Success Story
Seeking a better card delivery method
The First National Bank of Omaha (FNBO) is
the largest bank holding company in the
western United States, and its leadership in
high-volume financial card issuance is well
known. FNBO is among the top five in-house
merchant processors in the U.S., serving more
than 30 smaller banks. It is a top 15 issuer and
processor for both Visa and MasterCard
products, and also issues a wide variety of gift
cards for corporate and retail customers.
All of this means FNBO issues and mails more
than 100,000 personalized cards every month.
To do this, FNBO was using an extensive
inventory of pre-printed card carriers and
inserts, as well as stuffing small jobs (fewer
than 50 accounts) by hand. The challenges
associated with this workflow were
considerable, according to Daniel Gruenes,
Operations Officer for the Consumer
Bank of FNBO.
“Managing our pre-printed inserts was a
nightmare,” Gruenes said. “They took up a
considerable amount of floor space in our shop.
Replenishment was a constant battle, and we
were often forced to mail rush orders without
the necessary inserts if we ran out. Card carriers
were not customized for individual cardholders
so marketing opportunities were limited. In
addition, my staff was spending up to three
hours a day stuffing envelopes, then another
hour performing quality assurance.”
Fewer inserts, lower costs
Integrating the C3000 card delivery system into
operations proved to be an ideal decision for
FNBO. The system can handle the volume of
personalized cards from all three of FNBO’s
Datacard 9000 card issuance systems. It also
creates important opportunities for FNBO to
improve shop efficiency and save money.
Perhaps the most important change the C3000
system enabled was a transition to 11" x 17"
paper to accommodate additional insert
information. Today, FNBO consolidates much
of the information from many of its inserts,
along with the card carrier information, onto a
single 11" x 17" form, customizing information
on demand. FNBO is the first Datacard Group
customer in North America to make this change
in carrier size.
“With the C3000 system, we can print
personalized card carriers on the fly,” Gruenes
said. “The impact on operations is considerable.
In just two jobs alone, we removed more than
40 pre-printed inserts from our workflow. This
improvement virtually eliminated our inventory
and replenishment problems.”
The ATM file, for example, went from 35
inserts to just three, while the gift card file went
from eight inserts to one. In addition, card
carrier templates can be updated electronically,
so FNBO does not have to destroy obsolete pre-
printed inventory. Because the Datacard
®
solution is so flexible and offers inline laser
printing, FNBO can utilize generic card carriers
and keep only four varieties of card carrier
stock on hand.
Another measurable result is lower postage
costs. By consolidating information from
multiple inserts on a single card carrier, some
FNBO mailings dropped from a 2 oz. postage
rate to the 1 oz. rate — a difference of $0.23
per piece of mail. This change saves FNBO
thousands of dollars every month.
Efficient small job processing
Consolidating jobs increases equipment uptime
and overall efficiency in the FNBO shop.
Because FNBO issues cards for so many other
small banks, each individual job may involve
fewer than 20 cards. In the days of pre-printed
card carriers, each of these jobs was produced
separately on the Datacard 9000 system and
prepared for mailing individually.
Through the use of selective inserting, inline
printing, data management and larger card
carriers, FNBO can now group smaller jobs into
runs of 100 to 200 cards. The C3000 system
prints the customized information on each card
carrier, adds any necessary inserts and stuffs the
envelope, delivering a finished, mail-ready
package. The consolidation makes smaller jobs
seem larger, in effect.
“We have up to 100 different insert setups, and
the C3000 system does selective inserting via
bar codes,” Gruenes said. “All of this happens
automatically, through data management, with
minimal intervention from operators. That is a
definite improvement over our previous
workflow. We don’t have to stop and start all
the time.”
O V E R V I E W
CUSTOMER:
First National Bank of Omaha (FNBO) manages more than $13 billion in assets.
The bank issues thousands of customer credit and debit cards, as well as debit cards for more than
30 other banks and gift cards for a variety of retailers and large corporate clients.
CHALLENGE:
Frustrated with its large inventory of pre-printed forms and inserts and reliance
on manual envelope insertion, FNBO decided to reassess its needs. FNBO wanted a high-volume
card delivery system with superior automation, fast processing and exceptional flexibility.
SOLUTION:
FNBO selected the Otto Künnecke C3000 card delivery system, provided by
Datacard, to work alongside its three Datacard
®
9000 Series card issuance systems. Datacard
Group offers the C3000 system in cooperation with Otto Künnecke, a market leader in
document handling.
RESULTS:
With the C3000 system in place, FNBO removed 40 pre-printed inserts from
inventory, significantly reduced postage costs, consolidated smaller jobs, shortened turn time on
critical jobs and eliminated manual envelope stuffing.
FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF OMAHA
— Nebraska, U.S.
