Nedbank Ltd
Workflow solution for Nedbank Personal Loans division
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Company Overview
Nedbank Personal Loans is responsible for the bank’s micro and personal loans of between R2 000 and R40 000. Prior to the implementation, the division used a manual, paper-based system, which was time consuming and impacted on employee’s productivity levels. Intervate, a Microsoft Gold Certified partner and provider of business process automation and workflow systems, has implemented a solution to streamline processes within Nedbank’s Personal Loans division.
Business Challenge
Prior to implementation of Intervate’s workflow solution, personal loan applications were paper-based and manually processed. Consultants in one of Nedbank’s 200 countrywide branches would record the loan application details, using an internal custom-developed risk-based pricing solution. Forms were then printed and signed by the applicant and faxed – along with all other relevant documentation – to the bank’s head office.
All such faxes were sent to a mailroom, where the documentation would be printed and distributed among relevant staff members for processing. Each application was then manually processed in a paper-based environment. After that, hard copies of the documentation would be stored for future reference.
This paper-based system had severe limitations, which resulted in unnecessary delays and affected the volume of work that could be undertaken by the division, as time was spent in physically relocating files and resources. Thus, it would take approximately five to seven working days for an application to be processed from the branch application to disbursement or payment phase.
Solution
“When deploying this solution, we made the decision not to undertake a radical re-engineering of the existing process, as we wanted to ensure that the system was familiar to users,” says Belinda Rathogwa, project manager at Nedbank Personal Loans division.
“As we had elected to shift to a paperless environment, we also took the decision to spend time on upskilling staff particularly those in mail room, many of which had been non-PC based. It was very important that the solution provide ease of use for all users and levels of technology familiarity,” adds Rathogwa.
To address these requirements, Intervate developed the solution using Microsoft’s .NET development platform and the K2.Net workflow engine. The system presents an easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI), with various departments within the division logging into user interfaces of the Web-based workflow solution. Each individual interface facilitates the completion of the tasks required by each department.
Nedbank Personal Loans elected to partner with Intervate to develop an automated technological solution to streamline the activities involved in processing an application. Intervate undertook a needs analysis with the organisation and spent time within each department to establish the nature of the process at its various stages. This enabled Intervate to create a preliminary design for the workflow solution.
In addition, Nedbank provided Intervate with a detailed specification sheet, highlighting the organisation’s requirements and expectations. The system also had to automate the division’s workflow processes, enable measurement and tracking and provide a totally paperless environment.
“Intervate participated in the project as team and project members, rather than outside suppliers. The division’s business users interacted with Intervate regularly, allowing the development team to gain an understanding of the people for whom this solution was being developed. This supported the development of a solution that addresses real business requirements and matches the needs of the people on the ground,” says Andrew Souchon, IT manager for Nedbank’s Personal Loans division.
To address these requirements, Intervate implemented a custom .NET solution. All PCs within the division were upgraded to Microsoft Windows XP, which meant that all staff members could enter the same portal front page and then the area dedicated to their specific job function. Here, staff members are able to identify queued tasks awaiting action.
Intervate’s solution automated Nedbank Personal Loans processes, by sending all faxes from branch offices to a fax server – an element of Microsoft Windows 2003. This has meant that mail room users are therefore able to log onto the mailroom area on the system, which now includes a queue made up of faxes that have originated from the fax server and are automatically displayed correctly users. Due to the indexing of faxes, quick linking is enabled and staff can display each section or page of a fax individually. All checks associated with the mailroom job role are listed in a customisable check list which includes aspects such as whether a document is legible.
Once all mailroom tasks have been completed and checked, the application is automatically sent to the next department in the process – simply by clicking on a button. When this occurs, the solution automatically ensures that all mandatory fields have been checked. If so, the file is then sent on to the bank’s assessment department.
Within the assessment division, a decision is made as to whether to approve or reject an application, based on the information provided by the branch office. As all applications are marked according to their status, extensive reporting capabilities are provided and management is able to source metrics on the volume of loans granted, declined or refused by clients – thus enabling the division leadership to identify any internal challenges.
If an application is not approved but falls within certain parameters, it can be sent to the specialised credit department for further investigation and possible granting of the loan. However, if a loan application is approved, it is automatically sent to the verification department via the workflow solution.
The verification department is required to complete a number of mandatory tasks. Here all relevant data, such as employment and salary information, is personally verified by a Nedbank Personal Loans staff member, all of which is presented via the workflow solution.
In addition, the system allows this department to record all calls to relevant contacts listed on the application and bank details and account verification can conducted on an ad hoc basis or in batches – processes which are automatically managed by Intervate’s solution. Once this data has been verified, the application is transmitted to account setup staff, where administrative staff creates an account on the Nedbank mainframe.
When the account has been created, the application is sent to disbursement set-up, where payments, to be made, are scheduled on the Nedbank payment system. The disbursement division then makes the payment and the system automatically sends all welcome documentation to the client. From here, the loan is sent to application filing, where the file is closed.
There are also a number of departments and processes supported by the workflow solution, such as the quality assurance, help desk, and investigations departments. While the investigations department investigates any fraudulent activity, the help desk provides customers with a call centre service and is able to conduct searches on applications and examine the audit trail for individual applications.
The quality assurance department manages all aspects of the process, undertaking general queries and implementing controls by checking random samples of applications. Thus, the process is checked and enables management to monitor the outputs of all departments. Reports available include:
| • | Out of policy applications |
| • | Appeals |
| • | Applications pending |
| • | Employee productivity |
| • | Employee queues |
| • | Approved applications |
| • | Process turnaround time |
| • | Channel reports |
As the initial system did not include a completely re-engineered process, the solution has been optimised over the period of one year; with further enhancements planned.
“The workflow solution has been and continues to be a work in progress. As we identify new requirements, manners in which to optimise the system and its performance and ways in which the system can assist in streamlining business processes, these are added to the application. This has meant that the solution has grown organically and in response to our business needs,” says Souchon.
The primary challenge for implementing the solution was not technically related, but rather based on the change management required to make the project a success. To address this potential drawback, Intervate and Nedbank Personal Loans worked together closely to ensure that employee buy-in to the project was secured from the outset.
Helping with buy-in was the fact that the design process was inclusive and interactive, with all levels of staff involved in laying out the functional specifications for the solution. Representatives were selected from each department and became involved in weekly design sessions, during which functionality and requirements were discussed, prioritised and selected for inclusion within the scope of the project.
“We ensured that users from the ground-level were involved in the requirements gathering sessions and testing. Additionally, a test system was deployed so that users could familiarise themselves with the system prior to final implementation. This generated a high level of involvement and a sense of ownership among staff which eased change management,” adds Belinda Rathogwa.
Further, the project co-ordinators within Nedbank were positive in their attitude to the system's development and the process of change management. Therefore, change management and technical problems were identified and addressed early – ensuring that no challenges occurred.
“We maintained an open dialogue with all staff members, as well as the Intervate team. A key component of this communication was the development of a peer assist program called TeamTorque. This involved the provisioning of additional training for identified employees who were then able to assist their peers in a non-threatening environment,” says Rathogwa.
Additionally, staff were encouraged to interact with the project team and provide feedback at all stages. Not only did this mean that employees were involved in the development of the solution – leading to increased receptiveness – it also assisted in creating a system that addressed the real day-to-day requirements of staff members. Thus, employees were immediately able to identify and recognise the benefits delivered by the solution.
Due to the extensive time and energy dedicated to process and needs analysis when designing the solution, technical challenges outside of the normal scope of development were not experienced. However, the success of the system did present a challenge in that the rapid growth in volumes experienced did lead to system performance challenges.
Further, the expansion of the database being utilised by the workflow solution led to slight bottlenecks when querying the database. Thus, Intervate needed to call upon its developer’s problem solving abilities to proactively track and monitor the system, to identify areas that could be improved to increase performance capabilities. These aspects were countered by streamlining the database and enhancing the solutions back-end coding.
Additionally, while a small pilot was conducted with a limited number of users, Nedbank Personal Loans elected to implement the system in one full-scale roll out – rather than in small iterative stages. Thus, there was no space for error once implementation had taken place. Therefore, the application underwent stringent pre-launch and beta testing in a simulated 'live' environment, to ensure that no down-time was experienced.
Business Benefits
The solution deployed by Intervate has presented Nedbank Personal Loans with a number of strategic benefits, which have allowed the company to provide an improved service to customers. Primary among these benefits is the fact that Nedbank is now able to accurately track and measure the work being undertaken by the Personal Loans division. Management is now able to gain a 360 degree view of the divisions operations and measure its critical success factors. This enables the identification of a host of elements, such as new products or resources required, and leads to inherent cost efficiencies.
“Analysts are provided with more powerful and improved decision making tools due to the increased amounts of data made available by the implementation of the workflow solution – which has proven to be a tremendous help from an operations and quality control perspective,” adds Souchon.
Further, productivity and efficiency have improved, as it is now easier for staff to track and manage files – increasing workload capacity. These productivity benefits have led to a reduction in turnaround time from five to three days, with a final target of two days envisioned with the roll-out of new functionality – scheduled for Q1 2006.
Sales throughput has increased by 161 percent, while resources have only been in increased by less than 10%. Thus, Nedbank Personal Loans had more than doubled its capacity and volume, with minimal increases in staff count and without placing a greater burden on existing employees.
Furthermore, the number of loan applications not taken up (NTUs) has decreased, as the division is able to service more applications in a faster timeframe and can therefore undertake to approve more applications – resulting in increased customer output as there is now a reduced risk of losing clients to competitors.
From an operational perspective, the workflow solution has allowed Nedbank Personal Loans to streamline – and in some cases completely change – the manner in which operations are conducted. An example of this is in the ‘post-disbursement’ environment, where queries on closed files required that a printed document be physically sourced from a storage environment. This had significant time and resource implications and presented a margin for error. With the implementation of this workflow system, Nedbank Personal Loans meets compliance requirements and enjoys the benefit of all loan applications being quickly and easily accessible should a query arise.
“Business involvement is a critical success factor for the implementation of a solution of this nature. Senior management – from the executive level down – must support the solution and assist project staff in generating staff buy-in and ownership. Of equal importance is the need to provide developers with clearly defined scope and specifications, as this enables a fast turn-around time on changes,” concludes Souchon.
“This has certainly been a clear example of the value of approaching a solution implementation as a partnership between the customer and supplier and Intervate is proud to have been a member of Nedbank Personal Loan’s team,” concludes Migal van As, CEO of Intervate.
