Enterprise Content Management

A mother is preparing Easter dinner in the kitchen while her young child watches. Before placing the ham in the oven, the mother cuts both ends off the ham, places the ham on the roasting pan, and slides it into the oven.

Perplexed, the child asks the mother why she cut the ends off the ham. “That’s the way my mother always did it” came the reply.

Soon after, the whole family starts arriving for the holiday feast. “Grandmother, why must you cut the ends off the ham before cooking it?” the young child asks as the three of them wrap up the preparations in the kitchen. Thinking for a moment, the grandmother replies “because that’s the way my mother did it.”

Finally, the family sits down to enjoy their meal. With their curiosity piqued, the threesome asks the child’s great-grandmother to explain to them the importance of cutting the ends off the ham before cooking it. “Well,” the great-grandmother begins, “that’s how big my pan was.”

Let’s Just Leave it Alone

Changing our ways (and our processes) is difficult — sometimes because it’s easier to keep on keepin’ on with an inefficient process because just the thought of change is hard and sometimes it’s because we don’t even think to evaluate something that we thought was working for us for so long.

For financial institutions looking to remain competitive in the face of increasing regulatory burden and compressed margins, it is especially important to remain vigilant in evaluating and improving processes that no longer serve the team, the institution, and their customers.

The Importance of Process Improvement

Our team of former bankers and experienced developers have first-hand, inside, and outside experience of the time, money, and FTEs that can be saved by leveraging a fully integrated and automated management system. Our customers can attest to the daily frustrations between departments that can be resolved by moving away from siloed processes in favor of one meant to orchestrate the flow of data, documents, tracking, and so much more.

Where To Start

Processes like tracking exceptions via one or more excel sheets, using shared drives or emails to share documents, or imaging documents in packets are just a few examples that may work well for smaller institutions that can be outgrown quickly. As the process bogs down, processing delays lead to conflict and inaccurate reporting.

To put an end to the workflow delays and departmental conflicts, forward-thinking teams look for technological solutions that can remove the burden from their team, letting them focus on the goals and tasks that really make them profitable, rather than being hamstrung with tedious administrative tasks that dominate their day.

Many institutions benefit from the creation of process evaluation and improvement committees where designated time and resources are set aside to monitor and improve ongoing operations processes. Be careful to get the team started on the right foot, though. A clear understanding of the purpose is key; include these three topics in your committee kickoff:

Keep More Ham in Your Pan

Is it time to keep more ham in your roasting pan like our Easter family? Don’t underestimate the impact on the institution’s bottom-line from eliminating loan and deposit operation inefficiencies.

We assist financial institutions on a daily basis who are working to move away from disjointed, time-draining processes and provide them with one system that brings in data and documents from their core, their DMS, and other third-party applications. Our operations management system empowers your team by integrating document imaging, exception tracking, report production, customer notices, enhanced collateral management, and so much more, into one powerfully automated, seamlessly streamlined workflow system.

Get in touch today, and let’s talk about configuring a system that works for you. Learn more at https://www.proformance.com/

RESOURCES

Interested in learning more about forming a committee, you may be interested in the IAA credit union approach.