How US Dataworks Hopes to Grease the Skids for Remote Capture

The rapid deployment of remote deposit capture technology has not been without some hassles and roadblocks, according to US Dataworks Inc., a Sugar Land, Texas-based processor that says it has developed a solution that solves at least some of those problems and paves the way for even more rapid penetration of multistore merchants. The new product, which US Dataworks has not yet named and for which the company has just started searching for customers, is a patent-pending process that allows a business to electronically capture and transmit check images without the need to install a PC or specialized software. In this way, the company says, remote check capture becomes more like a card payment. “Think of a debit card transaction,” says Mario Villarreal, president and chief operating officer at US Dataworks. “When you do a debit card transaction, you swipe it and [the transaction] goes somewhere. It's the same here.” In this case, the “somewhere” is US Dataworks' Clearingworks platform, which processes electronic checks on both the automated clearing house and through image-exchange networks. With remote deposit capture, merchants or other businesses use check scanners hooked up to PCs to send check data and images to their banks instead of carting the paper each day. The PCs typically have software installed that runs the remote-capture process. But Villarreal says many businesses, particularly those with multiple locations, find the process vexed with a number of issues. Among these are operator training and re-training, lack of compatibility between scanners and PCs, data-entry errors, and problematic image quality. “That deployment process is a hassle,” says Villarreal. “Some of our clients have over 3,000 locations.” The new service, however, depends only on a specialized scanner, easing training issues and doing away with device-driver problems, Villarreal says. Meanwhile, Clearingworks handles image repair. Villarreal says the company hopes to launch the product some time in the first quarter. But one issue is finding the right scanner. The device must be programmed to point to a particular IP address, either at US Dataworks or at client data centers running the company's software, where it can send data and images. Also, the device must be designed so that the scanning process is triggered automatically upon insertion of a check. While Villarreal says no such scanner is now on the market, he argues it would be “a relatively minor job” to tweak existing equipment to make it work. Yolanda Sanchez, product manager at US Dataworks, says scanner vendors have told her they are close to producing new devices that meet the company's requirements. She says the goal is to keep the price between $200 and $400 per device. Still, the new product may run into some static. Most large businesses, such as the multistore merchants and billers US Dataworks is targeting, have few if any barriers to adoption when it comes to remote capture, says Bob Meara, an analyst at Celent LLC. “If there is an issue, it's with the hardware, not the application,” he says. Some businesses, moreover, have turned to outsourcing services, such as the Spin service offered by processor Solutran Inc., to handle remote capture on the automated clearing house without the need to install equipment or train staff. Small businesses, he says, object primarily to having to pay for scanners, the one piece of equipment US Dataworks' solution leaves intact. At the same time, businesses still need a PC to access Web-based reporting offered by US Dataworks. “I think their whole argument is a little bit suspect,” Meara says, though he says the service's ability to remotely monitor devices for maintenance purposes is a useful feature. Even so, Villarreal sees a wide open market for the product. “There's a land grab [in the remote-capture market],” he says. “We're excited about the opportunity, and we're pretty bullish about how many transactions we'll get.”