AFCA needed to modernize its aging, customized set of systems to unify data and increase efficiency with automation.
Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Customer Service ushered in a new era of security and scalability with customer satisfaction at the forefront.
Today, invoice creation is 80% faster, daily administrative tasks are reduced by 40%, and the number of emails that require a manual response has dropped by 27%.
The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) is an independent, not-for-profit, non-government organization that offers free, independent, and impartial dispute resolution for consumers and small businesses that haven’t been able to resolve a complaint directly with a financial firm. AFCA’s ombudsman service is offered as an alternative to tribunals, courts, and costly legal fees. To improve the customer and employee experience and strengthen the company’s security stance while reducing IT costs, AFCA turned to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance, Supply Chain Management, and Customer Service.
The transition to Dynamics 365 has been a game-changer for us. We now have a unified view of our customer data, which will improve customer engagement and their satisfaction overall.
Patrick Williamson, CIO, AFCA
AFCA was formed in 2018 to bring Australia’s three national ombudsman schemes under one umbrella to address complaints about loans, credit cards, investment advice, insurance, superannuation, and other financial services. AFCA is required by legislation to operate in a way that’s accessible, independent, fair, accountable, efficient, and effective for consumers and its members. AFCA’s more than 45,000 members include banks and credit providers, insurance companies, investment and financial planning firms, superannuation funds, and other financial service licensees, some of which are required to be a member and others that joined as part of a commitment to accountability in their dispute resolution.
For years, the organization relied on a highly customized on-premises case management system named CASEY, alongside an equally tailored finance system called Attache. Additionally, it maintained MIDAS for membership management and CODEX for code compliance. While CASEY and Attache generally functioned well, both systems had become so outdated and customized, that they could no longer be updated and required hosting on external servers to keep them operational. The lack of modern features was frustrating, and AFCA experienced issues with siloed data.
The system didn’t integrate with customer case management and member data that was stored in other locations. Employees had to perform many financial tasks in spreadsheets and manually upload or enter data in Attache.
Forecasting and business insights reporting were heavily manual, time-intensive processes and the legacy finance system didn’t support further improvements to processes that would meet security and privacy goals.
The system’s lack of integration with the organization's telephony service made connecting customers and members to the right department or person a convoluted process and updating case records with telephony information quite frustrating.
As the organization did not have a consumer portal, complainants couldn’t check the status of their cases without calling. This resulted in higher volumes of calls to the call center and delays in providing complainants with case status information, the lack of system integration meant leaving the caller on hold to conduct an inquiry to multiple systems.
The organization's system couldn’t take advantage of new features and modern capabilities like AI and copilots to support customer service agents and automate repetitive or time-consuming tasks.
Constrained by its limited, aging systems, AFCA needed to address the gaps in the service it could provide and accelerate the resolution of complaints. To keep up with demand, better align with industry best practices, and standardize procedures for more efficient operations, leadership began searching for a modern, cloud-based solution.
The organization determined that Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft Azure for data management, and Microsoft Power Platform for building low-code customer portals made the most sense in terms of cost and economies of scale.
Michael Jessopp, Senior Manager of Business and Enabling Solutions at AFCA, says that the organization launched the project with a clear vision, telling employees, “This transition reduces operational risk, supports scalability, and equips us with future-focused technology that benefits our organization, members, and customers.”
AFCA went live with Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management in 2022, followed by Dynamics 365 Customer Service in 2024 to modernize its customer relationship management (CRM) software. In addition to upgrading the existing member web portal with Power Pages, a new consumer portal went live at the same time.
This transition reduces operational risk, supports scalability, and equips us with future-focused technology that benefits our organization, members, and customers.
Michael Jessopp, Senior Manager of Business and Enabling Solutions, AFCA
As Patrick Williamson, CIO at AFCA, explains, “The transition to Dynamics 365 has been a game-changer for us. We now have a unified view of our customer data, which will improve customer engagement and their satisfaction overall". The new system is allowing AFCA to offer a higher level of service to customers and members across Australia, with transformative results.
Connecting finance with customer service has been a big win, according to Jessopp. All payment activity and other status updates are visible in one place.
Case workers or users are more easily able to do tasks themselves rather than requesting administrative support from the case support team, which has meant a reduction in daily tasks by roughly 40%.
Dynamics 365 Customer Service automatically routes email inquiries to the right agent or team. The number of emails that hit the general inbox and require a manual response has dropped by 27%, freeing the support team for higher-value tasks. Other automations refer complainants immediately to financial firms after their complaint is submitted. Complainants save two business days on average, and the customer service team has fewer incoming calls for new cases, saving up to 15 minutes per call.
Dynamics 365 and Power Platform have minimized our technical debt and increased our agility whilst providing a seamless, self-service customer experience.
Patrick Williamson, CIO, AFCA
In the past, purchase orders were disconnected from invoices and payment approvals were chased down through email. Now, out-of-the-box features connect procurement and accounts payable, and processing moves automatically from one person or department to the next in their dashboard or email client. Dynamics 365 integrates closed member cases as multi-line sales orders, which flow into a single invoice for each member firm every month. Leadership estimates that the improved processes have reduced the time required to create monthly invoices from six hours to just 60 minutes, which is approximately 80% faster.
The legacy system required users to sign out when certain activities, such as monthly invoicing, were underway. Now, the system is always available. Permission-based access ensures that sensitive information is protected, mitigating risk for the non-profit organization. And having all company, customer, and member data housed securely in the Microsoft cloud takes the pressure off AFCA to monitor and maintain aging software and servers.
AFCA is now able to view at-a-glance insights on near-real-time dashboards, thanks to Power BI and Dynamics 365. From budget forecasting to call resolution assessments, teams and leadership have the information they need to make the best business decisions, maintain regulatory compliance, and improve service.
Both the member and customer web portals provide up-to-date information about complaints, payments, and resolution status for all parties involved.
With phone and email communications now in the same customer management system, timestamps and other case details are more accurate. The browser-based solution makes it easy to have different screens and folders open simultaneously, instead of switching between tools or signing out and in throughout the day.
Williamson sums up AFCA’s experience this way: “Dynamics 365 and Power Platform have minimized our technical debt and increased our agility whilst providing a seamless, self-service customer experience. We are becoming more self-reliant and confident with the tools every day.”
Committed to the ongoing evolution of the new platforms, the focus moves to enhancing the systems in ways not possible on the legacy platforms. The IT team aims to deliver further enhancements, automation, and efficiencies to provide greater benefits to its users, consumers, and members. According to Williamson, Dynamics 365 offers a foundation that will enable us to take advantage of all the product has to offer and further improve service delivery, operational excellence, organizational agility, and stakeholder experience.
AFCA is still in the early days of its new customer service tools and web portals, but more innovation projects are in the pipeline for 2025. Leadership is determining an AI governance policy for the organization. When it’s completed, the team hopes to take advantage of tools like Microsoft Copilot to automate more processes, assist with administrative tasks, and make use of machine learning to reveal deeper insights and trends about the organization's industry, members, and customers.
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