A. EZswitch is a middleware solution that enables your customers to access their most current account balances and immediately view ATM/Debit transactions performed by these customers on Vision Inquiry and other related products (e.g. Internet Banking).

A. There are many benefits in implementing an EZswitch solution. Some of these include:

• Stand-in authorization capabilities when PCS Vision is unavailable. This includes limit checking and accessing positive balances that include the latest PCS Vision transaction activity. (Stand-in authorization functions require EZswitchPlus).
• The CSFi system sequence number is displayed in the PCS Vision graphical & character user interfaces providing the capability to identify transactions on both systems.
• Detailed transaction research capabilities using CSFi's query builder electronic search function.
• By using different 'teller codes' in the XML message, CSFi can offer better transaction descriptions in PCS Vision (only implemented at PCS RMD Center at time of this publication)
• Completions are matched to the original pre-authorizations, thus dropping the original memo post and replacing with the final amount.
• Holds on cardholder accounts drop off when hard posts are processed at end of day.
• Reversals post to the same account as the original transaction.

A. No. EZswitch provides an online interface solution that eliminates the need for your EFT Network provider to send a daily transaction posting file. Instead, EZswitch accumulates ATM/debit transactions during the online day and then automatically sends a transaction posting file to Vision at the end of your business day.

A. There is no substantive difference that will affect your financial institution. The name change is solely for future marketing and feature/function packaging purposes.

In the future, CSFi will be marketing EZswitch as a lower cost on-line ATM interface with no stand-in authorization, limit checking or ATM/debit card file management. EZswitchPlus will be marketed to provide full functionality including stand-in authorization, limit checking and ATM/debit card file management. u/SWITCHWARE® will be marketed to financial institutions who desire in-house ATM terminal driving support.

For more information about u/SWITCHWARE click here.

A. The interface between EZswitch and the EFT Network is designed where the EFT Network will know if EZswitch is unavailable for processing. At that time, the EFT Network will stand-in based on predetermined limits established by your financial institution. An EZswitch backup system is strongly recommended to reduce down time and avoid EFT Network stand-in fees.

A. Yes, EZswitchPlus uses the most current memo post balance available from Vision including during the period of batch and accrual. There is only a short window of Vision memo balance unavailability while Vision is performing a balance file update during batch and accrual processing.

A. Yes. You need to contact your Precision Computer Systems account manager who will be able to provide you with complete costing information for EZswitch and any required Vision components.

A. A backup system is recommended so new releases of software can be implemented with minimal impact to your financial solution. When a backup system is available, the new EZswitch software can be installed on the backup system, tested and then certified. When testing and certification is complete, the backup system can be used as the production system. After this, the previous production system can be updated to serve as a backup system.

If a backup system is not available, implementing new releases of software is more challenging. Available options include:

• Purchase a new permanent backup server, contract with CSFi to setup the server, install the server on your network and then perform the necessary implementation steps.
• Contract with CSFi to perform a server swap where a temporary server is obtained, setup at CSFi’s headquarters and then shipped to your financial institution to perform the implementation steps.
• - Inform your EFT Network that they will need to perform stand-in authorization for an extended period of time while your upgrade is being performed. This method results in extended downtime, stand-in fees and potential exposure of authorizing against card limits or old balances (if balances are available during stand-in).

A. EZswitch does not include support for additional institutions therefore an upgrade to EZswitchPlus would be required.

A. The amount of elapsed calendar time to install an EZswitch system is generally four months from contract signing. The actual amount of time is contingent on existing installation schedules, prior commitments and also the timeliness of hardware deliveries and user-supplied forms submittal.

A. Implementing EZswitch provides your financial institution with a very powerful system that can be used for an ATM/debit online interface to Vision. Benefits of this interface include:

• Providing access to a single account balance (EZswitch and EZswitchPlus)
• Ability to support a single point of card maintenance entry (EZswitchPlus)
• Stand-in authorization when Vision unavailable for processing (EZswitchPlus)
• ATM/Debit card file management including limit checking, unique ATM and POS limits, card issue default and VIP limits, transaction level control, account level control (EZswitchPlus)
• Fraud prevention (EZswitchPlus)
• MIS reports (EZswitchPlus)

An upgrade is also available to support in-house ATM terminal driving resulting in considerable benefits.

A. There are many benefits of processing your own ATM transactions in-house. Here is just a brief summary:

• You will immediately realize a cost savings by not paying your third party provider transaction fees to process your own transactions
• You can generate fee income by acquiring foreign transactions at your ATMs
• You can improve your customer dispute resolution by having immediate access to your ATM/debit transaction data as it occurs.
• You can improve your ATM network uptime as you will have direct in-house control of your EFT monitoring and alerts. You will no longer have to rely on middlemen to notify you of the problem and the resolution.
• You can eliminate recurring costs for equipment used by your ATM network such as modems, protocol converters, etc.
• You can eliminate miscellaneous costs such as a per card fee for a third party to maintain your card account file
• You will have the ability to support advanced ATM functionality such as no envelope cash/check deposits, remote key loading, EMV smart cards, etc.
• You will enjoy renewed autonomy as YOU will govern your own destiny and not rely on a third party to run your ATM self-service business
• You will enjoy better speed to market and have control over when new services will be offered to your customers
• You will have complete control over your ATM network from monitoring their availability and usage to viewing why transactions may have been denied
• You can institute measures to better compete with your competitors and offer better customer service as you can now dictate the types of services that will be available to your customers
• You can better understand your customer’s through detailed MIS reports

Financial institutions of all sizes can benefit from in-house ATM terminal driving. In fact, many financial institutions with small ATM populations have easily justified in-house ATM terminal driving. These financial institutions are realizing cost savings, fee generation and customer service benefits without adding staff members or increasing their internal operations burden.

If your financial institution currently operates your core system in-house, you will have absolutely no problem managing your ATM network in-house…CSFi has the case studies and reference sites to prove it.

A. Yes, EZswitch can be upgraded with additional software modules that will enable your financial institution to enjoy the benefits associated with directly controlling your ATMs and processing the transactions in-house.

A. There are many benefits of processing your own ATM transactions in-house. Here is just a brief summary:

• You will immediately realize a cost savings by not paying your third party provider transaction fees to process your own transactions
• You can generate fee income by acquiring foreign transactions at your ATMs
• You can improve your customer dispute resolution by having immediate access to your ATM/debit transaction data as it occurs.
• You can improve your ATM network uptime as you will have direct in-house control of your EFT monitoring and alerts. You will no longer have to rely on middlemen to notify you of the problem and the resolution.
• You can eliminate recurring costs for equipment used by your ATM network such as modems, protocol converters, etc.
• You can eliminate miscellaneous costs such as a per card fee for a third party to maintain your card account file
• You will have the ability to support advanced ATM functionality such as no envelope cash/check deposits, remote key loading, EMV smart cards, etc.
• You will enjoy renewed autonomy as YOU will govern your own destiny and not rely on a third party to run your ATM self-service business
• You will enjoy better speed to market and have control over when new services will be offered to your customers
• You will have complete control over your ATM network from monitoring their availability and usage to viewing why transactions may have been denied
• You can institute measures to better compete with your competitors and offer better customer service as you can now dictate the types of services that will be available to your customers
• You can better understand your customer’s through detailed MIS reports

Financial institutions of all sizes can benefit from in-house ATM terminal driving. In fact, many financial institutions with small ATM populations have easily justified in-house ATM terminal driving. These financial institutions are realizing cost savings, fee generation and customer service benefits without adding staff members or increasing their internal operations burden.

If your financial institution currently operates your core system in-house, you will have absolutely no problem managing your ATM network in-house…CSFi has the case studies and reference sites to prove it.

A. Please contact your Precision Computer Systems account manager who will be able to provide you with complete costing information for any required Vision components. Generally, there is a Vision on-line ATM interface (Enterprise Service Bus - ESB) and a Vision runtime license that is required. In addition, PCS will normally require a block of professional services time in order to certify the on-line ATM interface with Vision.

A. The interface between EZswitch and Vision is designed where EZswitch will know when Vision is unavailable for processing. At that time, EZswitch will send a sign off message to your EFT Network and the EFT Network will stand-in based on predetermined limits. EZswitchPlus is able to perform stand-in authorization using its own limits and the current balance file.

A. Yes, EZswitchPlus uses the most current memo post balance available from Vision including during the period of batch and accrual. There is only a short window of Vision memo balance unavailability while Vision is performing a balance file update during batch and accrual processing.

A. EZswitchPlus uses the most current memo post balance available from Vision. There is only a short window of time when a memo update job is being run during batch and accrual when Vision balances are unavailable. Depending on the size of your financial institution, this period of unavailability will range somewhere between thirty seconds and two minutes.

A. The average amount of time expected is normally twenty hours. Most EFT Networks certify in two hour periods per day over a two week period.

A. You will need to contact your Precision Computer Systems account manager who will be able to provide you with the details.

A. Available EFT Network interfaces include:

• Core Data
• E-Funds
• Elan Financial Services
• Fifth Third
• Fiserv EFT (Base24 Platform)
• Fiserv CNS (EPOC Platform)
• Genpass
• Metavante
• NETS
• NYCE
• Pulse
• Shazam
• Star (NE Platform)
• Star (SE Platform)
• Visa DPS

A. You need to contact your Precision Computer Systems account manager who will be able to provide you with complete costing information for EZswitch and any required Vision components.

A. There is a one time fee for the software license, ancillary software/hardware components and system integration and implementation costs. After one year, there is an annual usage fee that also entitles you to software upgrades and technical support.

A. Please contact your Precision Computer Systems account manager who will be able to provide you with complete costing information for any required Vision components. Generally, there is a Vision on-line ATM interface (Enterprise Service Bus - ESB) and a Vision runtime license that is required. In addition, PCS will normally require a block of professional services time in order to certify the on-line ATM interface with Vision.

A. Generally, most EFT Networks are going to charge for their time to certify the on-line ATM authorization connection to your financial institution. Check with your EFT Network for the exact details and costing.

A. You will need to contact your Precision Computer Systems account manager who will be able to provide you with the details.

A. OLCM is an acronym for On-Line Card Maintenance. OLCM is designed to provide seamless card maintenance operations between the EZswitch™Plus On-Line ATM/Debit Issuer System and the Vision™ banking system. OLCM automatically passes card maintenance updates from Vision to the EZswitchPlus cardholder database. The updates are used by EZswitchPlus when performing; stand-in authorization, positive card file limit and balance file checking.

System Requirements:

• CSFi EZswitchPlus 3.11.2 or greater
• PCS Vision v07.02 or greater

Benefits:

• Seamless card maintenance between EZswitchPlus and Vision
• Reduced number of card maintenance entry points
• Synchronized card files that contain current data
• Reduced training with fewer user interfaces to learn and use
• The ability to support single point of card maintenance entry (see 'Single Point of Card Maintenance Entry' for more information

A. For EZswitch, ATM and Debit cards are added in the same manner as a PBF/batch file environment. New ATM/debit cards are entered on Vision and then an administrative workstation with access to the EFT Network’s database.
For EZswitchPlus, ATM and Debit cards are entered on Vision and OLCM is used to automatically update EZswitchPlus' with the card maintenance activity.

A. For EZswitch, ATM and Debit cards are maintained on Vision and then an administrative workstation with access to the EFT Network’s database. For EZswitchPlus, ATM and Debit cards are maintained on Vision and OLCM is used to automatically update EZswitchPlus' cardholder database with the card maintenance activity.

A. EZswitchPlus enables a financial institution to support a single point of card maintenance entry using a combination of OLCM and a card maintenance update mechanism automatically exchanged with EFT Network. EZswitch sites would require an upgrade to EZswitchPlus.

Please see the EZswitch comparision chart for a complete list of EFT Network card maintenance files supported.

A. With EZswitch, the card must be marked as hot on Vision and the EFT Network’s administrative workstation. With EZswitchPlus, the card will be marked as hot on Vision and be updated on EZswitchPlus via OLCM. EZswitchPlus will then send an online message to the EFT Network informing them that the card has been marked to a hot status.

A. EZswitch detects when Vision is unavailable for authorization through the on-line ATM interface. When EZswitch detects that Vision is unavailable, a sign-off message is sent to the EFT Network who then can perform stand-in authorization. When EZswitch determines that Vision is again available for authorization, a sign-on message will be sent to the EFT Network. This entire process is automated and requires no manual intervention by your financial institution.

A. The interface between EZswitch and Vision is designed where EZswitch will know when Vision is unavailable for processing. At that time, EZswitch will send a sign off message to your EFT Network and the EFT Network will stand-in based on predetermined limits. EZswitchPlus is able to perform stand-in authorization using its own limits and the current balance file.

A. The interface between EZswitch and the EFT Network is designed where the EFT Network will know if EZswitch is unavailable for processing. At that time, the EFT Network will stand-in based on predetermined limits established by your financial institution. An EZswitch backup system is strongly recommended to reduce down time and avoid EFT Network stand-in fees.

A. Performing proper balancing procedures is a responsibility of your financial institution as the methods used to balance can be different for every financial institution. EZswitch provides settlement reports that can assist you in determining that your transactions were processed properly. There is also documentation available that will assist you with your balancing procedures.

A. There are three settlement reports supplied with EZswitch. These reports are automatically transferred to Vision and normally sent to your optical system. These reports include:

• Institution Report
• Switch Report
• Suspense Report

There is also a reconciliation subsystem that is supplied with EZswitchPlus and an available option for EZswitch. The reconciliation subsystem takes electronic settlement report data generated by your EFT Network and automatically compares it against the EZswitch transaction log. Any discrepancies (unmatched transactions) are quickly identified and reported for reconciliation activities

A. An EZswitch backup system eliminates down time and avoids EFT Network stand-in fees. A backup system is also used for upgrading to new releases of EZswitch software and certifying new services that may be offered by CSFi and/or the EFT Network.

A. A single server is provided with EZswitch as the production system. It is always recommended that a backup system be obtained to guard against downtime if a production system hardware error is encountered. The backup system provided opportunity to repair the production system. The backup system also provides an opportunity to upgrade to new software releases as they become available.

A. There is a backup utility that exists on the EZswitch server that unloads the database and transfers it to the u/SNAC or an alternative platform of your choosing. This backup utility is run on a schedule that is determined by your financial institution. After the backup transfer, you can follow your standard internal procedures which may include transferring to a portable media for off-site storage.

A. There is a file that is generated by the backup utility that can be extracted to restore your database.

A. EZswitchPlus includes a server with mirrored disks (RAID 1) so the disk is recoverable in the event of a failure.

A. An entry level desktop server is provided with EZswitch and an enterprise level rack mount server with EZswitchPlus. The entry level desktop server is used for EZswitch to lower overall costs and is more than capable of processing the transaction loads for the typical EZswitch financial institution. The enterprise level rack mount system additionally includes disk mirroring and larger hard disks providing additional performance for the larger financial institutions with increased ATM/debit transaction activity and a larger number of ATM and/or debit cards issued. Either server should provide substantial transaction/card growth opportunities for their respective financial institutions.

A. Even if your computer room is already protected from power disruptions or outages, it is recommended that our UPS system be implemented. The reason for this is that the CSFi-supplied UPS contains orderly shutdown software that interfaces to the EZswitchPlus system (an option with EZswitch). In the event of an extended power outage, the UPS communicates with EZswitchPlus telling it that there has been a power outage and that the UPS is using battery power. EZswitch then uses a preset timer to determine whether the server should be shut down preventing unwanted corruption of files.

A. u/SNAC™ is an acronym for a multi-purpose Windows™ PC that resides at your data center and performs several critical functions. The primary function is to provide a workstation for network monitoring and control but other important functions include serving as a platform for the u/SNITCH™ automated notification system and u/VOLTDS® Network Services client.

u/SNAC™ PC is a standard component supplied with EZswitchPlus and an option for EZswitch.

For more information about u/SNAC click here.

A. u/SNITCH™ is an automated monitoring tool that continually watches a variety of EZswitch components including the authorization connection to Vision, your EFT Network connection(s) and also the EZswitch application and server on which it resides.

u/SNITCH™ operates on CSFi’s u/SNAC™ PC and interacts with the bank’s e-mail server. Connection to the EZswitch server is accomplished with a standard Ethernet network interchange card.

For more information about u/SNITCH click here.

A. u/VOLTDS® is a software application layer that resides on the same server as EZswitch and manages communication nodes and message delivery to/from EZswitch. This includes the host authorizer connection to Vision, the switch interface connection to your EFT Network and any ATM terminal interface connections. The Network Services client is a client application that enables communications node viewing and management.

For more information about u/VOLTDS click here.

A. EZswitch does not include support for additional institutions therefore an upgrade to EZswitchPlus would be required.

A. The standard technical support program (CARE) includes access to technical support services during CSFi’s normal business hours (M-F 8-5 EDT/EST). Contact information for technical support services are:

Email: Customer Service
Fax: (941) 371-5223
Web: Web Support                 (Secure Access Site-Password Required)

Our Internet-based web support system’s incident (ticket) submittal is monitored during normal business hours to ensure timely resolution of the problem. The web support system can also be used after normal business hours to:

• View existing frequently asked questions (FAQs)
• Generate trouble tickets that include a reference number
• Submit general questions
• Submit system change requests (SCRs)
• Request system enhancements
• Request new products

Customers that require technical support services after normal business hours may subscribe to a Silver or Gold 24-hour technical support plan.

Silver Plan
This plan includes an annual subscription to CSFi's 24 hour support services. The subscription allows the customer to utilize after hours support services as necessary. An hourly usage fee is billed as the services are utilized with a one hour minimum billing per call placed.

Gold Plan
This plan includes an annual subscription to CSFi's 24 hour support services. The subscription allows the customer to utilize after hours support services as necessary. There is no hourly usage fee associated with this plan.

Upon subscribing to either of the 24-hour plans, the customer is provided with a telephone support number (888) 876-4194 USA Customers and a special access code that must be entered to contact CSFi technical support staff directly.

The telephone access numbers are also posted on CSFi’s web site. Click here.