Westpac Accelerates Equipment Finance Deals
How Exari helped Westpac achieve a ten-fold improvement in loan approval response times
As anyone who's ever tried to take out a loan will tell you, "fast" is not a word that you would associate with the process. Typically, you have to track down all sorts of financial (and non-financial) information, enter it (numerous times) into numerous documents, sign your life away (in front of a "witness"), and then wait anxiously to be approved (or rejected, as the case may be).
Well, at Exari, we've been working with Westpac's Equipment Finance division (also known as WEF), to develop WorkFAST, an Exari-powered online system that reduces loan approval time by capturing customer information in a centralised place and automatically generating the relevant customer documents for non-complex deals (which comprise about 80% of WEF's business). And Westpac's stakeholders love it.
Management benefits
For management, WorkFAST has enabled WEF to become a more competitive force in the market. According to Emily Zilic, WorkFAST Project Manager, "WEF customers are receiving more competitive turnaround times for credit decisioning, document preparation and issuing, and employees now have more time to work on new business."
Customers benefit
"Time is of the essence for the majority of customers. As documents for non-complex deals are now system-generated, the lengthy hand-over process has been eliminated, improving WEF's customer response time 10-fold," Emily said. "New and repeat customers are impressed with faster turn-around times and the easier-to-read paper work."
Employees benefit
Lily Grinberg, a Business Lending Manager in WEF Sales and Support said employees love the new user-friendly system. "Now, credit decisioning can happen in roughly 30 minutes, rather than what used to be a 48-hour turnaround, and deals can be compiled, decisioned and documented in hours rather than days." According to Lily, WorkFAST has provided opportunities for WEF to write more business and created happier customers, thanks to a speedier, more efficient online system.
Managing change
Of course delivering the right technical solution is only half the battle. Successfully handling the change management issues associated with introducing people to new or automated business processes can often be far more difficult. It's for this reason that we, at Exari, take our hats off to the WEF team. They had the vision to identify a better way to serve their customers; the energy to engage the stakeholders and sell the vision; and the skills to map out new processes that empower (rather than stifle) staff members.
