With seven branches in northeast Ohio including, Medina, Canton, Akron, Wooster, Brecksville, Westfield Center and Cuyahoga Falls, Westfield Bank has established itself as a Buckeye State mainstay thanks to its deep community roots and commitment to personalized service.

However, growing a bank in northeast Ohio does not come without its own set of challenges, particularly those related to document management. Westfield Bank acquired two financial institutions in 2012 and 2014. The first aquired institution mantained a robust electronic document management system that was different than what Westfield Bank used, whereas the second institution did not leverage electronic document retention at all.

More Data, More Problems (Initially)

Mary Weakland and Eileen Cook, Westfield Bank's Vice President of Operations and Strategic Initiatives Manager and Bank Records Manager, respectively, recognized how difficult it was to manage their bank's current data - while simultaneously absorbing the large amount of new data from the aquisitions.

"We had a small amount of electronic, deposit- related and consumer loan documents, but we also had so many files cabinets full of paper that adding more file cabinets as we continued to grow wasn't a realistic option," said Weakland. "On top of that, we needed to figure out how to manage the first aquired bank's electronic donuments while simultaneously capturing documents from the second aquired bank."

The bank had their work cut out for them, and they needed a reliable partner to help get the job done.

"We had a lot of big pieces to move, and we needed a solid partner to help us do it. That's why we began working with Identifi toward the end of 2014," said Weakland.

Definitive Data Management ... in Phases

Westfield Bank and Identifi worked together to conquer the bank's monumental data management tasks in four phases:

"Thankfully, we moved to a robust system when we moved to Identifi, and they worked well with our team at the bank to handle the movement and mapping of all that documentation," said Weakland.

Weakland said it was a multi-year project to get everything from all three banks scanned sorted and mapped into Identifi's platform, but they were able to accomplish the project smoothly and on a schedule that benefitted the bank.

One of the reasons this project met such a succeessful conclusion is because Identifi's platform integrated seamlessly with Westfield Bank's core.

"Within our core, there is a custom Identifi button our staff can click that essentially opens an extension of what they're already working on," said Cook. "They don't see Identifi as a different application from the core. That made acceptance and training easier."

This smooth integration also paved the way for future projects, including the creation of custom workflows that would have a huge impact on the bank's business processes.

Weakland added that moving to the cloud also gives the bank much more control over the system than they had previously, which has led to faster and more efficient deployment of new Identifi services, including E-signatures.

Online E-Sign

The bank has a niche market that has customers located across the country. The bank needed electronic signature abilities in order to expedite capturing signatures for this market. Identifi E-Singatures was chosen to facilitate meeting this need. Little did the bank know that a pandemic was in the horizon.

"E-Signatures became a tremendous advantage for us when COVID hit last year," said Weakland. "We had a much easier time helping 800 customers who were needing immediate payment relief and handling the closing of approximately 1700 SBA PPP loans.

A Partnership Paying Dividends

Westfield Bank is enjoying flawless data management, powerful custom worklows, automated processes, and simplified product deployment and so much more because of the collaborative, supportive and responsive partnership they enjoy with Identifi.

"Anytime we need anything from them, they're very fast to help us," said Weakland. "Even if they don't have the fix, they at least respond to us that they're working on it and will keep us updated."

"There are so many vendors that are just not a joy to work with. I cannot say that about Identifi," said Cook. "I always have someone to call and I know I'm going to get help immediately."