Case Studies » Leading National Credit Union

Realizing the benefits of automation

Implementing robotic process automation for reduced cycle times, improved efficiency and cost savings

The development of just a few automated processes resulted in nearly $600K in annual savings.

On the road to improved efficiencies through robotic process automation (RPA), a large credit union faced challenges. Multiple key processes within their mortgage organization were being performed manually. While prime candidates for automation, the processes could not be automated through traditional system changes because either the capability wasn’t supported by the existing system(s), the bots would take too long to roll out or RPA was cost prohibitive. As a result, these manual processes were time consuming, less accurate in terms of data quality and took time away from other critical tasks that required manual intervention.

The credit union tried to stand up their RPA program before but had faced significant delays with deployments due to lack of structure with the program and inefficient program management. There was no formal intake or governance process, the cost benefit analysis prior to the approval of the RPA requests was not well-structured, and there was no post-RPA retrospective to understand the ongoing benefits of automation.

The credit union called Celerity in for their program management and RPA expertise to help with streamlining the intake process for all automation requests, prioritizing requests and bringing maturity to the requirements gathering process.

The development of just a few automated processes resulted in nearly $600K in annual savings.

On the road to improved efficiencies through robotic process automation (RPA), a large credit union faced challenges. Multiple key processes within their mortgage organization were being performed manually. While prime candidates for automation, the processes could not be automated through traditional system changes because either the capability wasn’t supported by the existing system(s), the bots would take too long to roll out or RPA was cost prohibitive. As a result, these manual processes were time consuming, less accurate in terms of data quality and took time away from other critical tasks that required manual intervention.

The credit union tried to stand up their RPA program before but had faced significant delays with deployments due to lack of structure with the program and inefficient program management. There was no formal intake or governance process, the cost benefit analysis prior to the approval of the RPA requests was not well-structured, and there was no post-RPA retrospective to understand the ongoing benefits of automation.

The credit union called Celerity in for their program management and RPA expertise to help with streamlining the intake process for all automation requests, prioritizing requests and bringing maturity to the requirements gathering process.

Enabling improved efficiency through robotic process automation

As the Celerity team engaged, they noticed several key issues with the department’s processes, including:

  • Ordering titles for loans
  • Ordering property condition reports
  • Ordering appraisals from an external portal
  • Uploading appraisals to the loan origination system (LOS) from an external portal
  • Automating various data pulls from the LOS
  • Automating the data feeds from the LOS to the servicing system

Celerity provided a dedicated resource for managing this program and setting up a formal intake process for RPA requests using SharePoint. All requests were approved and prioritized by the credit union’s leadership team in a weekly governance call.

Once prioritized, process leads for each process were identified and requirements were gathered to understand the existing manual process, its trigger points, success criteria and exceptions. Reporting requirements for the RPA bot were also captured during the requirements process. These requirements were tracked using a JIRA Kanban board and were approved by the business before being shared with the development team.

The development team then provided an initial level of effort and a projected deployment date for the robotic process automations. In instances where existing platforms did not provide a solution to deliver this automation through the use of business rules and other integrations, bots built on the UIPath platform were chosen for their quick turnaround and flexibility, as well to handle rule-based processes where the workflows didn’t change over time or require a high rate of human intervention for exception handling. For other RPAs, Celerity worked with the development team to resolve issues related to third party access. When the functionality was finalized, a demo was given to the business and the compliance team by the development team to get their buy-in.

Achieving the benefits of automation—and $600K in annual savings

In just 10 months, Celerity got the credit union’s RPA program moving again, overseeing the creation of 12 bots to address critical inefficiencies in the loan origination process. These bots allowed for the relocation of 8 employees to other critical tasks and saved nearly $600K in effort each year. Moreover, the credit union now has a governance structure covering intake, approval and development of bots moving forward.

The successful implementation also provided visibility to senior leadership and increased their confidence in RPA’s ability to achieve the following benefits of automation:

  • Reduced effort with manual tasks
  • Improved consistency quality of data
  • Improved efficiency and ability to conduct business more effectively
  • Reduced cycle times in the loan process
  • Increased efficiency around compliance
  • Relocated resources to other critical tasks
  • Increased cost savings

Before Celerity

robotic process automationUnstructured automation program

benefits of automationNo insights into benefits

benefits of automationConsistent delays in deployment

benefits of automationSlow, time-consuming processes

With Celerity

benefits of automationFormal intake process, prioritization and governance

improved efficiencyMetrics showcasing benefits post implementation

improved efficiencyImproved deployment timelines and visibility through detailed status reporting

benefits of automation~$600K in annual savings by automating processes