The mountain of paper generated through its regulatory activities of financial institutions is set to be greatly reduced with the Financial Services Board`s implementation of an automated electronic faxing facility. The FSB, the regulatory body for the financial services industry in South Africa, has integrated its fax solution with its workflow and document imaging system to round off its electronic processing system. The FSB maintains that the RightFAX solution, implemented by infrastructure company Datacentrix, has delivered a number of business benefits beyond merely cutting down on the flow of paper in and out of the office.
The scope of the FSB`s duties encompass registering, regulating and monitoring the business of all short- and long-term insurance companies, pension and provident funds, exchanges including the JSE, SAFEX and Bond Exchange, as well as Unit Trusts. In all, the FSB regulates some 18000 institutions.
"Although we report directly to the minister of finance, we are not funded by government, but gain our income from the levies we collect from the institutions," says FSB GM, management services, Ian Strydom. "As a result we are always looking to use technology to cut our costs and improve efficiencies."
In a procedure-heavy environment such as the Pensions department of the FSB, faxing plays a critical role in the functioning of the business. Strydom cites a simple example in pension and provident fund procedures, where all rule changes have to be submitted to the FSB for approval. "There could be several iterations of this submission, with suggestions and amendments passing between us before the final amendment is approved. Although e-mail has, to some extent, reduced the paper flow, the final versions have to be faxed, as well as the supporting documentation. Considering the fact that a single set of pension fund rules often consists of more than 20 pages, and we deal with many of these applications on a daily basis, an automated electronic fax solution was vital."
Apart from reducing paper flow, RightFAX intelligently chooses a least-cost route. This function determines fax destinations, and then selects an Internet connection or a direct connection. "RightFAX can send bulk faxes over the Internet via our ISP to remote destinations for the cost of a local call," says Strydom. "This will lead to a considerable reduction in our telephone costs in future."
The system also monitors fax flow and gives management the ability to pinpoint problematic applications or issues if the traffic-flow to a particular client is unusually heavy.
The RightFAX solution has boosted productivity significantly. "In the pensions department we have seen many new players enter the market in past years, yet we have managed to keep our staff complement steady, as the system, in conjunction with workflow and document imaging, has helped them manage the increased workload and deliver a better service."
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