Estrella Andres, Vice President of ASHI, was prompted to
realign ASHI’s IT strategy when ASHI set new goals for growth: number of
branches, number of clients served, community coverage and an updated list of
services offered.
ASHI knew that to reach its business goals, they must
enable their branches and teams to become more efficient while reducing their
operating costs. Estrella Andres also knew she would be faced with a number of
strategic decisions. She knew that having accurate, real-time data at her
fingertips would be essential for leading it toward its goals. With these goals
in mind, ASHI set out to find a core banking system that would digitize its
operations, provide access to real-time data and reports, and enable it to open
new branches.
In 2017, after due diligence and consulting with
Oradian’s Business Development Managers, ASHI migrated their entire operations
to Instafin, the cloud-based core banking system built by Oradian, an
award-winning financial inclusion company. Before the end of 2018, ASHI had not
only digitized all their branches but opened eight new branches using Oradian’s
platform.
Deciding on the right cloud-based technology
When choosing a new core banking system, the most
important factors ASHI considered were: access to real-time data for effective
decision-making, ability to generate accurate reports – especially for
all-branch consolidation reports, user-friendliness of the system, and easy
implementation. ASHI needed a service provider that was focused on the overall
efficiency and effectiveness of its customers achieving their vision, mission,
goals and objectives. ASHI’s Vice President also prioritized the provider’s
support services and how responsive they were to requests. Knowing this would
be a long-term partnership, ASHI found the relationship aspect of the decision
highly important. Oradian proved to offer a platform and services that are
specialized for financial institutions in the Philippines.
Before ASHI started using Instafin, the organization
faced specific challenges that were preventing them from growth. Creating
consolidation reports was one of their major challenges. Consolidation reports
are necessary when each branch must submit its individual data to the head
office which then consolidates the data to generate reports for the whole
organization. Such a process can be tedious and presents an opportunity for
human error. Oradian’s core banking platform was built to cater to the everyday
needs of financial institutions serving microfinance clients. With Instafin,
since it is cloud-based, ASHI can automatically see its branches’ data from the
head office, so no manual consolidation is necessary.
Before onboarding to Instafin, some of ASHI’s data was
inaccurate, which led to incorrect tallies, and so their reports seemed
unreliable. Troubleshooting of system errors causing data variances had to be
handled by ASHI’s previous provider’s technical support, which was very time
consuming. This forced the organization to hire more system administrators to
respond to the troubleshooting demands in different branches, which proved
quite costly. With Instafin, all ASHI’s data is available in real-time and now
its consolidated reports are easily accessible.
Driving impact in some of the most remote areas of the
Philippines
After migrating to Instafin, ASHI was able to clean its
data of all duplicates and errors. Accurate, real-time data enables
organizations to know and control thier portfolios at all times. With more
knowledge and control of its portfolio, ASHI can make better decisions and
improve specific parts of its operations. ASHI began simplifying processes to
reduce waiting time of its clients for the financial products and services they
offer.
Opportunities for fraud to occur have also been reduced,
since the organization’s supervisors can immediately check for irregularities.
Instafin provides a full audit trail that serves as a transaction history on
all accounts. This enables ASHI to have important information at our fingertips
and react quickly to prevent fraud.
The business benefits ASHI saw after shifting to the
Oradian platform
The biggest business benefit that followed ASHI’s
transition to the Oradian platform was the ability to make informed decisions.
Data became easily accessible, anytime, anywhere for all levels of management.
ASHI’s IT department, now using global best practices, became more efficient —
which reduced costs. These changes to the way the organization operates have been
transformational because with Oradian providing services designed according to
best practices, institutions can completely focus on the financial and other
social services they provide to their clients.
Financial and operational savings
ASHI field officers now have more time for their clients.
Before, they found difficulty in balancing the daily collection, but now with
Oradian services, they don’t need to spend time computing using a calculator.
They simply open the Instafin Field Officer App, which was designed with
offline capabilities to support field officers in their day-to-day operations,
reduce inefficiencies and errors, and streamline operations. When ASHI’s field
staff opens the app, all the data is already there. It’s very easy and fast, so
the field officers are able to return home early. ASHI has found that field
officers save 70% of time on collections and our office staff saves 90% of
their typical data input time. This amounts to tremendous cost savings and
opportunity for growth.
The Instafin Field Officer App, or IFOA – is improving
the productivity of ASHI’s field staff. Before, their field officers used to go
to sleep after 2 am. Now they can go to sleep at normal hours and their quality
of living has increased. In the case of ASHI’s Branch Account Officers, they
used to sleep two or three hours just to complete input of daily transactions,
even having to wake up early the following day just to continue data
processing. Now they don’t have to wake up early just to meet deadlines.
Setting new goals and objectives for the growth of ASHI
With accurate data, ASHI is able to access reliable
consolidation reports that helped them in their strategic planning for
2020-2023. In this plan, ASHI’s new vision is “A community of servant leaders guiding
marginalized families towards social transformation and prosperity,” and its
mission: “To provide holistic approach to total human and environmental
development.” The organization’s core values, which also form the acronym ASHI,
are: Accountability, Social commitment, Human dignity and Integrity.
“We set new goals and objectives for the growth and
sustainability of ASHI. We could only have achieved this with Oradian’s
platform and the continued value of know-how and best practices that the
Oradian Community provides,” commented Estrella Andres, Vice President of ASHI.
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