What is the primary benefit of using either of these, or any other, census tract mapping and reporting products? I've yet to visit with a sales rep, but I am under the impression that one or more individuals will still have to manually enter some data, or look up the census tract number for the customer's property address. As a large bank, for CRA reporting purposes, it ain't gettin' any easier, so maybe it's time to pay for some help. Any comments or recommendations from users? You may reply to me personally if you don't want to stir up a hornets nest.

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You may reply to me personally if you don't want to stir up a hornets nest.

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It depends on what you want. These are certainly two leaders and don't discount Don Narup's products.

Benefits, you set up sufficient data entry into the mainframe so that you extract records and upload them into a program without re-keying everything. Census tracts are verified. Reports are automated for analysis, maps can be drawn and market shares analyzed in tables and maps. You can review lending patterns, where you are successful and where you are not.

There are many uses and advantages. Talk to the reps, demo the products and I'm sure you will be pleased with the output, so long as you intend to USE the data for more than filling in a few blanks and checking off a to do list of items. My thrust is, there is a lot of info available if you use the tool.

Whoops, I forgot to do the log-in thing. Thanks for the suggestions Andy. - Dwight

I've reviewed both, and chose to stay with Wiz because my examiners use the product. In about 22 seconds I can pull a set of reports that show me EXACTLY where I stand in the eyes of a CRA examiner. My demographics are there, market share, peer market shares etc. I'd pay millions for this report alone. (It's only a couple of hundred bucks as an add on to the program).

As to data entry. In all programs you're going to have some data entry. Geocoding is the primary area for this. I can't speak for Don's product, but hit rates for Centrax and PCI Wiz run about 70 to 75% with the appropriate filters on a geocoder. If you're running at 100%...your filter isn't being used as it should be.

I found centrax and wiz to be fairly similar so it came down to costs, costs to change, and viewing my world in the same way as my examiners see it. Also, I really like my rep (Carl Gern if you're looking for someone at PCI). The previous rep was why I started shopping around for a new program...so you shouldn't underestimate the value of their client services. You'll talk to these folks more than anyone else when converting your data, and in running the programs.

I'd schedule time to talk to Don Narup, Someone at PCI and someone at Centrax. Discuss your desires for the program, and get a feel for what they can do for you, and go from there.

On PCI and Centrax...major negative is that they both tend to release programs before their time. We do spend some time questioning the data, and often it's computer glitches in a newly released issue that cause the problems. It seems to be an industry issue...gad knows why!

We researched and purchased software while still a small bank for CRA purposes. Cost, training and support were a large part of the decision. We're now a large bank.

Both products are good, and as Dawnie says, CRA Wiz is used by the regulators. We chose Centrax, though. The price was right, the software did everything and more that we wanted, and the support is unbelievable. All training is free, and since you're in Dallas - you wouldn't even have travel costs.

We were impressed with their commitment to fast, valuable, accurate service. They're good at answering the tough questions, and will work at problems until they're resolved to your satisfaction.

Centrax software will produce the same types of analysis that CRA Wiz will - so even though the report won't be identical to what your examiner has, the information on it should be.

The amount of manual input is usually a function of your core processor. Centrax (and I imagine CRA Wiz) will help you set up the download definitions.

I'm not usually one to sing a vendor's praises - but Centrax has a great product, and they live up to their marketing. The one limitation would have to be their mapping function. It's pretty difficult to use. I haven't used Don's services for this (yet), but I hear he's awesome on this.