CU*Online Newsletter
March 2002 

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** Getting your money's worth out of IT

I was reading recently about a company who wanted to automate a process. Their goal was to move data from a printed report to a format where the data could be cut and pasted into different places.

Based on a salesman's recommendation, they purchased a $3,000 hardware package called Digital Sender. Digital Sender lets you scan documents and send them to an email or IP address as a PDF file. It's a very nice package.

After the purchase, the company hired an IT consultant to come on-site and set up the hardware. The consultant installed it and all the associated software. Then an employee brought over a test report for the consultant to scan in.

The report was full of NUMERIC data. At this point, the consultant informed the customer that OCR software has an error rate too great to manage numbers. This product wasn't going to meet their needs.

It could have happened to any one of us. To a credit union, a report is a column of numbers. To a teenage sales clerk in the computer store, a report has to contain 1,500 words or more and is due next week. Communication is key.

In the end, the technical consultant helped the company obtain the reports electronically, printing them to a file instead of printing to paper. The reports could then be manipulated directly without any scanning or OCR. The $3,000 hardware package was returned.

This story was presented as an example when things go wrong for IT consultants. However, I was thrilled that someone at this company realized a process needed improving, and actually did something about it.

At times we all need to take step back from the daily grind and consider the big picture. What are our end goals? What technologies are available, and how can they be better implemented? Often, as in the case above, the best solution is overlooked because of poor communication. The credit union doesn't know they can do it, and the IT consultant doesn't know they need it.

Communication is key. Talk to your employees and technology consultants today. Make sure your credit union is as efficient as it can be.
- Karen

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** Shopping to save for college

Shop and earn "rebates" for a college education. That's the premise behind Upromise.com, BabyMint.com, and EdExpress.com. How do these companies work, and how do they remain profitable?

Upromise requires you to register your credit card online. Then you can start shopping -- either online or at brick-and-mortar affiliates. Upromise tracks your rebates and deposits your earnings in an account. While Upromise keeps the interest earned on the account, you can direct the funds into Section 529 college-savings plans.

EdExpress charges a flat rate of $19.95 a year. They also require you to register your credit card so you can shop either online or at stores. EdExpress hold users' rebate money in accounts, but lets you keep the interest earnings. EdExpress stipulates that you MUST use their rebates for education costs or else the Internal Revenue Service will tax the money.

You don't have to register any credit cards with BabyMint. It offers rebates primarily through online vendors, though the site features coupons you can print out and use offline. BabyMint simply dumps your monthly rebates into any savings vehicle a user specifies, whether for college or not.

All three of these businesses are growing exponentially, and vendors are rushing to join in. Service-oriented companies like AT&T see these programs as a way to increase customer loyalty. Citibank credit card pays a 1% rebate in the Upromise program, in addition to any rebates from participating companies.

The "saving by spending" theme has some experts worried. You'd have to spend a lot to make any significant savings. Still, proponents say that if you're going to shop at J.C. Penney and Toys 'R' Us anyway, you might as well get something back.

Before signing up with any of these programs, read the privacy policy carefully. To track your rebates, these companies need to know what you're buying. You're giving them valuable information about your spending habits. Make sure you know what's being done with your data.

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