches them the same day it arrives. Making sure the bank is quick to tackle communications, and provide its customers with a better service.
The story in numbers
- 10,952 items processed per month (three-month average)
- 3,770 cheques forwarded per month
- 20 internal teams routed to
- 2 daily deliveries: 6am and 8am
- 1 same-day SLA, to 5pm
- 100% of letters converted into digital information, preserving the bank’s digital processes
Keeping you digital
No matter how digital you want to be, there’s no escaping paper. Indeed, you may not want to; even if there are no laws or regulations requiring your organisation to accept physical post, allowing customers to contact you via their preferred medium can improve their satisfaction.
Just like this leading UK digital bank, your organisation can use quality information management to wrap its internal digital processes in a physical wrapper: letting customers send you letters (and even sending letters back to them) without your teams ever having to touch a single envelope. So your digital-first business can stay digital-first.
If you’re worried paper is interfering with the efficiency of your digital processes, get in touch. Just as we helped this digital bank remain digital, we’ll help do the same for you.
