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Tech Niches

May 4, 2008

By Anthony Garritano

You Could Use a PRISE

There’s a lot of talk about how the process has to change. But who’s going to change it? When you think about it the CEO, CIO, COO and CTO all have their own personal motivations to consider so none can really take command of the whole process. That’s why I think every lender needs a PRISE.

No, I don’t mean a prize, although I think this is even better given the huge benefits this person can bring a lending institution in these difficult times. A PRISE is a Process Re-engineer and Improved System Expert. This person would report directly into the CEO and his/her sole responsibility would be to evaluate the process overall and look for ways to improve it.

Let’s face it, it helps to have an onlooker evaluate you. In the mortgage industry these onlookers are called consultants that come in and tell you what you’re doing wrong and provide their solutions, which of course will require the company to retain their services for a longer period of time, thus costing the lender a lot of wasted money. Why not take that position internal and broaden it to include the processes performed by the whole company?

And this includes processes around human resources, marketing, accounting, etc. If the lender has someone looking over the whole process it would be easier to see how an imaging solution doesn’t just allow for a lender to go paperless in the processing of loan but also in the accounting department to distribute e-checks to employees, for example. A true leader could help steer the ship in the right direction.

In talking about what type of skills this person should have so they both do a good job and don’t alienate the c-level executives, I talked the idea out with e-collaboration vendor president and CEO Sharon Matthews, who supported the idea. “You need someone who has a high-level view. If it’s the right person they’ll bring the CIO and CTO with them,” she said.

“This has to be a high-level person that has seniority and authority. The best people for this job will draw people to them. If you’re going to change the process you have to bring the staff with you. If you look back at history and what has been said about the likes of say Julius Caesar, he had a level a gravitas and he listened. He demonstrated real leadership. That’s what we need here.”

And let’s face it, lenders are changing the process all the time. Why do it piecemeal when you can do it with the whole business in mind? In fact, Flagstar’s first vice president and process improvement manager Brian Boike said they went the electronic route specifically to change the process for the better. “This gave us an opportunity to change some processes.

“I transitioned to the business side because we spent a lot of time automating the process, but in some cases it was a bad process. Every time you look at technology to be more efficient you need to look at the overall process and how to make it better.”

“At the end, you should have a more powerful process that can be changed easier going forward as you go on from there,” stressed Mr. Boike. “In doing this you have to get all the business units involved, you can’t do this without them. We want a more efficient process, that’s why we did this.”

So yes the process dos have to change, but even after it’s changed it’ll have to be changed again and again. So wy not make sure you appoint a forward-thinking person to be the steward of the process to make sue things are done right?

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