Case Study #1
Pay Day Loan" Center Halts Cash Outflow Problem
A retail store organization of "Pay Day Loan" centers with close to five-hundred locations nation wide was experiencing excessive cost over-runs due to errors in the production and delivery of their contract laser checks being shipped to their centers. Their check supplier was charging a flat fifty dollars per delivery for each order of checks shipped and this was proving prohibitive to the retail organization. When an order of checks was found to have an error in the numbering sequence or the contract verbiage, the check supplier took up to three weeks to replace the order. Since the laws of various states do not allow the centers to use incorrect checks, the centers had to rent two security guards per day to guard the cash the center had to have on hand in lieu of issuing checks to the patrons. In addition to the cost of the security guards, the centers were targets for armed robberies because of the high amount of cash that was kept on the premise. Another problem that became apparent very quickly was the checks the centers were using had minimal document security features present and many centers were suffering from check fraud that was causing massive cash flow issues with the corporate accounting group.
At the request of the retail center's purchasing department, the management of Xtension Technologies traveled to the retail organization's headquarters, located in the Eastern part of the United States. The purpose of the trip was to do a careful analysis of the methods used to order checks, the manner in which the checks were accounted for at the centers, the costs involved for each order of checks and the cost of the freight per order. Xtension Technologies, Inc. made several recommendations to reduce the error rate of incorrect numbering on check orders or verbiage obsolesces. Among the changes proposed were double and triple reviews of each order by the ordering location, the check production center selected by Xtension Technologies, Inc. and the staff at Xtension Technologies, Inc. to insure correct numbering and that no checks had obsolete contract verbiage. The check design's document security features were upgraded to include numerous features that thwart check fraud. Orders for checks were sent to a production facility located more closely to the retail center's locations to reduce delivery time and freight costs. By entering into contract pricing with the corporate office of the production facilities, lower prices were made available to the centers.
During the first year of the contract with Xtension Technologies, Inc., the retail organization realized zero production errors for numbering or verbiage obsolesces. The retail organization was able to eliminate the use of costly security guards since every one of the fifteen hundred plus check orders was delivered on time. The savings from the lower contract costs of check orders and the associated freight savings realized during the year exceeded forty-two thousand dollars!
Case Study #2
Jeweler Prevents Check Fraud
A prominent West Coast jewelry designer wanted a laser check design that reflected the designer's image and incorporated multiple check security features. All of the requirements were met by incorporating ten different security features into the checks including a custom designed background unique to the jewelry designer. As an added measure of security, a letter was composed outlining the security features of the laser checks and forwarded to the jewelry designer's bank notifying the bank not to cash any checks that didn't look like the designer's checks or had any attempts at altering anything on the check.
Two years passed and the jewelry designer received an urgent telephone call from his bank. Two checks had arrived in the branch for processing that had been deposited at another bank and the branch personnel suspected the checks were forgeries. The checks didn't look like the designer's checks, were the wrong color, had misspelled information in the designer's address and were not the same size as the designer's checks. Because the bank's personnel were aware of what the designer's check looked like and what security features were present, they were able to match up the two checks before them with the designer's cancelled checks already in the branch.
The branch manager stopped the processing of the forged checks and ordered the two checks returned to the bank that first deposited them after not honoring the checks for payment. The money that would have deducted from the jewelry designer's account was extensive. The amount of time required to recoup the losses from the forgeries would have taken months before the matter was resolved. The bank's branch manager credited the notice given two years earlier with helping his staff be aware of what to look for in a high level security document and how to help protect their customer from a massive financial loss.
Case Study #3
Resort Fills Need for Promotional Item
A large five-star resort hotel, part of a nationwide chain of resorts, was looking for a special size of clear plastic martini shaker that would be placed in the hospitality bar of each of the resort's hotel rooms. The resort's logo was to be imprinted on the outside of the shaker and each shaker was be to individually wrapped in a sanitary plastic pouch. The purchasing department of the resort had contacted all of their vendors for promotional products and none of them could locate a source for these martini shakers.
A chance conversation with a customer support member of Xtension Technologies, Inc. led the staff member on a quest for the martini shakers. Since we had the same sources as the other vendor's used by the resort, we also failed to locate a source for the shakers. Not to be deterred, the staff member used a source finder available to members of an international document management association, of which Xtension Technologies, Inc. has been a member for a number of years. Within one day, the source locator at the association identified the only manufacturer in the nation that produces the desired size of plastic imprinted martini shakers.
Not only did the resort place an order, but several other sites within the resort's chain are looking at this uniquely personalized gift shaker for their locations as well. The resort has placed Xtension Technologies, Inc. at the top of their go-to list for other items that are on their wish list, that their other vendors had not been able to locate a source for the wanted items.
