Located in St.Helens, Oregon, the Saint Helens Community Federal Credit Union has been offering financial services to its members since 1938. In order to stay ahead in the rapidly changing world of financial technology, it had to offer customers stepped-up service, and raise their productivity level, SHCFCU decided on an area of their business that could benefit from a technological upgrade: the means of collecting their members’ signatures.

Saint Helen’s was manually collecting each transaction receipt copy (complete with inked signature), then sorting and shipping them offsite for CD ROM imaging for eventual research and retention. This took about three weeks. Capturing e-signatures has allowed SHCFCU to archive the receipt as it’s being written, and eliminate the three-week waiting time. Digital signatures also allows them to perform research electronically, using multiple methods (by day, teller ID, account number, branch, workstation, transaction type, or dollar amount), plus save on paper costs. A member signs on the tablet (SHCFCU uses the SignatureGem 4X5), and GemTools software (with Bluebird Systems’ Receipt Manager™) transfers the e-signature to the document for archiving. SHCFCU estimate a savings of $4000 in monthly imaging costs. Plus, they estimate that upon full installation of signature capture, they’ll save about 8 person hours per week on research. In a year, that’s about 400 hours. Kevin Burke, VP of Information Resources, says that “within 30 seconds of a request for a given transaction record, we can print a copy of the receipt complete with the member’s signature.” Not bad considering that prior imaging took as long as three weeks. SHCFCU attains further efficiency, their members receive stepped-up service, and the SignatureGem range has the opportunity to help a company get signed up with signature capture.