Exceptional Results in Financial Services

THE CHALLENGE 

Company Executives identified the need to streamline administrative functions between US and Canadian divisions and centralize the activities in the corporate head office. However, the new department was not prepared to handle the centralization due to a lack of consistent processes and system tools to follow-up on activities critical to branch offices and borrowers. This was manifested through a steady stream of requests throughout the day from branches and borrowers to switch to higher priority work.

THE RESULTS

Through the design and installation of a Management Operating System to move information smoothly and provide visibility to information throughout the processing of a mortgage, the project achieved the following results:

• 52% improvement on savings outlined in the original agreement
• 31% improvement in schedule attainment of documentation turnaround
• 42% improvement in productivity
• 50% reduction in time dedicated to unplanned work

Some of the key process changes driving these improvements included:

• Reorganization of the department resources to better service both branches and borrowers
• Reducing the quantity of checks in both new loans and renewals processes while not exposing the company to any additional risk
• Streamlining the tax audit process for mortgages
• Consolidation of the remittance and legal functions to dedicate higher skilled employees to critical functions
• Removing multiple unnecessary steps from the insurance tracking process
• Standardizing the Canadian and American process for loan closing to take advantage of economies of scale
• Creation of a process to provide forward visibility to the closing status of mortgages so that closing issues can be resolved before it is too late in the process

The team worked one-on-one with employees throughout the implementation to ensure the long term sustainability of these changes, a point that was not lost on the key Executive sponsor of the project at the time of project close.

“While Carpedia is no longer here physically, we experience its presence on a daily basis. I have no hesitation in recommending Carpedia to any organization, which is genuinely interested in sustainable profit improvement.”