by Mike Walsh | Oct 3, 2019 | Blog, Salesforce Tips
One of the characteristics of modern technology is that just about everything that can be automated, is being automated. From shopping to restaurants to CRM’s, automation is one of the most common changes to come to any business. And the various branches of alternative lending, funding and fintech are no exception.
An automated loan management system has a number of significant advantages over legacy lending systems. Using a modern cloud platform, these systems provide superior customer experiences, improved decisioning accuracy, and eliminate paper documents. It streamlines the entire process of originating, underwriting, and servicing Alternative Loans and Merchant Cash Advances, or whatever funding vertical you work in.
Replacing manual steps with automation, transforming paper into digital format, and gathering performance data on all aspects of your lending practice lets you:
- Provide a better user experience to improve the speed and accuracy of loan applications
- Process a larger number of loan applications with existing resources
- Eliminate sources of human error for faster, better-quality evaluation decisions
- Establish predictable, repeatable, and auditable processes that support compliance
- Reduce delays and costs associated with paper processes
- Analyze process and loan performance with the goal of continually improving efficiency and profitability
Unlike legacy solutions, that are often a hodge-podge of outdated and unconnected systems, each handling only a single element in the funding process, modern, automated loan management solutions helps firms attract and close more deals, accelerate the underwriting process, generate more pricing options, reduce errors, and ensure greater consistency. These funders also earn a more professional reputation among borrowers, brokers, and syndication partners.
Key Benefits of Automated Loan Management Systems:
1. Better Loan Processes and Results
For each origination, loan officers collect a large number of documents and data points, including face-to-face interactions, email, fax, text, or documents uploaded through a site. They all need to be added to the system, carefully tracked and thoroughly reviewed against information on the loan application and from third-party sources. Technology can identically process every document, and easily integrate 3rd party data sources to provide a faster, more reliable and more accurate process.
Automation also decreases the manual work associated with notifications. Every application, and often the various stages requires a response or notification. A quality system helps lenders create a variety of notification templates, specify triggers for when they are sent, and then populated with loan-specific information before sending the notification.
2. Improved Speed to Completion
Using intelligent technology options, such as smart content recognition, and automated data population, document review and verification times can be drastically reduced, which speeds up processing and shortens origination time frames.
Automation improves applicant evaluation and loan decisioning. It eliminates repetitive manual steps that are best executed digitally and allows human expertise to be applied where it works best. Some examples include:
- Integration with credit data sources and services such as LexisNexis or Experian lets lenders automatically and quickly verify applicant information.
- No lost or misplaced documents. Paper documents converted to digital images are immediately and securely accessible by the underwriter, so they can review applicant materials more quickly.
- The combination of decision rules and integration with credit data sources and services lets lenders automatically calculate optimum loan structures and terms.
- Decision rules provide predictable, repeatable processes that remove the variations associated with human decisions and demonstrate compliance with lending regulations.
3. Better Tracking and Transparency
With just a couple of clicks, automated loan management solutions can prepare a comprehensive view of all documents that have been received, verified or flagged for follow-up, and where the application is in the approval process. In contrast, documents collected and tracked through manual efforts may not be available on various systems, paper-based checklists or a loan officer’s email account.
In addition, advanced reporting options in a CRM give managers essential data on conversion rates, lead sources and more!
4. Scalability and Growth
A better loan management system also greatly reduces training demands and risk, helping lenders quickly and more affordably scale to meet peak seasons. That translates to lower risk of quality degradation and lenders can save on overhead costs associated with ongoing training.
The more you eliminate manual processes and streamline your business, the more volume one person can handle. This means that with your current team, you could dramatically increase your deal volume. Further, adding more resources lets you increase your deal flow just that much more!
Because cloud based CRM’s can be implemented and used anywhere, you eliminate all sorts of restrictions, such as geography or only being able to login from a certain machine. Since the process and data is also shared amongst the team, adding new team members becomes faster and more intuitive, helping you onboard without slowing down the train!
-Ryan and the CloudMyBiz Team
Want to get started with Salesforce?
Need custom development or consulting to enhance the Salesforce you already have?
Contact us
CEO of CloudMyBiz Salesforce CRM consulting services with a deep knowledge in the lending industry. Taking keen interest in the project management side of operations, playing a vital role in the 31% YOY company growth. Strategic leader, mastering the ability to problem solve at every level of the business, providing effective solutions for clients.
by Mike Walsh | May 30, 2019 | Blog, Salesforce Tips
Modern business practices mean you need to have some level of tech proficiency. Especially as a decision maker in a competitive industry, you need to be able to stay on top of the latest trends and technologies so you can keep ahead of your competitors.
If you have Salesforce, then you are already one step ahead of everyone else, because you have the most powerful and flexible CRM out there. But if you want to get the most out of Salesforce, you need to understand just what it offers. So let’s take a quick look at a more technical topic, namely: what is the difference between an API, framework, and middleware?
All of these important components of a modern business solution, and understanding what exactly they are and how they interact will help you make better decisions about what you need for your company.
API
An API is short for Application Programmer Interface. API simply refers to the method programmers use to interface with software, and only works via software to software. API’s are open-ended and can be built to do just about anything. For example, when you buy a movie ticket online, your card info is being sent via API.
For business purposes, API’s are a great way to send data, particularly sensitive data if you encrypt it, to another business, client or partner. Developers can craft the API for just about any business use and when you connect it to the Salesforce API’s, you can send and populate data directly into your CRM.
Framework
A framework is a tool or set of tools designed to solve a specific purpose or set of purposes. Frameworks use the above mentioned API’s to connect with other software, apps or separate systems.
A framework can also be thought of as a partially finished solution to a problem. The base foundation is there, and you build upon that to solve your specific needs. Salesforce itself can be used as either an out of the box solution or a framework, depending on your business needs.
Middleware
Middleware is also software that uses API’s, however, middleware is designed specifically to help isolated or separate systems interact. Mulesoft is a middleware solution recently purchased by Salesforce, whose powerful and unique code allows very complex programs to connect almost seamlessly.
A standard system, (frameworks included) is built with many layers stacked on top of each other, just as the OS, hardware, libraries, etc. Middleware works by taking slices of these layers, vertically! When done right, it provides a full or partial solution to any area within the application and can provide a much more robust connection between systems than a single or even a grouping of API’s.
So hopefully you now have a little bit better understanding the foundations that your business solution is built on!
.
-Ryan and the CloudMyBiz Team
Want to get started with Salesforce?
Need some custom consulting or development to enhance the Salesforce you already have?
Contact us
CEO of CloudMyBiz Salesforce CRM consulting services with a deep knowledge in the lending industry. Taking keen interest in the project management side of operations, playing a vital role in the 31% YOY company growth. Strategic leader, mastering the ability to problem solve at every level of the business, providing effective solutions for clients.
by Mike Walsh | Jun 18, 2018 | Success Stories
Jaco Aerospace provides high-quality aircraft supplies, including ground support equipment (GSE) and maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO) products. They give governments, commercial airlines, and private companies within the aviation and aerospace industries the materials they need to maintain aging aircraft and find new solutions. As a trusted aviation supply company, Jaco distributes only materials that meet the highest standards, including official mil-spec supplies.
The Challenge
In order to fulfill orders and provide quality service to their customers, Jaco Aerospace created an online interface for pricing proposal requests and sales. However, as they grew, their internal tracking and processing systems could not keep up with their pace of sales.
Jaco’s legacy system for tracking and processing orders did not give them the capability to track orders in real time, manage repeat orders or automate processes. They realized they needed an upgraded and cohesive order management system that would allow them to take on new, better business and provide greater customer service.
Jaco executives became interested in the possibilities presented through Salesforce. Because Salesforce is primarily geared to Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Jaco needed a Salesforce expert to advise them on the best options for customizing the system for their specific needs and guiding them on creating a superior order management process.
Why CloudMyBiz?
CloudMyBiz, a leader in cloud-based technology, develops custom business solutions built on the Salesforce platform and helps companies implement and upgrade their systems at an affordable cost. From building custom systems to leveraging already built apps, CloudMyBiz is interested in creating the best possible solution for our clients and delivering tangible results.
The team of Salesforce development and implementation experts at CloudMyBiz had the skills to implement Salesforce and migrate Jaco’s processes and data onto the new system. CloudMyBiz also had the expertise to recommend a 3rd party Order Management System from the AppExchange and integrate it into Salesforce, dramatically improving Jaco’s business process with a powerful pre-built app.
The Result
The CloudMyBiz solution for Jaco was an immediate success. CloudMyBiz implemented Salesforce and integrated the best possible 3rd party apps. The result of which: Jaco was able to track all of their orders, reap the benefits of the Salesforce cloud platform and get powerful add-on functionality from the 3rd party apps, without the cost of building everything from scratch.
Following the initial project, Jaco and CloudMyBiz have continued to work and grow together, building upon the original system foundation and creating some fantastic results, including:
- A sophisticated system for tracking shipments, significantly reducing late deliveries.
- Powerful inventory maintenance and automation tools, the foundation for significant growth.
- Integration of new accounting software, which created a new streamlined financials process.
- Document generation for invoices, sales orders, and purchase orders became highly automated.
- Addition of in-depth reporting options so Jaco could better focus on their more profitable customers.
- Smart automation to flag orders and determine appropriate shipping needs.
Jaco has experienced tremendous growth in recent years, including upgrading to a new facility and acquiring a specialized tape supply company. The custom developments, integrations, and implementations by CloudMyBiz have given Jaco the foundation they needed to maximize their systems and take on more and more business. Jaco has maintained their strong relationship with CloudMyBiz, getting expert guidance and custom solutions, while steadily building a better and better system for supplying aerospace supplies to their customers.
CEO of CloudMyBiz Salesforce CRM consulting services with a deep knowledge in the lending industry. Taking keen interest in the project management side of operations, playing a vital role in the 31% YOY company growth. Strategic leader, mastering the ability to problem solve at every level of the business, providing effective solutions for clients.
by Mike Walsh | Apr 11, 2018 | Success Stories
Elotek systems is a leading manufacturers’ representative and solutions provider of technical products including sensors, measuring instruments, and telemetry instrumentation across the 13 Western States. The team has a 30-year reputation for sourcing the best product solutions, at competitive prices while always providing great service and delivering, on-time, everywhere.
The Challenge
Elotek’s existing database was developed over 30 years ago. A recent increase in developer and reporting errors, incorrect commission reporting and lack of order visibility had management and sales concerned that the platform would not be able to keep pace with the new market demands and the company’s growth objectives. Some of the issues included:
- Lack of responsive support.
- Change of management which led to lack of understanding by the developer.
- Too many sloppy development errors leading to loss of data credibility.
- Slow system, stored on a local server. A cloud-based version was available, but loss of confidence prevented the switch.
- Elotek was looking for a performance-based system with a high degree of confidence that there would be long term support.
They needed to switch to Salesforce for stability and to modernize their process.
The Solution
Elotek sought out CMB as their partner who would not only provide the analysis of the current system, determine which performance-based platform could support the anticipated long-term growth but also implement it quickly and cost-effectively and then train the staff and remote sales teams so that they would embrace and use the new toolset.
The Result
Multiple platforms were reviewed. Through the discovery process, CMB learned that the Elotek teams – sales, customer support, and admin – were not tech-savvy, and a formal training process never implemented. Ultimately, Salesforce proved to offer the most flexible and quickest platform to implement. It also proved to be the easiest for training staff and the remote sales teams. The entire sales process and the quote, order and invoice system was overhauled, enabling the sales team to increase sales conversion by more than 20% within the first year, while increasing revenue by 32%.
Key Benefits
- Lead conversion increase of 21% in the first year
- Increased revenue of 32%
- Developing custom-built components and features resulted in establishing a:
- Commission statement wizard and automation tool reducing the process from 3 days to 3 hours
- Sophisticated sales rep scorecard which made tracking the reps activities more transparent
- Monthly performance scorecards for the entire company resulting in improved efficiencies
CEO of CloudMyBiz Salesforce CRM consulting services with a deep knowledge in the lending industry. Taking keen interest in the project management side of operations, playing a vital role in the 31% YOY company growth. Strategic leader, mastering the ability to problem solve at every level of the business, providing effective solutions for clients.
