Nordea Bank conducts work with loan agreements in Directum

Nordea Bank started trial operation of the Directum "Contract Management on Credit Deals" ECM system. This solution will allow lawyers and employees of front and back-office of Bank to work in a common information space on credit processes. Specialists of Directum company are involved to project implementation.

The Directum system is used in Bank since 2006. Basic solution modules and the module Office were the functional center of a system. In a system more than 500 employees in all divisions of Bank work, the uniform archive of electronic documents functions, work with the entering, outgoing and internal documents of Bank is completely automated, the EDS mechanism is used to vising of documents.

The implemented module "Contract management" was adapted for needs of divisions of front and back-office of Bank: the new standard routes, reports and reference books integrated with the core banking system of Bank were developed.

Work with loan agreements of Bank became the major process within the project. To transfer to an electronic form all processes and transactions connected with loan agreements on the basis of the module "Contract management" the solution "Contract Management on Credit Deals", ready to replication, was developed. This solution integrates and synchronizes work of employees of front and back-office, controllers and lawyers on all process steps of crediting.

Now trial operation of the solution is performed. Start in commercial operation of the solution "Contract Management on Credit Deals" it is planned for the end of April, 2010.

EDMS became the driver of profit increase of bank

Implementation of EDMS – a task which rises sooner or later before any bank as from that, the workflow system is how perfect depends profitability. There was she and before Nordea Bank which based on the tender selected EDMS Directum.^[1]

Document flow of any bank is difficult and carefully organized system. From that, how effectively it works, the profitability of work of financial institution in general depends. Considering extensiveness of branch networks of large banks and the big competition in this segment of business, workflow automation is serious competitive advantage. This advantage allows, despite distances, to timely make competent management decisions on which investments of clients depend.

In fight for competitive advantages

As a rule, any large bank provides to physical persons and legal entities the full range of services connected with a design of the credits, investment of funds on a deposit, money transfers, a currency exchange, service of plastic cards and so forth. In addition to payment orders and loan agreements which are considered by the automated banking systems (ABS) in any credit institution there is a considerable volume of the documents connected with business: organizational and administrative documentation, correspondence with clients, etc. And all this information requires operational processing.

Finally, from that, document flow in organization is how rationally constructed, customer service quality depends. So at the price of a question there is a competitiveness of bank. Therefore without use of modern technologies it becomes difficult to cope with a flow of the arriving information which volume increases every year. The Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) come to the aid of the credit and financial organizations, allowing to solve the whole complex of problems. First, this cutting of costs for operating and administrative activities due to minimizing of need of an execution of paper documents and also reduction of time spent by managers for customer service owing to automation of bank business processes. Then creation of a control system of execution of business processes and the movement of electronic documents taking into account normative completion dates of each stage of business processes. It is also necessary to mention security of document flow and access control of employees of the bank to internal documents. Tracking of the made changes in documents on banking activities at each stage of approval and systematization of results of work of employees of the bank is not less important.

According to the head of the department of maintenance of transactions of Nordea Bank and the project manager of implementation Directum from the customer Maria Pozhidayeva, "electronic document management systems are important means of increase in efficiency of internal and external interaction for the banking sector. Thanks to them there is an opportunity to formalize work with documents, to provide their security, controllability and availability that finally affects efficiency of decision making, controllability of business in general".

Choice of EDMS

For improvement of internal business processes and increase in efficiency of both individual employees and divisions, and the bank in general, its management made the decision on complex workflow automation. The emphasis was placed on such development of IT infrastructure of bank which would advance growth of its customer base and volume of transactions.

Problems of implementation of EDMS

• reduction of duration of approval and document retrieval;
• control of the movement of the document at each stage of lifecycle;
• exception of losses of documents;
• optimization of interaction between structures of bank;
• increase in performing discipline of employees;
• increase in centralization of management of the growing branch network of bank.

In the summer of 2005 the management of Nordea Bank announced the tender for delivery and implementation of EDMS. According to the results of the tender the issue of the choice of a system was resolved for benefit of Directum.

The made decision was dictated by broad functionality of a system, existence of the available building tool and also reasonable price. As representatives of Nordea Bank note, Directum not only includes "standard" functional characteristics (document storage in uniform electronic archive with a possibility of tracking of their lifecycle, the powerful system of search and information processing, registration, transfer to archive and preparation for destruction of outdated data), but also has potential for support of the business processes connected with customer service of bank.

"Having stopped in the choice on the Directum system, we expected to automate not only organizational and administrative document flow, but also specific business processes of bank, in particular, execution of credit documents, – the deputy head of department of bank analytics and technologies Zhirnov Sergey says. – This system thanks to the multifunction platform and ample integration opportunities allowed to solve this complex of problems". Project Implementation

Implementation of Directum started in February, 2006. Specialists of the company integrator needed to consider orientation of bank for work with external clients and need of ensuring the increased safety of work with information. Therefore at implementation of Directum a number of requirements was selected. Among them were called security of work with base of documents; support of mechanisms of enciphering and EDS; possibility of use of tough standard routes of the movement of documents; possibility of operational reengineering of processes of bank; geographically distributed work in multifilial structures; availability of all corporate knowledge base in the everytime&everywhere mode (always and everywhere) and also integration with other banking systems.

The project was separated into several stages that was method to facilitate adaptation of employees upon transition to work in the Directum system. After automation of specific business process the working group of the project passed to other section of works.

At the first stage the basic modules Directum and the module Office were implemented. Using their functionality basic processes of office-work were automated: the entering and outgoing correspondence was transferred to an electronic form, control over location of documents and timely execution of instructions is organized. In the form of standard routes passed the business processes connected with approval of letters, orders, orders, powers of attorney, regulations into a system.

The leading users of a system completed training courses without separation from primary activity that allowed them to start accomplishment of duties using Directum opportunities at once. The uniform electronic archive which, thanks to the convenient system of search, allowed employees of the bank to be guided easily in a large number of documents was organized. At further system deployment work with documents in all divisions of bank passed into an electronic form.

At the end of 2006 the second stage during which work with the entering and outgoing documents was automated started, the EDS mechanism is implemented and also additional offices and branches in the terminal mode are connected. The success of implementation of Directum in Nordea Bank was provided with the accurate organization of works and harmonious interaction of the customer and the implementing company.

New round of development

The new phase of implementation started in December, 2009 and was caused by expansion of a range of relevant tasks of automation. In three years the staff of Nordea Bank got used to work with use of new technologies and estimated advantages of Directum in terms of functionality and ergonomics of its user interface. Therefore the next stage it was decided to cover new business processes and by that to expand scales of use of a system.

Automation concerned contractual management. The functional kernel of the Directum system was replenished with the module "Contract management". At the same time the standard module was seriously finished under specific requirements of divisions of bank: the new standard routes, reports and reference books integrated with the core banking system of Nordea Bank were developed.

Work with loan agreements of bank became the major process within the project. To transfer all processes and transactions connected with credit documents to an electronic form the solution "Contract Management on Credit Deals", ready to replication, on the basis of the module "Contract management" was developed. This solution covered key processes of bank, such as creation of a document package on credit deals of legal entities, maintaining the unified register of credit documents and accounting of location and the movement of documents.

The solution integrated and synchronized work of employees the front - and a back office, controllers and lawyers on all process steps of crediting. With its help interaction on vising of agreements in conditions when the vising divisions are territorially dispersed was organized. Thus, in Nordea Bank a common information space for work with credit documents was created.

"Nordea Bank" is founded in 1994. 100% of bank shares are controlled by "Nordea Bank AB" which is one of the largest financial institutions of Europe. Nordea Bank renders a full range of banking services to corporate and private clients, enters in Top-30 of banks in the Russian Federation. Own network of customer service of Nordea Bank is provided in a format of universal departments, mini-offices, operational cash desks and ATMs in 15 regions of Russia. The modern dynamically developing bank actively applying the latest technologies in the work Nordea Bank belongs to number of the largest and hi-tech financial institutions of the country.

At the same time it was succeeded to provide maintaining the electronic register of loan agreements of legal entities, with a possibility of establishment of interrelation between documents, to provide accounting of their location and the movement. Thanks to what fast obtaining information on where there is this or that document on which of employees there could be its delay, etc. became possible. It is especially important for employees of a back office to whose duties control of the movement of the document at all stage of its lifecycle belongs.

The uniform electronic document register allowed to analyze credit deals in different cuts that gave to the management of bank the multifunction instrument of control over all credit process. At the same time for heads the usual and convenient mode of work with paper documents within the automated business processes was saved.

"For each document relating to a credit deal entry in the register of agreements is created now, – the project manager of implementation from Directum company explains the scheme of operation of the module Krivitsky Pavel. – By transfer of the agreement, for example, for the signature to the chairman of the board of bank, clerks do a mark about the one to whom and when the agreement is transferred. In turn the secretary of the chairman of the board when obtaining the document does the mark. The same marks are exposed by transfer of contractual documents in archives of bank. At the same time the mechanism of barcoding and fast identification of the document on a barcode using Directum RapID is used".

Creation of the electronic file of clients - legal entities as a result of integration of Directum into the core banking system of bank became one more development which considerably expanded functionality of a system. This solution allowed to find quickly necessary information at the appeal of the client to bank on the document types connected with each specific organization on different cuts (title, finance and other documents).

Implementation of data transmission from the 1C: Enterprise system in Directum became a further step during systematic development of the project. Work on synchronization of systems is carried out based on the standard connector from a Set of integration tools Directum Integration Toolset with completions under specifics of system configuration of 1C: Enterprise of bank.

Results and development of cooperation

As a result, work in the Directum system for several years resulted in notable effect which was expressed in considerable acceleration of document flow in Nordea Bank. Due to standardization and optimization of credit business processes it was succeeded to reduce time of internal approval of agreements on credit deals of legal entities by 20%. When the document arrives to the reviewer, that expresses the consent or disagreement with its contents by means of clicking of one button. Due to application of the EDS authorship and protection against changes after signing is guaranteed to the negotiation document. Thus, process of approval is performed quickly, with smaller costs, and its results are reliably fixed in a system.

Business processes became more transparent and visual for the management and employees of the bank that allows to control real-time operation. There was an electronic archive of documents on credit deals thanks to what quick search of documents in a system became possible. What including positively affected efficiency of work of employees of the bank at a repeated customer appeal.

Today in the Directum system over 500 users of bank are registered, and every day their number grows. In the near future the bank is going to buy in addition 100 more licenses Directum. Further perspectives of cooperation of Nordea Bank with Directum company are also connected also with expansion of scales of use of functionality of the Directum system.

"Now queue behind automation of process of crediting of individuals, – shares plans Pavel Krivitsky. – All bank branches will be gradually connected. Also the task of creation of the electronic file on each client is set for us".