The era of the paperless office hasn't arrived, but the drivefor back-office efficiency continues.

At Affinity Group Credit Union in Michigan, the quest hasprompted sharing of resources among five credit unions usingAffinity Group as an indirect brand. At Virginia Credit Union,where efforts have been underway for some four years, it has meantgetting used to a new workflow. The Credit Union of Denver hasscrapped a lot of manual processing.

In each case, the people involved seem pleased with theresults.

Carma Peters, Affinity Group chief operating officer, explainedthe credit unions involved maintain their identity to theirmembership. But although the name on the building remains the same,they gain cost efficiencies and the identity on the website orstatements may be Affinity.

Credit cards have been brought in-house. There are accountingefficiencies. Aggregate buying power can cut costs. Underwriting iscentralized and streamlined. Auditing costs have been reduced. Sohave conversion bills.

But what happens to say an accountant at one of the creditunions when the accounting function is combined?

“We've been able to make it work,” Peters said. “For example,we've had people go to card services from accounting. We're at thesize where we're looking at a quality assurance person, and thatprovides an opportunity for the staff.”

Donna Riley, vice president/information technology at CreditUnion of Denver, is using an on-line banking approach from ConnectFinancial Software Solutions. There's a lot of opportunity to avoidgenerating paperwork, for example providing electronic disclosureswhich members can accept electronically.

There's also the ability to automatically follow through when amember enrolls in a certain service. Previously if a member, forexample, signed up for e-statements the credit union had to run areport then manually transfer information to the host system. Amember's e-mail address is now consistent everywhere.

“When we run a skip-a-pay loan promotion, if a member opts in,the information goes all the way to the host system and the duedate is changed or whatever needs to be done is accomplished,”Riley explained.

So far there have been no surprises, perhaps because the creditunion did its homework upfront. Riley indicated she likes to knowhow things work. She suggested when a credit union schedules apresentation from a vendor, it's a good idea to have IT staff orother experts on hand who can ask in-depth questions.

Several years ago, Virginia Credit Union wanted quick, easyaccess to records from signature cards to loan documents. Thecredit union was eager to ditch manual, paper-based processes andan elderly imaging system. It turned out that off-the-shelfproducts had to be completely customized.

Cara Gwinn, then in charge of records management, said mortgagelending was a key area targeted for efficiency gains.

“We bought a product that allows us to do intelligent captureand recognition of incoming documents,” she explained. “It reducedthe time needed to archive a document and start handling thosedocuments real-time. We could get rid of, for the most part, thepaper files. When something comes in it triggers a notice to theperson responsible for that loan. It monitors compliance so we knowwhat has gone out.”

A similar project involved consumer lending. Incoming documentsno long have to been handled on a manual, page-by-page basis.

There has also been a sharp drop in mail returned because of anincorrect address or because the forwarding address expired. Therewas a substantial volume of such orphan mail, and the post officewas cracking down. Now an approach is in place to more easilyverify addresses.

Gwinn indicated such efficiency can require a completelydifferent mindset and getting used to a new workflow. “Startsmall,” she advised. “We began with the hardest thing we couldpossibly pick–real estate. It would have been easier to startsmall, learn and grow.”