By Ron Daly, DigitalMailer, Inc.
I have a garage attached to my house. There's a door that slips into the kitchen and a workbench, and just enough space for my two cars.
I keep just about everything in there. There's the lawnmower, the tennis rackets and basketballs, the garbage cans...all the stuff that typically belongs in the garage.
The garage does its job and does it well; when you have to store something you can't keep in the house for space reasons, you throw it in the garage. There are a few things however I would never keep in the garage. I wouldn't keep my daughter's birth certificate in a box of old Christmas decorations. I wouldn't keep my mortgage paperwork in a drawer in my work bench. I wouldn't keep my will under an old oil pan.
There's a better place for all of those documents. It's called a safe. Sure, a safe has less storage space. But space isn't the only concern. There's security to consider. How safe can you keep a document in a space that stays open most of the day? That nearly anyone can access? But what would happen if the garage (and the house) burned down? I can count on the fireproof safe to keep all those documents in good condition until after the fire dies.
I'd never confuse the garage and the safe.
So why am I telling you this? It’s simple and convenient today to store and access applications, files and data in the cloud. But is it as secure as it needs to be? Cloud providers design their services to meet electronic storage and file-sharing needs – and they do it very well – for its intended purpose.
You need to think of you and your members’ favorite cloud provider as a garage. If you store important documents like tax returns, birth certificates or medical histories in the cloud, it could be a problem waiting to happen.
I’ve been in the financial industry for 33 years and I know what you know. Protecting financial data is critical…. AND the cloud doesn’t offer the security we demand.
The problems present in today’s cloud storage solutions provide a huge opportunity for your credit union. What better place to store critical financial documents than with your trusted financial partner, in your credit union’s online safe.
Whether incorporated as a stand-alone product or integrated into online banking, or an existing electronic document-management system, implementing a secure, online storage service helps position credit unions as their members’ lifetime financial partners. By offering your members the ability to load important files into a protected document library, you add value, build trust and deepen relationships.
The clouds are clearing for online storage services specifically for important papers. What are you waiting for?
Ron Daly is the president/CEO of DigitalMailer, Inc.
A Safe of Your Own
Starting in September, CUES members can get their own "safe" - a 25MB My Virtual StrongBox account for their own files, absolutely free. Members experience the safety, security and convenience of an online safe deposit box system - via a browser OR the custom iPad app. Upload documents with the iPad camera into your My Virtual StrongBox account today.
My Virtual StrongBox is easy to implement without displacing your existing technology. For more information on how to bring My Virtual StrongBox to your credit union, visit the product website or sign up for our weekly webinar.
