We’ve touched on customer experience over the past few weeks, one of the three key areas that businesses have focused on for digital transformation. Today, I’d like to open up the conversation around another of the three key areas: Operational Process, which couldn’t be more prudent with TILA-RESPA implementation planning about to wrap up in a week or two.
To start with, we all know one big obvious fact by now: your business is going to change during the next 10 months as Aug.1, 2015 looms closer. And after all the dissecting we’ve done on this blog of the TILA-RESPA Loan Estimate, it’s also apparent that you’ll need clear processes and guidelines in place for your workforce to maintain high levels of service while working within strict tolerances that could result in game-changing fines for your business.
But during the mapping of “today’s” processes to “tomorrow’s” processes, one thing that can get lost in translation during preparation for change is the realization of operational efficiencies.It’s easy to get buried in just ensuring compliance while accommodating change, let alone dealing with the logistics of all the to-do’s that eventually get compiled into one mammoth plan. There’s one question you can inject into the research of what you need to change that can make a huge difference for your business:
Why is a process performed that way?
This will (and should) spur other questions, which can either pull you off-topic completely, or lead you down the path to efficiency, and even innovation. Here are a few other questions that will keep you on the right track:
1. What tasks or steps are absolutely necessary to complete that task?
2. How much time does is take to complete that task or process?
3. Across the entire business, is this process completed the same way?
4. What tools are out there today that can help us complete tasks and processes more efficiently?
When you ask yourself these questions, keep in mind that you’re also going to need some business intelligence (information on how your business is performing) in order to analyze what’s going on and make an informed decision. To stay focused on relevant business intel that will help you make informed decisions when looking for efficiencies, ask yourself these questions:
- How much revenue does my service produce?
- How much does it cost to provide my service?
- What is the profit margin to provide my service?
- What is my expected profit margin of the service I provide?
As we’ve mentioned in previous posts, now is the time to start looking at these opportunities to streamline your business. When progressing through this planning and research phase, look beyond TILA-RESPA for a moment to maximize the investment in people, process and technology that you’ll be changing anyway for compliance on Aug. 1, 2015.
While you do, be sure to register for a free account at the TILA-RESPA Knowledge Center, where you can browse a knowledge base of articles and documents, or join conversations in the forums.
All information and views expressed or implied are provided without warranty and are only the opinion of Pavaso, Inc. Each participant should seek legal representation for legal interpretation of the ruling and the CFPB directly for final instruction and interpretation.The final rule can be found here.
