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Innovative Systems' News & Events |
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Press ReleasesHondruAuto Achieves Compliance Success with eWatchLine™ Innovative's online compliance solution helps automotive dealership reduce time and costs associated with OFAC and telemarketing compliance Pittsburgh, PA - April 29, 2004 - Innovative Systems, Inc., a global provider of customer data integration solutions, today announced that HondruAuto is successfully using eWatchLineä to comply with the customer screening and identification mandates of the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the State of Pennsylvania's Telemarketer Regulation Act. Since using eWatchLine, HondruAuto has significantly reduced the time and costs associated with its compliance and monitoring activities. Automotive industry watchers report that at a time when dealerships are feeling the pressure of decreasing margins, they are also experiencing rising compliance costs. Automotive dealerships are one of the many business groups impacted by the U.S. Treasury's customer screening and identification requirements. Dealers are required to compare all prospective car buyers' names against the OFAC list of blocked parties to ensure that they do not do business with anyone on the list. Violations can result in ruined relationships with creditors, prison time and/or fines up to $10 million. Additionally, dealers in many states must adhere to telemarketing laws that prohibit businesses from calling individuals that have registered with the state's 'do-not-call' administrator. Businesses that violate the Pennsylvania telemarketing law, where HondruAuto is located, can be fined up to $3,000 per transgression. HondruAuto turned to Innovative's online compliance solution to help the company automate its expensive and time-consuming compliance processes. eWatchLine facilitates quick and reliable name checks, and significantly reduces the time and costs of checking customers' names against the OFAC and Pennsylvania do-not-call lists. Innovative hosts the interactive Web site and provides automatic updates to the lists. The compliance solution offers an integrated scanner that allows HondruAuto representatives to simply scan name information from a driver's license, or enter name information via the Web site's search function for checks that can be performed in seconds. Completing the turnkey solution, eWatchLine maintains a comprehensive activity trail that enables managers of HondruAuto to create detailed audit reports that support compliance management and reporting functions. "eWatchLine has solved a challenging problem for us," said Pete Hondru, president of HondruAuto. "The question was never whether or not we were going to comply with these important mandates; the question became how do we do it in a way that least disrupts operations and keeps costs manageable. eWatchLine is an ideal solution for us. It completely offloads the list update and management functions, and keeps electronic records for audit purposes, which allows us to focus on our business. The time of our telemarketing searches has been reduced tenfold because of eWatchLine, not to mention the confidence we've gained knowing that we have comprehensive and reliable screening programs in place." According to Jeff Canter, Innovative's executive vice president of operations, "Innovative recognized the challenging compliance environment that industry groups like automotive dealerships faced and set out to deliver a simple, reliable and cost-effective solution. By combining the power of our proven compliance technology with the convenience of Internet access, eWatchLine reduces the time, costs and risks of compliance. We are happy that it's delivering these positive results for HondruAuto." eWatchLine is a subscription-based compliance service of Innovative Systems that provides on-the-spot name checks to meet the unique screening requirements of businesses such as automotive and vehicle sales dealers, travel agencies, real estate firms, and jewelers, among others. Clients can subscribe to the service on an inquiry transactional basis, or by purchasing a preset number of inquiries. For additional information on eWatchLine, visit www.ewatchline.com or contact Debbie Nahm of Innovative Systems at 800-622-6390 ext. 7657 About Innovative Systems, Inc. Since 1968, companies worldwide have relied on ISI’s data quality software, systems integration, database solutions and customer information process consulting. The company has set the standard for data quality management in thousands of customer-centric projects utilizing the firm’s services and software for creation and maintenance of customer-centric databases. Innovative Systems is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with European offices in London, and representative offices in Brazil, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, and the Middle East. ISI software supports both UNIX and IBM operating systems in interactive and batch modes. Its screens can easily be adapted to any language, and its software supports Unicode. ISI has completed projects in more than 30 countries in seven natural languages – with additional languages added on demand. The Innovative Systems Web site is located at www.innovativesystems.com. Company Press Contact: Trademark Notice |
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