Austell Gas System Deploys Payment Processing Solution from Aperta and Parascript to Automate Check Processing and Collection of Charitable Donations

LONGMONT, Colo., May 9, 2011/PRNewswire/ -- Parascript, LLC, the image analysis and pattern recognition technology provider, today announced that Austell Gas System, a natural gas distribution company in Georgia, U.S., has implemented Aperta's Visual Remittance and Payments Application (VRPA+), which incorporates Parascript's check and form recognition software. The integrated solution allows Austell Gas System to automatically process payment stubs and checks, as well as charitable donations from customers electing to give one, three or five dollars on top of their bill to a local non-profit organization. Using the technology, Austell Gas System processes up to 5000 payments per day with recognition rates of over 90 percent.

The integrated technology enables Austell to process payment stubs with checks, checks with account numbers only, multiple checks with one payment stub, and single checks with multiple stubs. Additionally, the application allows Austell Gas System to scan and recognize charitable donation information, including check boxes with donation amount, account numbers, and business dates of the donation on the remittance stub. The information is stored in a database for 12 months, when reports and IRS notifications are generated. Thanks to the solution, the company has achieved significant labor savings and a reduction of time spent processing and balancing payments received.

"At Austell Gas, providing excellent service and giving back to the local community, including offering customers the ability to contribute, is important to us, but processing all of the information was becoming overwhelming.  The solution from Aperta and Parascript not only met our needs regarding the collection of donations but it also reduced the workload in the data processing department.  This allowed employees to devote their time to other important objectives in serving our customers. We have benefited from the implementation in more ways other than originally intended and are extremely satisfied with the ROI achieved," said Bryan Shick, director of customer services for Austell Gas System.

Aperta's VRPA+ uses state-of-the-art document imaging technology to reduce the labor required to capture, correct, balance, and process checks and other payments with accompanying documents. Parascript's check recognition software reliably reads Courtesy Amount/Legal Amount (CAR/LAR), along with other fields regularly encountered on checks, increasing speed and accuracy. Parascript's form processing software can recognize alpha, alphanumeric, numeric, date, amount, and checkbox fields as well as tables with these fields on virtually any type of form.

"We are very pleased to have answered the needs of Austell Gas with a complete solution to process their payment stubs and capture donation information," said Rick Thomas, regional manager for Aperta. "Through our partnership with Parascript, as a leader in the recognition space, we are able to offer a combined document imaging and recognition technology that directly addresses our client's need for greater efficiency and a rapid return on investment."

"At Parascript, we are well-known in the financial space for applying our advanced recognition technology to help facilitate remittance and payment processing.  Processing of charitable donations along with regular utility bills is just one more application where we can provide a unique solution.  We were happy to work with Aperta in identifying Austell's needs and in providing an integrated technology that surpassed their expectations," said Mike Fenton, vice president of sales and operations for Parascript.

About Austell Gas System

Austell Natural Gas System, a.k.a., Austell Gas System, established in 1954, is a natural gas distribution utility. Austell Gas System is a component of the City of Austell, Georgia, and is governed and administered by the Austell Gas Board. Austell Gas System serves residential, commercial and industrial customers in the cities of Austell, Douglasville and Powder Springs and in portions of Cobb and Douglas Counties.

About Aperta

Established in 1992, Aperta is an innovative company that has grown to become an acknowledged leader in payment processing solutions and applications for the commercial, public sector, banking and financial marketplace. Aperta item processing applications are installed in many countries in Africa, Europe, North America, Central and Latin America. For more information, visit www.aperta.com.

About Parascript, LLC

Parascript delivers the world's best Image Recognition Engine. Employing patented digital image analysis, handwriting analysis and advanced pattern recognition technologies, Parascript improves important business operations in areas like forms processing, medical imaging, postal automation, and fraud prevention. The powerful Parascript engine processes over 100 billion imaged documents per year. Fortune 500 companies, postal operators, major government, and financial institutions rely on Parascript products, including the U.S. Postal Service, Böwe Bell + Howell, Fiserv, Elsag,  Lockheed Martin, NCR, Siemens,  and Burroughs. Visit Parascript online at http://www.parascript.com.

SOURCE Parascript, LLC