State Employees Credit Union of Maryland (SECU) is the state's largest credit union, with nearly $1.2 billion in assets. The organization grew through acquisition and by expanding its membership to include more than state employees. The phrase "State Employees Credit Union" now describes only a small portion of SECU's members.
In addition to growing its membership, the credit union ensures that existing members don't look elsewhere for financial services. It provides personal attention, high-quality service and low fees in addition to a full array of credit and deposit products. To serve its increasingly diverse members, who use mortgage applications, deposit slips, truth-in-lending disclosures and various other printed materials, the credit union amassed approximately 400 printed documents. Different branches and departments use different forms in different quantities--a potential document management migraine.
"When I came here two years ago, we had
been doing business with one [print provider] for about seven years, but we
needed to get a better handle on our print inventory [and forms management],"
says Jeannette Vajta, SECU's purchasing manager.
The credit union faced difficulty
determining what order size yielded the best price per form. Then SECU awarded a
print management contract to Baltimore-based Webb/Mason. The distributorship's
proprietary e-commerce system, Enterprise Print Management Center (EPM Online®),
now makes the best price/quantity easy to identify, Vajta says. The system
connects each part of an end user's print strategy, including ordering,
fulfillment, production, inventory management and cost control.
Webb/Mason is a $44 million distributorship offering a wide range of business printing and services, including promotional products, forms design consultation, warehousing and inventory management. It landed SECU's business due to a combination of location, management and service, Vajta says. Webb/Mason's location, only about 10 miles from the credit union's headquarters in Linthicum, Md., enables the vendor to visit the credit union every two weeks. That type of personal service is rare in today's automation-driven climate, Vajta says.
Vajta also appreciates the online ordering capability of Webb/Mason's EPM Online. The credit union's customized print management site serves as an electronic warehouse for its stock items. The site includes an enterprise-wide library of materials with real-time inventory data and pricing information. By also warehousing the materials, Webb/Mason relieves SECU of storage burden.
"They customize the print ordering for us," Vajta says. "We can requisition forms via the web, then look online to see what we're getting to make sure that it's what we want. Before [with the previous vendor], it was difficult to decipher if the forms were what we really wanted."
EPM Online's ordering menus accommodate SECU's established rules and streamline its procurement process. The credit union can approve or edit orders before placing them, then make purchases via an online shopping cart. Prices are updated automatically as the end user adds or deletes items. The credit union can track online orders as well. Webb/Mason sends emails to the financial institution immediately upon shipping orders.
In addition, Vajta says she appreciates the credit union's ability to order customized materials for new members. Using Webb/Mason's system, SECU can order materials tailored to members with children (college financial planning, home equity, children's accounts), older members (retirement planning, etc.) and other members with specific interests. Webb/Mason produces the materials, then packages and mails them to current or prospective members.
"We're a financial institution, not a printer," Vajta says. "[Webb/Mason] enables us to concentrate on operating the credit union."
—Phillip J. Britt
