JSE-listed Ixchange, via its business unit Hill Cunnington, is nearing completion of a custom-designed loan system that interfaces with its standard AccountAbility application for Agribank. Once it is complete, Agribank will be able to customise and tweak the system to suit the way it conducts its business as and when the need arises.
Agribank is a government-subsidised bank created by an Act of Parliament in 1981 to finance black farmers in then Bophuthatswana. It caters specifically for short-, medium- and long-term loans for small farmers.
Although the North West government provides it with about 30% of its R17-19m-a-year administration budget, Agribank provides 100% of its R43m-a-year loan funding without help from the provincial givernment. Farmers borrow money for items such as farm equipment, tractors, seed and cattle feed.
The bank is headquartered in Mmabatho. In addition, it has five branches and five agencies serving the region.
Acting financial manager Malick Mather says the bank had run two applications: Flexgen for debtor management, and AccPac for accounting, cashbook, creditors and general ledger management. Flexgen has a customised submission application to enable branches and agencies to submit applications for loans via the WAN.
The submission application enables Agribank`s internal assessors at head office to see the farmer`s or client`s potential yield, which rates the loan applicant`s creditworthiness. Based on this information, the assessor decides whether or not to approve the loan.
"We were seeking a system that could integrate the two systems to make them function as one," says Mather. "We approached Ixchange/Hill Cunnington with our specifications and they could develop a debtor system that seamlessly interfaces with standard AccountAbility. AccountAbility has replaced AccPac while the new loan application will replace Flexgen. The system will run on our existing SQL Server database via our NetWare LAN and Diginet links to the branches."
AccountAbility has gone live, while the customised new loan application is in testing at head office and one of the Mmabatho branches and is due to go live in September.
Ixchange consulting manager Shoaib Patel says Agribank will benefit extensively from time saved since the previous system had a high quotient of data capturing duplication.
"Information from the two old systems has been easily migrated to the new one using our data transfer utility, AdaptAbility," says Patel. "Assessors can make decisions regarding granting of loans at branch level due to the availability of rating information via the new custom-designed debtors module."
There are 32 users live on the system, with a long-term plan to have 150 users.
In the second phase, Hill Cunnington will implement a customised order application that will help the bank administer purchases and payments to farmers` suppliers. In the longer term, customised investment, submission and security systems are planned.
"We have a fully integrated system, modified to enable us to do business the way we want to," says Mather.
Patel adds: "As a government-aided organisation, Agribank`s main concern is to help uplift the North West farming community. We have helped the bank with a solution which it can eventually manage and customise itself. In addition, staff are being trained on a train-the-trainer basis. They have set up their own training rooms, and are training their users themselves."
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