Case Study: Car Loan Division at Brissy Banking

Background:

Brissy Banking (BB) is a financial organisation in Queensland, Australia. They have over 15,000 staff and operate in all states and territories of Australia.

BB develops and provides a range of banking services including savings accounts, term deposit accounts, credit cards, everyday transactions, and car loan and other loans to around 1.5 millions customers. The banking services are provided to the customers through a distribution channel of 200 branches and offices and a national call centre. They have different information systems and technologies in place to assist the BB staff in delivering their banking services to the customers.

Over the last 2 years, they noted a significant number of customer complaints and a noticeable loss of customers. In Jan 2018, Mr Jason Davern was appointed as the new Director of the car loan division. He requested an investigation of the received complains and an audit of the car loan process. In April 2018, BB Board of Directors announced an initial fund of AUD 2 million for Mr Jason Davern to develop a solution that aims to reduce the customer complaints and build up their customer base. Having discussed with Ms Susan Shanks, BB Chief Information Officer (CIO), Mr Davern decided to engage the services of an independent consulting group to review their existing conditions and recommend solutions and business opportunities.

Mr Davern and Ms Shanks would like to use the services of Business Requirements Analysts to help them understand the current state of their business and explore a viable Information Systems solution. Mr Davern had an interview with Anthony Wong (a Business Analyst). See the interview notes below.

Interview notes:

Director of the Car loan division (Jason Davern): BB Car loan division is specialised in receiving, processing and fulfilling Car loan applications.

The Car loan process is complex, requires many forms and documentation, and consists of many sub-processes.

Business Analyst (Anthony Wong): Could you tell us about how Car loan applications are currently processed?

Jason Davern: First, a customer service officer (i.e. a front line staff member) receives and checks the customer's application for completeness and accuracy of details. This may take some time to check the application. Some customers are currently banking with us and some are previous customers that left us. Therefore, we also need to make sure their details are updated. Some customers are new to bank and it takes a while to get all their details and check for accuracy.

Anthony Wong: Where do you keep information of existing and previous customers?

Jason Davern: There are a number of information systems, so it depends on which of our banking products they use, or used in the past. We may have multiple records about them in different systems. If they currently hold a Car loan account with us then their details should be in our Car loan client management information system CLCMIS.

Anthony Wong: Right, ok... Then, what's the second step?

Jason Davern: Yes, next step, during the approval sub-process, the front line officer creates a PDF document and forwards it to back office staff. The back office staff, from our Car loan office, enters the application details into CLCMIS. To undertake credit assessment, our back office staff will ask for a customer's credit history from other divisions, such as Personal banking, Credit Cards, and with Credit bureau, we use an external credit reporting agency for credit histories and references. The Car loan office may require additional documents from the client, for example pay slips, evidence of income tax, household bills, etc. The Car loan staff will also check the quality of the car with car dealers as part of the approval process. If the application is approved, a Car loan contract consisting of a letter of offer and a security document will be created.

Anthony Wong: It sounds quite complex and requires different types of information.

Jason Davern: Yes, it's complex. Even our BB staff, especially new staff, found the process to be too complex and confusing. We're concerned that a number of Car loan applications or associated documents were missing and could not be located. It took a long time to receive and aggregate sufficient data for credit assessment.

Anthony Wong: Based on what does decision making happen?

Jason Davern: Based on the outcome of the credit and income assessment, a Car loan insurance contract may be required. We're also concerned about errors and mistakes made in approving (or not approving) applications. We have different information sources, different legacy systems you know, but neither is complete, and they may not be consistent.

Anthony Wong: Oh, I see...

Jason Davern: Actually, recent audit reports show that a number of approval decisions were found not to be in compliance with the regulations. If an application is approved, the customer will be asked to come in and sign the Car loan contract(s).

Anthony Wong: What is your objective in this project?

Jason Davern: Ideally, I'd like a more streamlined process, reducing errors, reducing the number of clicks, reducing the lead time from 12 days to 5 days maximum to get the car loan document including a security document created and letter of offer issued to customers.

Anthony Wong: Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Jason Davern: Well, I'm afraid that we might have lost opportunities because the front line staff did not know what other banking services, such as saving accounts, previous loans, and so on, that their customers also use in order to cross sell, for example car insurance or life insurance, or income protection insurance.

Anthony Wong: It all makes sense. Thank you. We will be in touch soon.

Jason Davern: My pleasure.

In your Business Requirements Analysis process, use information extracted from the above case study description and the interview notes, and make assumptions if you need additional details. Document your assumptions.

Assignment Objective

Your objective is to conduct some independent research on the topic and the domain under study. There are TWO tasks:

1. Propose an approach to requirements elicitation. To do this, you need to suggest a technology solution, identify end users and propose an approach to gathering users' requirements.

2. Modelling task. Based on your student ID number, you must choose a modelling technique/approach to be used in your submission. Next, identify a suitable aspect of the case study and explore it in depth. Finally, create a model that illustrates and explains the (wisely) selected aspect of the case.

Task 1. Propose an approach to requirements elicitation

The proposal should select an approach to collecting and eliciting users' requirements in undertaking the business analysis exercise for BB.

The proposal should include the following aspects:

1. Name the proposed technology system for BB
2. List the end users of the proposed system and their characteristics
3. Describe two methods to collect and elicit their requirements
4. Suggest how to apply each of these methods to elicit users' requirements for the proposed system
5. Highlight potential benefits and issues you may face as a business analyst when using each method and how to overcome.
6. Recommend an approach to collecting and eliciting users' requirements in undertaking the business analysis exercise for BB

Task 2. Modelling Task

How to choose one specific technique/approach for modelling the case?

Use one specific technique, which is to be chosen from the following list based on your Deakin student number. Your student number is in the following form: dddddddXY Depending on the last two digits of your student number (X and Y) you have a choice of one of two modelling approaches.