The Problem
21st Mortgage inherited a complex green-screen system from its parent company. When they began applying their inventory-finance processes to the system, they quickly realized that all of their requirements would not be met. They started looking for ways to update the system to meet their desired specifications. With these requirements in mind, they determined that there was a great deal of work to be done. They began the search for a tool that would not only meet these requirements, but also modernize the system into a new browser-based solution.
The Plan
The primary goal was to develop a complete solution for daily operations that would increase productivity. This would allow 21st to either reduce the manpower needed for customer service or give them the option of taking on a larger workload that could efficiently be handled by the current staff. The new solution would also have the ability to create an easily maintainable billing system that would accurately calculate and store billing charges. This would significantly increase speed, accuracy and system flexibility to manage the dealer’s inventory.
The plan was to build a new system that consisted of 3 main components. First, a Portfolio Management System would be developed to replace the critical core applications that were used internally. Next, the team would design a full service website to facilitate online payments and customer service for hundreds of mobile home dealers and manufacturers. The last component would be a work queue system that provided internal users with a list of prioritized daily assignments.
With such an ambitious plan, they had to weigh their options very carefully. 21st Mortgage was looking for a reliable vendor with a user friendly IDE and great customer support. They needed a tool with a non-proprietary language that could easily maintain existing programs. After looking at a number of solutions they decided on Profound Logic’s rapid web development environment, RPGsp.
“Once we cleared the hurdle of setting up the users, our first impression of RPGsp was that it would be easy to learn. The wizards, code snippets, and help texts gave us a great start. Our basic understanding of HTML and existing skill base in RPG Free were very helpful in getting started, and there was no new language to learn” explained Sandra Anderson-Dean, 21st Mortgage Project Manager.
“Using Profound Logic’s [Profound UI], we were able to deliver a completely browser based, fully functional and integrated software system, complete with external website processing. It is an extremely robust tool which can be used to address the simplest to most complex business requirements.”
Sandra Anderson-Dean
Project Manager, 21st Mortgage
The Support
Profound Logic provided on-site training for the 21st Mortgage development team and was also available to meet with users individually. Anderson-Dean adds, “This was enormously beneficial in helping us move forward. They certainly went the extra mile to help us grow our skill base.”
21st Mortgage started with a simple file maintenance program with standard add, update, and delete functionality. Within three months, the team was clearly on a progressive path towards fully managing their programs. Their web development capabilities continued to rapidly improve as well with RPGsp and the assistance of the Profound Logic staff.
“I can only add that when you put this product together with an excellent support staff, it is truly a winning combination. I would highly recommend RPGsp and each of the product support staff, both individually and as a group,” stated Anderson-Dean.
The Results
By redesigning the system with the end-user in mind, 21st was able to eliminate steps from their processes and dramatically increase productivity. This included the automation of several end-user decisions, resulting in significantly improved data integrity. The new system offers a familiar browser-based GUI interface, which makes user adoption much easier, resulting in a reduction in the training time necessary. In addition, customer service staffing needs have been reduced due to the self-service capabilities of the website.
“Using Profound Logic’s RPGsp, we were able to deliver a completely browser based, fully functional and integrated
software system, complete with external website processing” explains Anderson-Dean. “It is an extremely robust tool which can be used to address the simplest to most complex business requirements.”
21st Mortgage is now handling all of their critical financial and core operational information in real time with a secure web application. Perhaps the most significant result is that this business-critical system will help propel 21st Mortgage ahead of their competitors with leaner workflow processes and allow them to become a leading industry innovator.
