Dublin-based CRM provider to the finance industry Fineos has signed a contract to deploy enterprise-wide imaging and business automation technology to Northern Rock, the UK’s most cost-efficient mortgage bank.
The deal comes on the heels of a five year business relationship between the two companies and was awarded after an open-market bid process and an exercise to prove the return on investment.
As a result, Fineos’ banking technology will be deployed across Northern Rock’s entire credit and savings divisions. The bank had originally been using an earlier version of Fineos’ CRM technology for sales opportunity management since 1998 in Northern Rock Direct, the bank’s phone-based sales operation. The new project is focused on introducing a straight-through process for the bank’s new business and administrative processes.
The first phase of the deal, which has already gone live, enables documents like letters and application forms to be scanned, indexed and intelligently routed with appropriate tasks to the bank’s corporate-wide administration and sales staff. The aim is to reduce manual intervention as well as physical storage overheads.
Phase two of the project will see the bank implement sophisticated business process automation technology to define and update business processes, embed auto-decisions and ensure adherence to consistent process rules.
As part of the workflow process, electronic forms will enable the bank to securely capture, store and retrieve structured data and route tasks accordingly. This will ensure that sales opportunities are distributed and managed effectively and that revenue streams improve.
“The key bonuses for Northern Rock in this project are the improvements in efficiency and reductions in costs that an automated and paperless environment will deliver,” said Lesley Sewell, IT operations director at Northern Rock. “With the Fineos solution in place, we can reduce transaction cycle times and the costs associated with each transaction. Our customers will be happier with the faster service and we can minimise our cost base while allowing our staff to concentrate on more value-based work.”
By John Kennedy
