Financial Industry

PROBLEM

A large mortgage lender found itself with outdated systems, insufficient IT talent, and an inefficient business process for determining project priorities. Projects generally had no business sponsorship and therefore little or no business case justification. Project priorities were set by mid level IT managers, and no service level agreements existed between IT and business management. Project slippage was common, and business unit satisfaction was very low.

SOLUTION

The IT department needed a complete restructuring and business unit leaders needed to be drawn into the process. The IT department needed a project priority system and management process that ensured business unit accountability for achieving forecast project returns. The systems staff needed to be increased substantially and experienced mid-level management needed to be hired. Formal systems for developing project requirements, testing software releases, and guaranteeing service levels needed to be developed and enforced.

IMPLEMENTATION

The first step focused on setting up a regular process for business unit sponsorship and review of existing and proposed projects. Projects without business sponsorship were cancelled. The review process required each business sponsor to develop the business case, and the review committee chose projects based on a combination of factors including overall returns, market demands, and projected timelines. Simultaneously, the IT team was restructured with dedicated business unit liaisons, formal development and testing procedures, and usage charge back systems.

BUSINESS IMPACT

Within eighteen months the IT department advanced from delivering two software implementations per year to delivering twenty five per year. Network enhancement turnaround times improved from three weeks to two days, and network availability increased from 85% to 99%. The business unit saw mortgage processing times reduced from 48 days per loan to 21 days per loan while simultaneously increasing new loan processing volume nearly tenfold.