Pictured above: Sam Ferguson

As compensation to customers mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI) runs into £billions, Wolverhampton based EDM Group, one of the UK's leading information management companies, is urgently calling on banks to make sure they are ready to cope with the extra workload in order to avoid more complaints from disgruntled customers. 

Whilst Lloyds Banking Group have already made £3.2 billion of provision for compensation claims, along with other leading banks such as Barclays who have set aside £1 billion and HSBC, £268 million, EDM Group's message is clear; with the eyes of world watching, this is not the time to make mistakes, as CEO, Sam Ferguson explains:

"The decision to drop the appeal and acknowledge the strength of customers' grievances will place a huge burden on the banks' customer services departments who will literally be inundated with millions of claims. So, whilst it's all very well setting aside the actual money for compensation claims, are banks 100 per cent confident that their current back office and mail room functions will actually be able to effectively manage the claims process itself, without making any mistakes?"

EDM Group says that banks could easily manage the additional workflow and ensure that acceptable turnaround times are achieved by using an outsourced digital mailroom.

Sam Ferguson explains the benefits:  

"A digital mailroom service, such as that offered by EDM Group, can help address the obvious challenges that the banks will now be faced with. It can receive claims on behalf of banks, no matter what channel is used. So, whether a claim is received by post, e-mail, fax or web, using outsourced scanning services that includes intelligent data capture and workflow technology will ensure that the logjams and management headaches that commonly beset traditional paper based customers are avoided.

"Of particular benefit to the banks is the real time data that the digital mailroom service provides, enabling the banks' management to fully understand the volume and status of the incoming claims. The intelligent workflow systems can also direct the claims documents to the people best placed to deal with them, ensuring a fast turnaround time from skilled staff that are used efficiently.

"The service also provides an integrated correspondence generator to handle all outbound mail, automatically generating letters of acknowledgement - a notorious weakness in traditional complaint handling systems that often expedites the process of subsequent mail from complainants."

Sam Ferguson, EDM's CEO will be chairing a workstream entitled "Strategic Sourcing" at the forthcoming Operational Efficiency in Financial Services Conference, which takes place in London on 23rd June 2011.