Gray Television Cuts Costs, Increases Efficiencies and Takes Back Control with iStream

Background
Gray Television, Inc. is a television broadcast company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, whose primary mission is to provide quality news and entertainment services to the local markets in which the Company operates. Gray currently operates 36 television stations serving 30 markets and reaches approximately 7 million U.S. households. Each of the stations are affiliated with either CBS (17 stations), NBC (10 stations), ABC (8 stations) or FOX (1 station). In addition, Gray currently operates 38 digital second channels including 1 ABC, 4 Fox, 7 CW and 16 MyNetworkTV affiliates plus 8 local news/weather channels and 2 "independent" channels in certain markets.

Having such a large network of stations and markets, Gray processes a significant volume of checks daily and experienced several complications with lockbox services.  The complexity and costs associated with their lockbox payment processing system didn’t provide Gray the flexibility they needed as a growing broadcast company. The company was dealing with several process issues including deposits going into the wrong account and the tedious, time-consuming activities and expenses they incurred to correct mistakes. Gray knew as the company would grow, the problem would grow, there had to be a solution to regain control.

Selection Process
Gray Television needed a reliable innovative payment processing solution that would allow them to take back the control of a process that was rapidly costing more time and money as their business grew. Gray’s senior management team performed extensive research for options available on the market and determined that a Remote Deposit Capture (RDC) solution could work within their organization.  However, given the massive amount of payments processed daily at Gray, it was essential that the RDC product be easy to use, flexible and less expensive. The extensive search process for the best vendor took Gray to the annual RDC conference in Washington, DC that featured the top vendors for this growing solution; Gray found 6 third party candidates that seemed to fit the bill.  But ultimately after a long due-diligence process that involved various meetings and product demonstrations, Gray chose iStream Financial Services.

The iStream Financial Services Answer – One Solution, Flexible for Banks and Businesses

“Two things really stood out about iStream immediately – the cost and their solution is bank independent - gave us back control.”

Key features of iStream’s remote deposit infrastructure that immediately impressed Gray included the following:
•    Value Proposition – The iStream solution was less expensive than others on the market and Gray got so much more in return.
•    Control – iStream is bank independent.  This ability to “bank by choice” gave Gray control of their payment processes without being tied to a single financial institution.  In addition, Gray recovered complete control over the receipt process saving time and money in bank and account reconciliation.
•    SAS 70 - iStream was the only vendor under consideration that had a SAS 70 Type II. As Gray is a publicly traded company, this was a must, as it should be for any size business. A SAS 70 defines the professional standards used by a service auditor to assess the internal controls of a service organization and issue a service auditor’s report. A Type II service auditor’s report includes the service auditor's opinion on whether the specific controls were operating effectively during the period under review.
•    Retention of Images – iStream retains images up to 7 years via the online “self-service” data center, something other vendors couldn’t provide.  This user-friendly system improves or replaces existing tedious processes with simple, dynamic data searches.
•    Compatibility - iStream products are compatible with a variety of scanner manufacturers and scanner types.
•    Long History – iStream offered a long established successful history with a variety of businesses and banks than the other vendors evaluated through Gray’s due diligence process. Gray called every reference provided to see how iStream was working for them. The credibility and reinforced customer satisfaction of iStream’s solution was a huge factor in Gray’s decision to choose iStream.

Simple Technology, World-Class Implementation Team and Customer Management
Gray has been in business since the early 1950’s. Implementing an entirely new system for the accounting team seemed like a major undertaking for the organization. In addition, as a publicly traded company, Gray had compliance and reporting requirements that needed to be handled with the utmost care.  The Gray team did have some trepidation about a new processing system and were concerned about how simple the iStream technology really was.

“The iStream implementation team and managers held our hands through this entire process and I still can’t believe how easy it is to use the iStream solution.”

The Gray team viewed three demos with iStream, then made their decision and quickly began a plan for a phased implementation at full volume numbering 900 checks in one day.  As with any implementation, the first month of processing had a learning curve. But the Gray team couldn’t believe how amazingly simple the iStream solution was. Gray started with a few of their stations at first and quickly was able to get all 31 stations on board and eventually realized processing such a large volume of checks through iStream was incredibly flexible, simple and user-friendly. The iStream staff worked closely with Gray to determine the best way to customize their solution to their needs and each week the processing got easier.

“The ease of the processing and reporting far surpassed my expectations.”

Conclusion – over $150,000 saved each year for flexible, scalable system
One major factor for Gray Television was the value proposition and ROI of the iStream solution – the company was pleasantly surprise that iStream offered more flexibility, customer service and options but was less expensive than competitive products.  In total, the Gray team estimates they will save $150,000 in processing expenses utilizing the iStream solution over a wholesale lockbox system.