Standard Trust has appointed information management specialist MGX Holdings in a R1,7m document imaging and management project together with UK-based company Documents Plus Limited (DPL).
Standard Trust, part of the Standard Bank group and one of the largest trust companies in the country, provides a full range of trust services to its clients, including wills, estate liquidation, trust administration, asset management and share portfolio management. "Our problem was twofold," says Standard Trust MD Trevor Beeton. "We had to combine our wills preparation and drafting software with the storage and management of those wills once they`d been signed." DPL has supplied the Chameleon will-drafting and filing office management system (storage and retrieval), and MGX the imaging and back-scanning for the project.20
"Through MGX we can manage not only electronic storage and viewing but also, with DPL`s filing office management facility, the physical storage and access," says Beeton. "Together with DPL, we have assembled possibly the most sophisticated wills drafting and management facility in the world in record-breaking time."
Beeton believes that by having all its wills on a computerised database, Standard Trust will be able to maintain closer contact with its clients, be more proactive when a client wants to review and renew his will and have greater control over its national distribution system.
"With Chameleon it becomes easier to amend the contents of a will electronically and to renew it rapidly," Beeton adds. "Further, we can now keep all our records in one centrally managed location, instead of a will having to be shifted around the country each time the client moves home."
Logistics MGX sales and marketing director Leon Theron says the project is a progressive step by Standard Trust focused on improving its service to its clients.
"The retrieval of documents can be managed from a central point, simplifying administration and record-keeping and markedly reducing turnaround time for individual record requests," he adds. "That`s essential when you`re dealing with 300 000-plus legacy documents and an increasing volume of newly drafted documents every day." MGX drafted four of its specialist companies to meet the requirements of the brief:
* IMX provided broad consultancy services in terms of integrating and assisting DPL with management and co-ordination of the multiple facets of the project on behalf of Standard Trust, as well as back-scanning services and scanning hardware;
Exsol provided imaging software (Exsol DIS) and support;
Optiplan provided its branded paper-based filing system; and
Metrofile provided offsite backup and storage services for analogue and digital media.
Theron says security is fundamental to the project. "Although we have the facilities for electronic storage and retrieval, the system provides complete confidentiality for deed contents," he says. "Because of the security functionality inherent within Chameleon, the information we store is only available to authorised personnel within Standard Trust, and with advances in technology the client can be assured of even higher security measures."
Beeton adds that, given its logistics, the project has come together very rapidly.
"All three participants - Standard Trust, MGX and DPL - worked superbly as a team," he says. "DPL and MGX met their respective delivery deadlines, and we completed the project in six months from start to finish."
Looking ahead Through further DPL software, Standard Trust will eventually make its will-drafting system available on the Internet to streamline secure customer access from anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day. "In the interim, we expect the process of converting our 300 000-plus existing documents to take between 12 and 15 months," says Beeton. "Thereafter, the project will move closer to the ideal of `future banking` - with smaller, more focused branches servicing the client rather than dealing with administration."
Share
Editorial contacts