What you need to know

• Beyond Bank is transitioning off a legacy lending system that has been in place for over 20 years. The project team, including Wendy Den Hartog, interim chief operating officer who was the senior loan fulfilment manager when the project began, faced a hard-stop deadline for implementation.
• The transformation project involved key stakeholders from various departments, including product, marketing, data and technology, and was sponsored by the interim CFO, Tony Maughan.
• The new lending system aims to enhance operational efficiency and maintain competitiveness in a digital-first market, supporting multiple channels including branches and online services.
• Integration challenges are being addressed with Boomi’s integration platform, linking loan fulfilment systems with the bank's CRM and core banking systems.
• The project has already modernised the home loan process and added e-signing features, with a second phase focusing on personal loans, credit cards and overdrafts.
• The new system has significantly reduced loan processing times from approximately 14 days to as little as 24 hours, improving speed and efficiency in loan approvals.
• Enhanced accountability and transparency through detailed reporting and monitoring of loan applications are now in place, fostering trust with customers.
• Beyond Bank's digitisation efforts have saved over 400,000 pieces of paper, contributing to reduced costs and a smaller ecological footprint.
• Employee feedback on the transition has been overwhelmingly positive, highlighting the ease of managing applications and improved support for customers.

Many organisations face the daunting task of transitioning from systems approaching obsolescence to innovative solutions that meet customer needs for world-class online - and offline - experiences. That was the challenge facing the team at Beyond Bank. Adding to the complexity, the project faced a hard-stop deadline.

To give a sense of the complexity of the change, key stakeholders in the project team included representatives from product, marketing, data and technology in a project sponsored by then COO and now interim CFO, Tony Maughan.

Grappling with a lending system that had been in place for over two decades, and with that hard delivery deadline closing in, the organisation embarked on a transformative journey to implement a next-generation online lending platform. 

"We've had legacy system that had been in place for over 20 years, that's a very old system, and it was at its end of life," according to Wendy den Hartog, interim chief operating officer, of Beyond Bank. At the time of the project she was the senior loan fulfilment manager - and a key stakeholder.

Den Hartog was subsequently appointed acting chief operating officer, ironically, the role previously held by the transformation project sponsor.

"We certainly had to find a new lending system for all types of lending we support. But also we had a time limit on when we had to be out of the legacy system," she said.

This strategic move not only aimed to enhance operational efficiencies but also to ensure the institution could remain competitive in an ever-evolving market, where digital capabilities and customer-centric services are no longer optional but essential. As Beyond Bank navigated this significant change, the focus was clear: To invest in a future-proof solution that would elevate service offerings and streamline processes across all channels, from branches to digital platforms.

"We are very much about supporting our customers' needs. So all of our channels are relevant and important for us. Our branch channel is very important, as is our online digital channel and our broker channel," said den Hartog. "It was about finding a solution that would support all of our needs. They are all very important, and they all bring in significant business for us."

That's a complex environment to transform, with integration a key challenge. On the tech side, the bank leaned into Boomi’s integration platform to link up its loan fulfilment systems in a hub-and-spoke model that also connected to the bank's CRM, the NextGen ApplyOnline lending platform, and its core banking systems. The team also set up Boomi APIs to help automate how data is retrieved, making the loan fulfilment process much easier and more user-friendly.

With this new data setup in place, Beyond Bank kicked off the second phase of its loan origination project in August. This phase is all about digitising and simplifying personal loans, credit cards, and overdrafts. It builds on the first phase of the project, which has now wrapped up and focused on modernising the home loan process and adding e-signing features.

Increased Efficiency and Speed

At the heart of Beyond Bank's transformation is the new lending system, which has streamlined processes and significantly reduced turnaround times for brokers and customers alike.

"Because we have auto-decisions built into our system when a staff member is loading a loan, they basically get an indication of the loan as they submit. Obviously, there may be conditions about what needs to be provided, but we have really tried to make sure that we focus on our auto decisioning in our system to provide efficiency and speed success for the customer. So that's definitely improved already for our customer," den Hartog said.

This shift has dramatically improved efficiency, enabling loans to be approved or denied within a day, compared to the lengthy processes of the past. With the new system, the bank has reportedly cut down its total processing time from about a fortnight to closer to 1-2 days.

"We've significantly reduced our total process, and we've taken 14 days out of our total end-to-end process and we removed about 35 points of duplication or the re-entry points  So with our SLAs [service level agreement], we're turning around our documents - which is a key measure in the broker space-  in under 48 hours."

Indeed, den Hartog said even 48 hours is rare now. "It's within 24 hours, or within the day that we're turning them around and that's the same for our our approvals - they're turning around in a much quicker time."

Accountability and transparency

Prior to the changes, the existing processes required a lot of manual uploading, copying, and scanning, continued den Hartog. "With the implementation, a lot of that data now is straight through, and we get more detailed reporting, which helps with regulatory reporting, with internal insights and information."

With the new system in place, each step of the loan application process is monitored and tracked. The application platform includes specific SLAs for every milestone, enabling the bank to maintain high standards and accountability. Daily reports provide insights into performance metrics, ensuring that all teams are aware of their responsibilities and can easily track progress. This level of transparency builds trust with customers who can see that their applications are being handled efficiently, said Den Hartog.

In an era where sustainability is increasingly important, Beyond Bank's digitisation efforts have also yielded significant environmental benefits. By reducing reliance on paper - over 400,000 pieces saved - the bank is not only cutting costs but also minimising its ecological footprint, she said.

The transformative changes have not gone unnoticed by employees. Feedback from staff has been overwhelmingly positive, highlighting the effectiveness of ongoing training and support throughout the transition. 

"We did a feedback survey from the staff on what they liked and also with the view on what else can we continue to focus on to change. That feedback was very positive about how much easier it's made their day [and how much] easier it is to manage their applications and workload and to support the customer," den Hartog added.