Delivering personal service through IT

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THE BEAUTY OF technology for some businesses is that it reduces the need for face-to-face contact with clients, suppliers, partners, etc. For others, it streamlines their production process, cutting down on administration costs and freeing up employees to perform vital tasks elsewhere. But what happens when your business is dependent on customer contact?
The Irish Mortgage Corporation is one such company—a personal service business. Set up in 1990, the company is one of the largest independent mortgage brokers in the country. Fiona Deering, Director of the Irish Mortgage Corporation, sat down to discuss the issue with Alex Porter, Managing Partner of business development agency, Xanthal Ireland.

Business briefings
The first thing that Fiona points out that the Irish Mortgage Corporation is a personal service business that no amount of technology could replace, not a technology company. However, the company is dependent on technology for running its day-to-day business
When Alex Porter asked just how dependent the company was on technology, Fiona replied without it, the Irish Mortgage Corporation would not be able to conduct business.
‘We are totally reliant on technology; in fact if our server went down tomorrow morning, we could not transact business,’ she explains.  
Previous business briefings run by Xanthal have already yielded some important results for the Irish Mortgage Corporation. Addressing ‘cost of technology’ issues, such as phone charges and data connectivity charges in general, has helped the company scale back on costs.
‘We were aware that out phone charges and data connectivity charges were in general much higher than they should have been—we were impressed by the kind of savings achievable through least cost routing and GSM gateways,’ says Fiona. The company has looked at moving away from regular providers for telecommunications, and examining other companies that are routing calls through Nevada, for example. No decision has yet been made, but figures have been examined by the company. The GSM gateways would provide the means to reduce costs for mobile calls.
Internet connections and staff use also came under Alex’s scrutiny. The company uses a lease line to connect to the Internet, and most contact with lenders goes through e-mail. The Irish Mortgage Corporation has a document that new employees sign regarding acceptable usage of e-mail and the Internet; Internet use is also limited, with employees only able to access certain Websites for business use. Some employees need full access to the Internet, but this is not a problem as it is limited to certain people.
To deal with any virus issues, the company uses Dr Solomon and downloads updates regularly.

Changing times
Since the company was established, there have been various changes in the use of technology over the years.
‘In the early days we designed and developed a system built on Microsoft Access that integrated with a network fax system that allowed us to electronically complete applications and transmit them to lenders at the click of a button.’ However, the growth of the businesses prompted a rethink of the system.
‘As our business grew, we needed to scale up quickly, requiring a major rethink. Our policy has always been to outsource our technology requirements to a handful of proven consultants and suppliers, and to involve them in our planning process.’
Although there is no full-time IT consultant on the premises, Fiona points out that the company has been relying on the same group of consultants for some time; approximately six years. ‘They are specialists in their own field; it’s not just one company.’
Part of this rethink involved a shift away from ‘clone’ PCs to Hewlett Packard desktops and servers. This has had a major impact on reliability and associated maintenance charges.
Another change was the migrations to a Microsoft SQL Server; this was further extended to integrate with the Secure Server to provide a ‘browser-based front-end’. There are a couple of different databases that the company works from, but it is the one system, with a couple of different interfaces.
Employees no longer communicate by fax alone—a direct secure communication has been introduced on the back of e-mail, which effectively provides a secure end-to-end system from customer through to supplier. 
Eventually, Fiona says, the Irish Mortgage Corporation would like to have an almost paperless office—the file storage for the business is phenomenal. However, legislation restrictions at the moment prevent that—there needs to be an original signature, which means the application form must be printed out.
The company is looking at digital signatures for use in the future; Fiona believes that since about 50 per cent of the business in the mortgage market would be done by brokers, it is important that any changes instigated are made by companies such as the Irish Mortgage Corporation in association with the lenders.
A lot of lenders are scanning their documentation, but legislation from the Central Bank means the original documentation must be obtained first. ‘If we could move that forward with the lenders where we obtain the originals, scan them in and then they are happy to take the scanned documents, we are literally taking the documents from the client and sending them straight back, because we are not holding them on file.’

Customer care
Technology has also helped streamline the Irish Mortgage Corporation’s application process, through the use of a generic online application form, which means the customer doesn’t have to fill out forms for each individual lender. The information used on the form is then adapted for the different mortgage companies—this cuts down on time for the customer.
‘We capture the information initially on a generic set of screens, and then we can basically electronically send that application to any lender in their format,’ says Fiona, also pointing out that this is unique to the Irish Mortgage Corporation.
In the future, the Irish Mortgage Corporation wants to set up an SMS gateway that would allow them to notify their customers of changes in lenders’ rates as they happen.
‘Rates can change on a regular basis, and sometimes to try to communicate that change to clients quickly can be difficult,’ explains Fiona.
‘I noticed a “text” field in your database, you are already almost set up for it?’ asked Alex.
However, rather than a mass-SMS system, Fiona says the company wants to tailor it to individual customers, as the Irish Mortgage Corporation is aware that there is a thin line between what Fiona refers to as ‘useful updates and personal intrusion’.
Alex then raised the question of where the balance lies between commitment to the customer and commitment to technology.
‘We are completely focused on the customer and see technology as the tools that help us do that better. For example, our internal client information system which we have developed over a number of years not only gives us instant access to the information we require, but through our Secure Server. We can provide our clients with live status reports on their applications and update our popular “Best Buys” on our Website the second a lender changes or introduces a rate.’

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