supportive membership   |    financial security   |    improved control   |    catalyst for change

Amnesty International UK receives 250,000 Direct Debit payments from supporters and members every month, representing 90% of its total income. Underpinning this payment process is ALBACSip from Albany Software, which provides the high level of Public Key Infrastructure and Smart Card-based security required for an organisation managing high volumes of bank account details.

Furthermore, the organisation is using the download facility within ALBACSip to transform its management of the 5,000 - 8,000 rejected transactions every month through electronic receipt of Direct Debit related messaging. This reduces the time-consuming manual overhead and leverages timely information to rebuild lapsed memberships.

supportive membership

Founded over 40 years ago, Amnesty International (Amnesty) is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognised human rights. It undertakes research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination, within the context of its work to promote all human rights. Amnesty has a varied network of members and supporters around the world - with over 1.8 million members, supporters and subscribers in over 150 countries.

In the UK, Amnesty has over 275,000 members and supporters, and it is the contributions from these supporters that fund the organisation's activities. As Adrian Stockman, Financial Controller, Amnesty International UK, explains, "Amnesty takes almost no money from governments or private companies, virtually all income comes from individual supporters. Indeed, 90% of our income is provided by members via Direct Debit therefore ensuring we have a reliable robust payment infrastructure is essential."

To provide that resilient infrastructure, four years ago Amnesty adopted the ALBACS payment system from Albany Software. "One of the primary reasons for moving to Albany Software was the quality, resilience and reliability of the ALBACS solution," he says. "Our previous supplier was unreliable and had no vision for future developments. The quality and integrity of the Albany software underpins the collection of 250,000 Direct Debits from Amnesty supporters every month."

Furthermore, by combining ALBACS with Albany Software's eCONNECT to automate the payment of suppliers and provision of remittance advice via fax or email, AI attains significant financial benefits. "Replacing a cheque with Bacs payment saves 25 pence per transaction," Stockman confirms. "Using eCONNECT to automatically transmit remittance advice saves a further 70 pence per transaction. With upwards of 400 supplier payments each month, Amnesty is saving almost £5,000 each year."

financial security

The product confidence and strong relationship with Albany Software also proved key when the organisation faced upgrading to a BacsTEL-IP compliant version of the payment software to meet deadlines enforced by the clearing house, Voca. Amnesty's own belief in the quality of Albany's ALBACSip solution was further enhanced by a recommendation from Voca directly. Stockman says, "Because Amnesty has such a high volume of DD submissions, Voca came to discuss the migration to BacsTEL-IP, and confirmed Albany Software as one of the suppliers most geared up for the technology change, which reinforced our own views."

The organisation experienced a seamless transition to the new ALBACSip software, with the users rapidly adjusting to the new Smart Card based system replacing the old Bacsafe box. The organisation exploited the new implementation to streamline its authorisation processes to gain further benefit.

Based on Public Key Infrastructure technology, ALBACSip provides a significant improvement in security which has been welcomed by Amnesty. As Stockman confirms, "Security is a critical issue when dealing with 250,000 people's bank details every month. Amnesty has to be sure there is no chance of exposure." Adding, "Any charitable organisation dealing with voluntary financial contributions has a high obligation to minimise the risks of exposure to fraud or other financial malpractice. Amnesty has excellent controls in place and the adoption of PKI and Smart Cards is reinforcing the security of our finance processes."

improved control

The organisation is also leveraging the online reporting of DDs provided by ALBACSip to improve its financial control. Every month the organisation receives up to 250,000 Direct Debit payments from supporters - and experiences between 5,000 and 8,000 rejected transactions a month. These are due primarily to supporters cancelling DDs or changing bank accounts without informing the organisation.

Prior to the introduction of the new system, Amnesty had one full time person dedicated to manually inputting the failed DDs into the finance system - yet was still failing to update information in time. As a result DD transactions were being rejected month on month because the organisation did not have time to correct the underlying problem and volumes were, unsurprisingly, continuing to increase.

The availability of online reports has transformed this process. The information is automatically updated from ALBACSip into the finance system and the organisation assesses the cause of the DD failure. "We then use a telemarketing agency to get in touch with the supporter and see if we can resuscitate the membership," he says. "In the past we simply could not provide the agency with relevant information fast enough to make those calls worthwhile. Now we can provide the information within a day or two, which is delivering real value."

catalyst for change

Having already gained significant financial and productivity benefits from its investment in Albany's technology, the adoption of ALBACSip in 2004 has also prompted Amnesty to undertake a significant review of its processes within finance. As Stockman says, "Once the IP protocol became a standard component of the finance solution it became rapidly apparent that Amnesty could gain further benefits in both time efficiency and reduced costs by overhauling our processes. It was a real catalyst for change."

He concludes, "A robust payments infrastructure is the foundation of Amnesty; the organisation is totally reliant on receiving DDs on time, every month. Over the past two years Albany Software has not only provided a highly reliable payment solution in the form of ALBACSip but also delivered significant benefits in both cost and time, and acted as a catalyst for fundamental change throughout the organisation."