In the previous blog, we discovered there are two sides of the information capture coin: capture rel="noopener noreferrer" of documents/emails (Cognitive Document rel="noopener noreferrer" Automation) and capture of electronic data (Robotic Process Automation). But information capture doesn’t exist in a vacuum; it needs a broader business process that orchestrates the document and data capture tasks and ultimately fulfills the customer request.
Organizations must consider digitizing this broader business process—not just the documents and data—for lower operational costs and improved customer engagement. In short, they must digitally transform their business.
Information rel="noopener noreferrer" Capture plays a key role in an organization’s digital transformation initiatives, and is typically a “quick win” first step, but automating document processing is just one aspect of digital transformation. In this blog, we will explore other aspects of digital transformation that go beyond information capture.
Why Digital Transformation?
Organizations transform digitally because their customers demand it, their competitors are already doing it, their cost model necessitates it, or industry regulations require it. Yet whatever the initial motivation, most organizations are realizing the power of digital transformation in accelerating high-value customer journeys to a positive outcome.
An organization typically has many customer journeys across the customer lifecycle to digitally transform, including onboarding, account servicing, claims handling, policy renewal and dispute resolution. Arguably the most important customer journey to digitize is the onboarding journey, where you acquire and onboard new customers and get a (hopefully) lifelong relationship off to a positive start.
Accelerating that onboarding journey to a positive result requires you to:
- Gather information quickly and painlessly
- Verify customer identity
- Conduct due diligence and regulatory compliance checks
- Engage employees and others productively
- Generate documents and communications
- Gather consent and agreement with electronic signatures
- Leverage in-house systems efficiently
- Accelerate the journey and remove latency
- Provide a remarkable and memorable customer experience
Transforming the Customer Onboarding Journey
Every industry has business-critical onboarding journeys. In fact, there are multiple types of onboarding. In finance, it may be opening a new personal or business account. In manufacturing, suppliers need to be onboarded. In government, it might be enrollment of a citizen in a government program, while in healthcare, it may be patient registration. And in all industries, new staff must be onboarded.
Many of us have been through a new mortgage process or a refinance of an existing mortgage, where the onboarding process was, shall we say, “less than ideal”—lots of paper, faxing and emailing; multiple contact points; lost documents; no progress visibility; and lengthy completion times. This heavily manual, error-prone onboarding process is ripe for digital transformation.
The Digital Onboarding Journey: Step by Step
What should this digital transformation look like? Let’s follow the onboarding journey of a couple making a loan application at a bank. First, they register with their mobile device and use it to capture, extract and submit initial documents (identification, proof of address, pay stubs, tax forms, etc.). The process then fires up a robot to check this extracted data against internal and external websites and perform Know Your Customer (KYC) checks.
Next, business rules are run, and automatic emails are sent to request additional information if needed. Any exceptions or manual check procedures are flagged and routed to underwriting—this is the first time a human at the bank has touched the file. Once all required information is received by the applicant and is in good order, a documentation package is automatically sent out and can be electronically signed by the couple applying for the loan. Underwriting approves the loan, the loan package is sent to the bank’s loan origination system, and the applicants are notified that their loan rel="noopener noreferrer" has been approved. Every step has either been automated, or made more efficient for human processing.
Starting Your Digital Transformation Journey
So where do you begin on this exciting journey of digitally transforming your business? First, determine which customer journey has the highest value and is most critical to your business. Is it ensuring a smooth onboarding experience? Efficiently processing a claim or benefit?
Second, for the most critical journey you’ve identified, create a customer journey process map. You may find that some process steps are inefficient, completely missing or flat out unnecessary. Mapping out the process to begin with will help you immediately see potential areas for improvement.
Third, identify the most critical touchpoints for this customer journey. While document receipt/capture is typically a natural starting point, perhaps it is the paper-based “wet signature” step or the work to retrieve and aggregate data from multiple data sources and applications that is causing the most pain and where customers are dropping off most frequently. Once identified, tackle that touchpoint first for a quick win, and then move on to other critical touchpoints in the rel="noopener noreferrer" journey.
Learn more about how to move beyond information capture to digitally transforming your business by downloading the ebook.