Platform Automation Success Story:
National Penn Bank
Boyertown, Pennsylvania
Issue
What's the best way to efficiently and accurately collect account and
loan information from customers at the branch level? According to Jeff
Tintle, vice president of information systems, "the key to superior
service is incorporating technology with sales." National Penn wanted
to empower its Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) with the ability
to automatically upload customer information to the bank's mainframe. To
accomplish this, National Penn looked for a platform automation system
with time-saving capabilities.
Project
The $1.5 billion bank turned to Harland's Platform Publisher(, Loan
Publisher( and App Publisher( products to improve its operational efficiency.
With Platform Publisher, CSRs were able to access the bank's customer information
file (CIF) to instantly add new name records, verify existing records and
add new products to customers' accounts while the customer is in the branch.
The system guarantees the integrity of National Penn's CIF by preventing
multiple name records from being created for the same customer. In addition,
Platform Publisher can be customized to gather additional data.
"We've added fields to collect information on how the customer
found out about our bank, whether deposit money is new or from another
bank, who our customers' prior financial institution was and why they left.
That way we can find out how we are doing on the marketing and advertisinw
sides as well," Tintle said.
The National Penn team found gathering loan information electronically
facilitates the decision-making process. Loan Publisher and App Publisher
let the bank capture loan applications on personal computers, save the
data over a wide area network (WAN) and import the information to a credit
bureau for a quick response. Once National Penn approves or disapproves
the loan, the decision is immediately sent back to the branch via fax.
"After we send a decision to the branch, the branch office tells
us if the customer has accepted the loan. Next we prepare the documents
and remote print over the WAN to the branch," Tintle explained. "The
loan is settled, the money is disbursed and the information is uploaded
onto the mainframe-it's that easy."
Results
In the past, National Penn had to send account information from the
branch via messenger service to a remote location for mainframe processing.
With platform automation, the bank has eliminated this time delay. In account
origination, Tintle said the branches saved about 25% in terms of total
cycle time and a full day in elapsed time. For example, customers can have
their deposits immediately posted onto the mainframe instead of waiting
24 hours for the data to be recorded onto the bank's system.
On the loan side, information that used to be keyed in up to seven times
is now keyed in once. Overall, the bank saved about an hour in decision
time and a day and a half in cycle time.
Furthermore, the automated systems enhanced interaction between CSRs
and customers. "Because of the way you open an account or apply for
a loan with the system, the CSRs have to communicate with the customer
even more effectively then they did before. The platform system necessitates
an exchange of information that allows us to better ascertain our customers'
needs."