Case Study: Banking
Supporting finance and accounts operations for one of the largest private banks in India
HGS improves payment processing quality, accuracy, turnaround times, and volume handling
At a Glance
- HRO client
- Finance and Accounting (F&A) support
- Client since 2012
- 75 FTEs
- Delivery from Mumbai, India
Business challenges
Main issues to focus on:
- SLA Adherence: Delay in processing PRFs, misplaced documents after entering the system, tracking mechanism after entering into the system, lack of quality and performance management process, delay and accuracy in daily client reports, delay in objection resolution and mail response and repetition of queries
- Workflow Management: Appropriate work distribution among employees, work bottlenecks due to inter-team dependencies, low level of employee utilization resulting in high cost and generation of performance management reports
- Employee: Non-adherence of office timings, absenteeism, lack of accountability and ownership among team leads/members
The solution
Enhance management reporting
Client chose HGS for our expertise and process excellence to enhance the current management reporting.
- We exercised control on the movements of each PRF from one department to another, like moving to the audit department to data entry or the objection desk until the payments are done. We then set a target time for the completion of each stage of processing to ensure that PRF payments are done before the stipulated SLA time.
- We improved the availability of documentation with a stringent control mechanism. We automated the generation of control reports like inward files, query files, good-to-process claims, objection reports, mail circulation reports, and query resolution reports. This helps in workflow distribution and shift planning within the project team and in managing rotations/utilization of an operator to enter data based on the work pressure/volume of respective departments like the inward department/verification team/data entry team/objection team and help desk team. An auto mailer file contains each actionable item on the respective claim form. It helps to decide on work flow and priority of claims and manage stipulated turnaround time for the operator.
- HGS also created a tool, the automated data entry file in sync with Outlook, which sends multiple emails with a single command. This email contains mentions against a particular claim mentioned in the excel file. The tool is used by different teams which increases productivity of the operator and also reduces errors. A standardization process in data entry narration helps vendors and the client in better understanding about invoices processed by HGS. Based on the nature of claims, a standard narration is defined, and it is then fed into the financial system while passing an accounting entry. This helps the client in analyzing and identifying the particular nature of claims out of an entire ERP dump by sort listing the standard narration.
Contributed to better workflow management
HGS created a dedicated work flow and built a quality team to ensure proper workflow management and quality rate. We set up a centralized work flow team, which monitors the inflow of work across all the clients, they control various reports and distribute the work as per priority ensuring achievement of TAT. The workflow team also focuses on load balancing and assigns executives across processes in case of requirement.
The quality team coordinates directly with clients. A specific email id is created for the client which is used to communicate in case any edits on entry or feedback is provided. This helps in controlling, centralizing and ensuring that appropriate feedback provided by the internal audit team or by the client is passed on to accounting executives. An editing process is also run with an error tracking and quality feedback process to support and sustain planned workflow management. This also includes a training plan incorporating all the above workflow and quality aspects implemented at regular intervals. To measure performance better, a tracking and feedback sourcing mechanism has been implemented. An intranet website is created, and team members can log in and get all the latest updates/changes/ important files/ all the links required to access while working on accounting entries.
Implemented processes to improve employee performance management, engagement, and support
We started off a day-to-day activity charter for employees. A quarterly Reward & Recognition program was launched to recognize good performers. We also implemented a governance model. The model aligns the team and reporting structure to drive operations as per expectations. It provides adequate governance to help in performance management and enables efficient delivery to the client. We have also automated employee performance and project performance reports generated which helps to analyze employee and project performance.
Results
90%
and more payment requests are processed in the same day versus SLA of two days
5-day
turnaround time on payment from date of inward compared to earlier TAT of 10 days
30
minutes
increase on average utilization of employees per employee
6
million
INR cost savings achieved per year
27%
reduction in team strength from 96 to 70 FTEs/ including project governance team
PRF
processing before TAT SLA since six months of initial set-up
30%
annual attrition rate reduced from the earlier 50%
5%
or less unplanned absenteeism vs. over 10% of last FY
