OCS Cash Management Solutions

Innovative Change - streamlining payment processing improves customer services, really?

Having set the customer service agenda for many years in the assurance domain, our client identified a double opportunity in its payroll based payments processing. Operational drivers initiated a review of how payroll based payments were processed as part of bringing greater transparency and timeliness. During the review it was noted how significant customer knowledge was locked up in a team deflected by transactional processing. The opportunity was how to leverage the customer knowledge whilst delivering improved operational efficiency and effectiveness?

A joint, client and OCS, team undertook a preliminary series of workshops to capture the business functions and interactions of payroll based payments within the broader scope of a Change agenda. During this period, as well as identifying requirements and core functionality, a further business opportunity around information management that had immediate business value was not only identified, but ratified and implemented with no systems or business process change required. An outline Change business case was presented to the executive, capturing the key elements of change in business processes, personnel and their roles, systems and its functionality, including integration as part of a broader Information Strategy.

Within the same financial year a new system was designed and implemented and the majority of payroll based customers transferred or scheduled for transferral. The team, freed of transactional tasks, has been deployed on leveraging their knowledge of the customer's organisational functions and contacts to enhance the support offered to customers in acquiring and administering their portfolio of products. OCS provided project management and technical capacity for the new system during design and development. OCS' business analyst worked closely with the business unit to facilitate knowledge of the Change beyond the system, which was very beneficial to the system as system's functional changes were identified much earlier during the latter phases of Change and has transitioned system support to the client's internal support team, with 3rd level support available.

OCS Account Manager, Ty Sapsford, sums up with "what started out as an operational response to regulatory change was soon recognised to be a strategic opportunity to redeploy customer knowledge where it could have most benefit. Our client's approach to Information Management, had made it possible to identify the value of information and then target where this information would be of most impact to the business. For OCS, working with such leading thinkers is personally pleasing as well as great business!"

Cash remains King, but now it is also Efficient
Recent studies confirm cash still remains the preferred method for paying for goods as demonstrated by a recent survey by the British Retail Consortium showing 56% of all transactions are cash. The handling of cash is logistically more complex and expensive with the average UK retailer spending up to 1.7% of turnover managing cash. Whilst the prevalent use and distribution of cash remains, retailers will continue to face the challenges of keeping cash secure yet reducing cash management costs. One of OCS' clients, a global leader in cash services, identified a range of innovative solutions it could bring to facilitate the dual goals of securing cash whilst reducing the cost of managing. During the program to bring the new solutions to the markets, it was identified that the mid-tier offering required specialist technical assistance, which was not available to the client via its internal teams or the hardware and business system vendors.

The client recognising that OCS had been operating in the self-service automation (SSA) arena for a number of years, approached OCS to see if OCS could leverage its experience and knowledge to deliver the solution required. OCS embarked on an ambitious and leading edge project to create a new framework to mitigate the shortcomings of the hardware and existing business system integration. The first test of the OCS team came quick and was to deliver a proof of concept before end of year with the project starting in November. The lead up to Christmas was electric as a mixture of controlled passion permeated the team. OCS' project director, Maurice Aroesti, sums it up as "it reminds me of Star Trek, we were well prepared and confident based on the preparation we had done before embarking, yet we were going where no person had been before. We knew we had within our armoury the tools to succeed, yet there was little real world proof it would work, just drilling, team work and commitment. At the front end we had our proven project methodology and at the tail we had some of the best technologists in the business". The first release was a success.

From that eventful and successful beginning, OCS has built a fully operational framework that has led to successful pilots for its clients and helped the client to have the confidence to globally market the solution its envisaged. OCS continues to support and enhance the production solution and the client has engaged OCS in looking to take the successful framework to other solutions.

For further information please contact: info@ocs-cashmanagement.com