Hito Edge Case Study: JBW Judicial Services Grouphito.co/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/JBW... · Customer-centric Debt Management Model Historically, debt management systems

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Hito Edge Case Study:JBW Judicial Services Group

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The client: JBW Judicial Services Group

The challengeFounded in 2004, JBW Judicial Services Group has established itself as a leading debt management and enforcement solutions provider. By 2010, JBW reached a turnover of £5m and was voted one of the Times Top 100 Best Small Companies to work for.

Six years of strong growth masked a key frustration: the restrictions caused by existing IT systems which relied upon a significant amount of paper-based manual processing and intervention just to maintain day-to day operations. As a result, Hito was

commissioned to build a new end-to-end solution.

Key Issues • Lack of visibility into metrics,

such as the progress of cases, field staff actions, and cases remaining unworked for long periods with little activity

• The amount of manual effort and numbers of staff involved in allocating and de-allocating cases and tasks

• A lack of control and visibility into the whereabouts of field staff, as well as performance and collection statistics

• No easily available field voice recording system for audit, compliance, and accountability purposes

• Limited audit trail on case/task notes and changes made at head office

• Visibility of the effectiveness and performance/results of collection strategies e.g. use of SMS v outbound calling

• Multi-media compatibility – i.e. attaching relevant documentation, photographs, or voice/video recordings to cases

• Scheduling and planning field staff work with SatNav guidance and real-time updates

• Financials, commissions and fees earned only being available on completion of a remittance run

Hito’s approach Hito worked with JBW and Haulmont (technology provider) to conduct a full analysis of the existing business processes, to identify areas for improvement.

Four key business outcomes were identified:

• Increased revenues/collections/operational performance

• Optimise resources• Maximise compliance• Reduced operational and direct

business costs

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Customer-centric Debt Management Model

Historically, debt management systems have always been built around cases - the instructions for the payment of debts sent to a company for collection. Whilst this approach enabled companies to pursue each case to resolution, it could lead to a blinkered approach where repeat customers were missed by the system, or where unnecessary multiple letters, calls, and/or visits were made to the same individual for various cases.

Hito Edge takes a customer-centric view of all cases and their associated data. By focusing on the individual, the platform enables the linking of cases relating to the same customer. This ensures a more efficient process for making calls and visits, and provides users with a clearer view of the relationships between cases and customers – as well as specific data relating to individuals.

By changing the fundamental approach of the debt management systems, Hito created a foundation to increase collection rates whilst simultaneously improving customer service.

Intelligent Case Management and Scoring

As well as improving the structure of the case and customer data, Hito Edge also controls the distribution of casework to office and field staff in a highly intelligent manner. All cases are scored automatically using complex mathematical algorithms to assess the chances of successful collection.

The scoring system is based upon the knowledge of both JBW’s staff and University College London’s Financial Computing Centre, combined with Hito’s expertise in analysing and balancing complex equations. The system takes into account a number of variables, including case/customer history, socio-economic status, location, property, and vehicle data, with the aim of rating the likelihood of collecting on the case – and calculating the optimal time to call, SMS, email or visit the customer.

The BenefitsHito created a bespoke system built upon the CUBA Platform supported by an open, standards-based architecture that offers unparalleled scalability and flexibility. Uniquely for the industry Hito provides complete transparency across all business processes, and enables managers to focus their energy on decision-making rather than worry about basic day-to-day operational functions.

Hosted in the cloud, Hito Edge can be accessed via a browser and provides a fast and secure enterprise IT system that automates the majority of business processes, and allows the company unprecedented control over its day-to-day operations.

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Mobile Apps

With a geographically distributed workforce and a complex set of field visits to manage, effective communications with the central system was essential. JBW required a mobile device to enable field staff to update the system on their physical location, and the progress of their daily appointments in real-time.

With customer interactions involving a complex set of staged letters,

calls and visits – all governed by tight legal restrictions – ensuring effective management of each stage of the process was essential to the overall effectiveness of the system. Rather than using expensive PDAs, Hito selected Google’s Android OS phones and created a custom designed app to be installed on the handsets. The app handles all communications with the central servers, and offers a range of features for enabling field staff to complete the process quickly and easily.

Next, the cases are dynamically scheduled and distributed amongst the team of office and field staff. Each team member’s cases are planned to ensure they contact each customer at the best time of day to maximise chances of collection, and to provide the best spread of work/minimum effort to inspire greater efficiency.The allocation also takes into account the legal and client service requirements of each case, prioritising them in order to fulfil obligations for calls/visits within a certain time period. Using a fully integrated Google Maps display, Hito Edge plots the real-time locations of every field staff member and automatically monitors individual visits to identify situations calling for additional support.

The App’s custom built functionality includes:

Distributed intelligence – Each handset manages the processes required for the various types of field staff visits, and adds information to a database held in the handset itself. This means it essentially provides a miniaturised version of the enterprise software, including a database of all historical jobs and cases relating to the individual team member – as well as a queue of future jobs, updated in real-time from the central allocator and only activated when the phone loses signal.

This ensures that when devices lose network contact with the central system, field staff can continue to work unaffected. The handset continues to manage and log activity, and ‘feed’ new tasks one by one, as if they were still in contact with the main system. When the handset regains contact with the central systems, the two sync together and new data is updated – with new schedules distributed to the whole fleet according to the actions performed and new locations reached during the network outage.

Smart field staff management - As well as serving the daily jobs to staff in the most efficient order for the entire field force, the app enables better management of the team’s working processes. Each visit is driven by the app, which prompts actions via the requirement to enter information into the various screens. The app only allows the staff to perform certain actions once the requisite stages have been completed. A time-stamped GPS track of the employee’s location when the action was performed is also recorded, to provide a full audit history of the team’s movements and actions – which is increasingly essential for handling customer disputes and for managing performance.

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The ResultsAnalysis has proved that Hito Edge:

• Reduced JBW’s direct costs by 12% as a result of utilising office and field staff more intelligently

• Reduced contact to payment ratio from 5.8 to an average of 1.6

• Delivered a 22% increase in collections for JBW clients without the need for increased resource

As well as making the entire business more productive and delivering better results for clients, Hito’s flexible communication options are

Your technology enabled us to reduce the customer touchpoints from 5.8 to 1.6, this truly transformed our business.

David Leach, JBW Group

enabling customers to manage their own accounts and make payments in greater numbers than ever before; payments via web portals have increased by ~60% and calls into the company’s automated IVR system are up ~150%.

In addition, and a first for the industry, the debt advice services, Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) is also provided with their own mobile portal to monitor cases they are dealing with for vulnerable citizens. CAB is able to remotely log into the

Hito Edge system, set up payment plans, submit statement of means forms and review all previous documentation.

The success of Hito Edge was recognised by the Chartered Institute for IT and Computing which named the solution ‘Best Project dependent on Mobile Technology’ at the UK IT Industry Awards.

The app also offers various features to help field staff work quickly and effectively, such as:

• VRN (vehicle registrations numbers) check – against the DVLA database to confirm ownership

• Camera – the in-built camera allows field sales to add pictures to their notes where photographic and video evidence is needed to resolve customer disputes and for providing evidence of attendance

• Payments – the app handles all payments calculations, generating receipts to be emailed, faxed or SMS/texted to the customer

• Maps –the Google Maps functionality is integrated into the App to enable field staff to search addresses, obtain routes, and mark locations during their day

• Stats and reporting – keeps a detailed database of an individual’s performance, enabling them to view their

productivity, account balance and other information. Central control uses this information to keep track of the field sales, and to identify performance levels.

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www.hito.co [email protected] +44 2038 580 877

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