Companies Partner to Extend Banks' Automated Collections

""CGI Group Inc."":http://www.cgi.com, a global provider of information technology and business process services, and Seattle's ""Varolii Corporation"":http://www.varolii.com, an outbound communications technology provider, have partnered to provide banks with self-service collections and recovery options in response to tough economic times.
The two companies will integrate CGI's CACS Enterprise with Varolii’s automated outbound communications service in a joint offering that the company say will reduce banks' collection costs, improve agent productivity, and increase dollars collected.
CGI explained that its collections and recovery solution, CACS Enterprise, provides advanced workflow to maximize collections and recovery effectiveness and optimize collector deployment. While Varolii automates proactive communications to delinquent customers, enabling companies to send interactive and personalized messages. Varolii says this high-touch contact allows banks to collect in a fraction of the time and cost it would take using agents, dialers, or direct mail.
Lenders will be able to automatically launch Varolii from within CACS Enterprise to enhance their current self-service collection options. The companies say the result will be timelier, proactive treatment and resolution of customer delinquencies via channels with minimal collector involvement, allowing financial institutions to free up resources to focus on more complex or higher-risk accounts. The integrated solution will provide predictable operating costs and significant processing efficiencies, the companies said in a press statement.
Steven Starace, VP of banking and investments for CGI, explained, ""In today’s difficult credit environment, collections operations are experiencing a higher volume of delinquent accounts then ever before. Our partnership with Varolii allows us to deliver new collections capabilities so our clients can focus on transaction fulfillment and customer self-service, ultimately resulting in increased dollars collected and reduced collections expenses.""
Jeffrey Read, Varolii's EVP, added, ""Companies today are getting squeezed. Adding to the burden of more delinquent customers with higher account balances, they have fewer cap-ex dollars and lighter resources to collect what’s owed. Varolii and CGI are joining forces to take the pressure off by providing a low-cost, high-reward solution.""
For over 30 years, ""CGI"":http://www.cgi.com has provided IT and business process services to financial institutions around the world, including 24 of the top 25 banks in the Americas and 17 of the top 25 European banks. CGI's banking-focused solutions include core banking, wealth management, trade finance, business intelligence/data warehousing, and customer relationship management. The company's CACS technology has been implemented at more than 100 organizations worldwide, including seven of the top 10 U.S. banks and six of the top 10 banks worldwide, as well as state and local governments.
""Varolii's"":http://www.varolii.com on-demand communication software and services help lenders and financial institutions automate their personalized communication processes to reduce operational costs, increase contact center efficiency, and get more out of their existing IT investments. More than 380 companies, including many of the largest U.S. banks, employ Varolii to send nearly 4 million communications every business day.