The Client aligned real business processes & calculations and adapted Aspekt Product Suite to corporate operations.
Summary
This Client is a Microfinance Institution, established in October 2007 with a mission to provide micro loans for small business development and housing i.e. to offer financial resources to entrepreneurs, who are not eligible for traditional bank loans, as a result of their small size businesses and also to influence the society with financial help for socially vulnerable categories by offering housing micro loans.
Before Aspekt, the Client used to process their daily operations in Excel Spreadsheets. As the operational volume increased through the years, the need for a reliable and more complex system was obvious. It was in a crucial period when Aspekt’s representative approached Client’s representatives to offer actual solutions to operational problems.
Challenge
The regulatory requirements in the origin country are very specific and prevent independent work of MFIs and in that manner all operations are interconnected with the banking sector. The Client has struggled with Excel Spreadsheets for a long time and didn’t think that it was possible to find someone who can accommodate entirely on regulatory specifics and that was the reason why the Management Board was so rigid about changing the way the Client functioned.
When first approached by Aspekt, the Client was skeptical how Aspekt will adapt the microfinance solution for a company that is not entirely operating under the laws of microfinance. The Client was also skeptical about the change, as it would be anyone who has been working in a certain way for a long time, but was aware that the new system will alleviate operations and work of all employees and speed up processes, although it is very difficult to persuade the employees to shift their minds to a new way of working.
The Client was familiar with the past project implementations of Aspekt and the reputation this Vendor had among its clients and decided to give Aspekt full trust and get involved in a cooperation that brought a lot of positive results.
Solution
During the planning period, the Client explained the regulatory requirements in the origin country to Aspekt. Having in mind the specifics of the regulative, Aspekt made detailed analysis of the current microfinance platform and identified the parts that needed to be adapted according to the specific requirements of this Client.
The result was deployment of highly flexible solution, comprised only with the features that the Client needed, enabling the loan application processing to be managed more accurately and bank files to be uploaded directly.
The project was planned in details and finished in a surprisingly short period and within budget. The solution covered the application processing all the way until the process of loan disbursement.
The Client received a solution that is user-friendly and completely adapted to their needs. Instead of adjusting margins, looks, fields, etc. in Excel Spreadsheets, the Client received fully functioning Reporting System, which allowed definition of additional reports as needed, easier and faster, with an option for report export in editable format in Excel files.
The manual preparation of borrower’s documentation and physical data entrance was replaced with predefined system templates which are easily adjustable from user side. Loan Officers are able to automatically generate entire loan application documentation from the solution, in printable format as pdf files.
Results
With the implementation of the Aspekt Product Suite the Client experienced many operational advantages and the possibility of easier upgrade and integration of new regulatory rules in case the regulative in the country changes.
Client’s employees encountered valuable differences and improvements from the old way of functioning. Now, it can be said that the time for completing daily activities is drastically decreased and employees are able to serve more borrowers than before on a daily basis. The new solution is also very convenient because it enables higher flexibility of all business operations, offering freedom for adaptation, instead of strict Excel Spreadsheets and the previous rigid way of functioning.
Now that the implementation is finished and the Client is actively using the system, the satisfaction from the cooperation with Aspekt as a trusted partner in the process optimization and workflow improvement is undoubtable, and the Client is happy to recommend it to any company that is looking for a better solution for improving the operations.
