Nedcor Home Loans has implemented a sophisticated workflow system to improve the Home Loan granting and registration process thereby improving client service, speeding up turnaround times and reducing costs. The R10 million project, encompassing processes from initial home loan applications through to bond registration, is also expected to help the company realise a 30% productivity gain.
Staffware, a global business process and production workflow solutions provider, in partnership with Dimension Data, has implemented the workflow system.
Dimension Data, a strategic partner of Staffware in South Africa provided prime contractorship, project management and skills such as integration and middleware.
About 450 users are already using the solution and, when it eventually goes enterprise-wide, will cover 18 000 users, according to Mark Ehmke, managing director of Staffware South Africa. The rollout to three of Nedcor Home Loan`s branches will be completed in November, and the system will be deployed countrywide during the first half of next year.
"The Home Loans project, another strategic IT solution provided to the Nedcor Group by Dimension Data in conjunction with Staffware, will provide the bank with enhanced internal efficiencies and improved processes," says Mark Bowman, managing director of Dimension Data iCommerce Software. "The reduction in paper and speeding up of home loans process is a significant step forward in banking processes."
Explaining the solution, Ehmke says: "The solution picks up the initial application, which can come from a variety of sources such as estate agents, a fax or even an e-mail, and follows it through credit authorisation, risk assessment, property assessment, legal issues, capture of bond information and the end to end tracking of the process."
"A home loan application is a complex process with many options, variations, amendments and a large number of documentary requirements. Nedcor Home Loans needed a system with a high level of control, flexibility, scalability and enquiry capabilities," he says.
Ehmke believes Staffware was ideal for the solution because of its rapid development, integration capabilities with the company`s existing systems and its experience in successfully implementing similar projects worldwide.
Commenting on the high business value to be gained through such innovative solutions as the Home Loans project, Bowman says Dimension Data i-Commerce is partnering with an increasing number of companies as they move towards the interactive extended enterprise.
"Businesses today need cost effective, value generating and sustainable interactive software solutions to take them successfully beyond their own borders and into the electronic business future. Through our partnerships, services and skills base, we are able to provide this."
The Home Loans solution comprises Staffware 2000 and Staffware Enterprise Objects which is embedded into existing applications, and runs on MS Windows NT with a MS SQL Server database.
Staffware South Africa has a long history within the Nedcor Group, first winning an evaluation at Nedcor Group Insurance Brokers on the basis that it had to replace an existing product in time to take a project live within three weeks. This was achieved, fully tested, trained and implemented successfully, with NGIB seeing a return on investment in three months.
Ehmke says the news of this success soon spread through the entire Group. "We began to receive phone calls from other companies within the Group. It was at this point that a joint decision was made to identify a business area where Nedcor could gain the most benefit and at the same time test the Staffware product scalability and robustness. The Home Loans division was identified which led to the commission of a pilot project within Nedcor Home Loans.
"The beauty of the Staffware product set is that it is a business tool owned by business people and not the IT department. Staffware is fast to develop, easy to maintain and highly scalable," he says.
The site has become Staffware South Africa`s first Staffware Enterprise Partner (StEP) customer. This is an exclusive program for customers who commit to a strategic future partnership with Staffware, the company. The partnership ensures that both Staffware and Nedcor are aware of and influence each other`s future strategic workflow directions.
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