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Case Study: Intelligent Finance Debt Manager Implementation
This study describes Arum’s engagement with IF in 2001/2 implementing Debt Manager on a green field site. IF’s manual systems were set up quickly during business start up and had become overloaded and unreliable. It should be noted that, from the outset, these systems had been scheduled for replacement.
The Challenge
A major driver in IF’s strategy from launch in year 2000 involved implementing user friendly online systems to handle and maintain all aspects of their business and support Jim Spowart’s vision of the ‘Online Bank’. In this respect, the area of Debt Management and Recovery had been left to run manually until well into 2001 mainly because of new business pressures elsewhere. Manual spreadsheets and processes supported this side of the business but these systems were literally creaking at the seams as early as mid 2001 as new business had boomed following the bank launch in 2000. IF recognised early on that this was a potential risk to their business and engaged Arum with the brief that these manual systems be replaced urgently.
The Outcome
Working in close partnership with IF business and key IF analysts, Arum utilised internal and introduced new procedures to manage the design, delivery and implementation of Debt Manager. The system met quality standards while working to a challenging timetable - a live DM system in production in approximately 10 months. Typically 15 months is a reasonable timeline for such an implementation.
Graeme Mackie, Credit Control Manager at Intelligent Finance said:
“The automated Debt Collections System was the largest single project implemented in Intelligent Finance during 2002. The commitment, flexibility and technical skills demonstrated by the Arum Systems team throughout the project were key factors in a successful delivery into production.”
How did we achieve this successful outcome?
By understanding IF’s business and working closely with the IF team to coordinate all aspects of the planning and implementation. Key to the success was our partnership and the cooperation with and support we received from the many technical teams within Intelligent Finance and a number of outsourced service providers. Our in depth knowledge of the Debt Manager product and history was key to a realistic planning schedule for the implementation and managing the expectations of the IF Business teams.
Here’s how we resolved our challenge. First, some homework on company background to help our understanding of the customer.
Organisation Background
Intelligent Finance, a division of HBOS plc, launched as a new start online bank in November 2000 and now offers a range of personal and SME banking services - over the internet, by phone and with professional advisers. The bank enables customers to offset their borrowings against their savings and is now the leading and largest offset banking provider in the UK. By June 2003, the bank had three million accounts, total lending at £14.5 billion and total customer deposits standing at £3.8 billion.
Project Outline
Intelligent Finance had identified the requirement for the implementation of a major new automated debt collections system and this formed part their business plan for 2001. The project was a large scale complex change and included:
- Specification of a large amount of completely new functionality;
- Procurement and configuration of a major new third party software product;
- Integration of this product into existing systems;
- Purchase and implementation of new hardware;
- Management of a number of third parties as well as internal development.
Project Challenges
The main challenge for the project was the pressing need to replace the temporary manual systems and processes which had been put in place to support debt management with minimal impact on the BAU (Business as Usual). A challenging timeline was put in place and it was clear that a successful outcome would require good practical planning and management – disciplined Project Management.
Our Role
Arum Systems provided Intelligent Finance the core project team for the implementation consisting of an experienced project manager and key technical resources. The Arum PM took ownership of the delivery of all IT elements and additional business process and ensured the team worked closely with IF Business and internal analysts to customise Debt Manager, the chosen solution from London Bridge Software (now Fair Isaac).
Project Delivery
The project successfully delivered:
- Hardware to support the Debt Manager system
- Debt Manager software implemented
- A fully configured Debt Manager system to meet Business requirement
- Processes and documented procedures to support Debt Manager
All delivered to quality standard in a demanding timescale.