Whilst The Coronavirus Pandemic Is A Public Health Emergency It Is Also An Economic Emergency
We have never, in peacetime, faced an economic fight like this one
As businesses find their financial teams reduced in numbers, the ability to process payments whether ‘in’ or ‘out’ can become stretched. For those organisations that receive large numbers of cheques, the new Image Clearing System (ICS) can provide an answer with the ability through some banks to remotely deposit cheques. The use of a desktop cheque scanner to image a cheque, for these images then to be consolidated into a data file for onward transmission to the organisation’s bank, can assist in reducing staff travelling time to local branches, avoiding social contact and free up resource for other stretched areas of the organisation. For smaller numbers of received cheques, mobile banking app’s may well provide an answer again avoiding the need to visit a local branch.
Where businesses are still making payments by the ‘good old dependable’ cheque, there are ways in which the process of cheque production can be facilitated. For businesses that rely on the use of ‘special’ or corporate cheque books to make payments that require hand writing and signing, the introduction of computer cheques may be an answer to speed up production. These ‘special’ computer cheques can be branded with corporate logos, colours and fonts and available pre-signed if necessary. Using dedicated cheque production software, or integrated accounting packages, these cheques are ‘infilled’ at the organisation prior to distribution.
Indeed, the use of cheque production software packages can also have an added benefit by the addition of Image Survivable Features (ISF’s) on printed cheques. With the introduction of cheque image clearing in the UK, there has been an associated rise in attempted cheque fraud as fraudsters seek to identify ‘weak spots’ in the clearing system. The addition of a security device, such as a Unique Coded Number (UCN) or UCN Plus® QR code can help prevent attempted fraud by encrypting ‘key’ details from the face of the cheque, either in the case of the UCN at the time of printing of the original cheque stock, or for the UCN Plus® at the time of cheque infilling. ISF’s are becoming a major deterrent in the fight against fraud.
For those businesses and organisations that are really struggling to maintain payment processes, the use of Business Process Outsourcing services could be an answer. Outsourcing business processes has major advantages in freeing up valuable resource and enabling ‘business-as-normal’ processes to be undertaken. Additionally, for those organisations faced with increased payment workload processing refunds, compensation payments, etc as a result of the continuing issues surrounding the coronavirus outbreak, the ability to outsource extra fulfilment is a major benefit. Payments, whether as paper documents or electronic services, can be made on an organisation’s behalf, branded appropriately and at a scheduled point in time to suit.
The TALL Group of Companies has had 3o years’ experience of providing organisations with secure print and electronic payment solutions. From the printing of corporate cheques, the provision of cheque production software through cheque imaging and cheque fraud prevention tools to the ability to provide Business Process Outsourcing services to organisations of any size, TALL has a complete range of products and services to enable organisations to weather the coronavirus ‘storm’ whilst still maintaining customer service levels throughout.
Martin Ruda, TALL Group Managing Director said,” In the face of the ever-changing national challenges, it is a company’s responsibility to ensure that firstly all its staff are cared for but also to assist our customers in meeting their obligations in the current circumstances. TALL can help organisations meet those obligations and will work with our partners to develop appropriate solutions. Together we can work through this current crisis.”
CONTACT
Cas Amato
TALL Security Print Ltd
enquiries@tallgroup.co.uk
www.tallgroup.co.uk
+44 1928 579200