Security Finance Banks on BCC

A consumer loan company, looking to switch mailing software providers, picks the developer with a 30-year track record of excellence

Security Finance is a consumer loan company headquartered in Spartanburg, SC. With a 50-year history of consistent growth, the company now delivers financial services to hundreds of thousands of customers nationwide.

For the modest marketing department run by Marty Bowie, Marketing Manager and Head of Administrative Services, that means coordinating and producing direct mail packages for more than 1,000 branches spread out across 17 states and Mexico. "It’s a challenge," she says. "Our standard package is a letter in a #10 envelope, but we’re doing mail for a variety of different size packets, letters, and postcards. We mail about 18 million pieces per year."

With those volumes and diverse mailing requirements, Security Finance needs to have faith in its mailing software developer to be able to provide not only a superior product, but the committed customer support that can make a crucial difference in day-to-day matters. After years of working consistently with a single major solutions provider, however, Bowie became increasingly frustrated with the decreasing levels of customer support she found from her vendor. "In the past, you got someone on the phone who knew the product, knew the business, and could help," she says. More recently, however, "If you got someone [on the phone], they didn’t know what you were talking about. That clearly was one of the major decisions why we decided not to stay."

Reviewing the field for a possible replacement solution, Bowie found Bell and Howell’s BCC Mail Manager Full Service to be an ideal fit for Security Finance’s needs. BCC Mail Manager Full Service is Bell and Howell's top-tier mailing software solution, providing a comprehensive suite of presorting and list-management functionality—including enhanced merge/purge and automation capabilities—in a single intuitive package.

"It actually came down to Bell and Howell and one other vendor, and when we were doing demos of both of them, Bell and Howell clearly had more functionality," she says. "It’s a very robust software. There’s a lot of power there."

Ease of transition was an important consideration for Bowie and Security Finance, particularly given the relatively inexperienced marketing department personnel that would be using the software from day to day. After a short but expected learning curve—made even shorter by on-site assistance from a Bell and Howell Professional Services technician—her team now "gets more comfortable every day" with BCC Mail Manager Full Service, Bowie says. "I’m very happy with where we are."

"Some jobs that we’re running already, they're running faster than they’ve ever ran, so the efficiency is there," she adds. "I’m pleased with how much [my team is] able to get done. Every week that goes by, it is taking us less time to do jobs because they’re becoming more skilled at it. That’s a good thing, because everyone in today’s economy is being asked to do more with less."

An additional factor in choosing Bell and Howell, Bowie says, was the variety of training and educational opportunities made available to customers. "Things are always changing, so it’s good to hear from others in the industry what’s going on, and how we’re preparing for major changes at the Post Office and in the mailing industry," she says. "We have sat in on a webinar that Bell and Howell had recently, and we’ll continue to participate in those as we see the need to get up to speed with different things."

Bowie expects to see a return on Security Finance’s Bell and Howell investment within the first year of implementation, she says. "We’re at the tip of the iceberg, as far as being able to utilize it, and as we continue to learn and process jobs through the software and get more interaction, we’re going to get more and more out of BCC Mail Manager Full Service."

At a Glance

Client

• Security Finance

Headquarters

• Spartanburg, SC

Specialization

• Financial / Marketing Communications

Bell and Howell Solution Set

• BCC Mail Manager Full Service
  √ FSP Unlimited premium option
  (NCOA^Link FSP processing)
• Professional Services (on-site consulting)