Carretek LLC, a transformational business processing outsourcer for transaction processing, announced today that it has been awarded a multi-year agreement with a US-based company to offshore selected Adjustments Management functions.
These functions include providing an image-enabled, automated adjustments process and providing enterprisewide management of bank-to-bank adjustments (including Clearinghouses and Federal Reserve Banks) as well as customer service requests.
Carretek is jointly owned by Carreker Corporation (NASDAQ:CANI) (a leading provider of technology and consulting solutions for the financial services industry) and Majesco Software Inc. (a subsidiary of Mastek Limited, a leading global outsourcing company: National Stock Exchange, India: MASTEK).
Adjustments and customer service requests are not only costly, complex, and labor-intensive, but additionally they involve a variety of steps requiring human intervention and resolution.
Through Carretek, this client, whose identity was not disclosed, can now automate many aspects of the adjustments process, streamline adjustment workflows and reduce costs by up to 40 percent. In addition, the client has also selected Carretek to provide centralized, self-service management of adjustments and customer service requests. By integrating image archive, data repositories, all items data and microfilm technology, this client can dramatically streamline the research process and improve efficiency, thus reducing expenses and enhancing customer service.
To ensure compliance with laws and regulations concerning customer privacy, security, and timeliness of processing, Carretek has adopted a key set of processes. First, regarding staffing and training, Carretek has replicated the client's processes and controls as much as possible, screening for the same characteristics and adopting similar training regimens. Second, regarding control of customer information, the Carretek process ensures that the information is never resident in India, but remains under the control of the client, with screened and trained staff having access to the information only for the duration of the function being performed.
This same client has also selected Carretek to offshore other key back office functions through other contracts executed since August 2004. The previous agreements included offshoring another set of transaction processing functions and check exceptions processing.
A key aspect of the agreement was the development of unique processes and technology to process adjustments in near real-time, to guard customer and company privacy, and to comply with regulatory deadlines for processing timeliness. With Carretek, client information is maintained onshore, while selected data entry and decisioning functions are provided offshore. Carretek maintains governance and encryption models to ensure full data security.
Bob Olson, President of Carretek, said, "By selecting Carretek to offshore key Adjustments Management functions, this client is again demonstrating a confidence in our ability to bring immediate value to its organization. The savings achieved by offshoring these functions allow the organization to redirect critical resources toward core, mission-critical initiatives."
Ketan Mehta, director of Carretek and co-founder of Mastek, said, "This client has realized significant savings since we signed our first agreement with them less than a year ago. Carretek continues to demonstrate our deep domain expertise in business process outsourcing and we're extremely pleased that the client has extended our relationship to include these key Adjustment Management functions."
J. D. (Denny) Carreker, chairman and CEO of Carreker Corporation said, "As the financial services market experiences new challenges brought on by key factors such as competitive pressures and an increasingly complex blended payments environment, they will look for providers who not only understand business process outsourcing, but who more importantly understand their business. As evidenced by this latest extension of our relationship, our client has a high level of confidence that Carretek understands their business and can provide them with a strong return on investment, cost savings, and improved operational efficiencies."