Aussie is using Salesforce to digitally revamp loan processes

Aussie, the CBA-owned mortgage broker and lender, has embarked on a multi-phase digital transformation of its home loan application processes.

The transformation is being led by Aussie’s inaugural chief digital officer Rainer Rhedey, who was brought onboard at the end of last year. 

Rhedey was previously chief technology and information officer at Seven West Media.

“It is a new role for Aussie and I think it really reflects just the importance ... that the executive team has put into [digital],” Rhedey told the Salesforce Live for Financial Services summit.

Aussie - previously known as Aussie Home Loans - has almost 1000 brokers and 200 stores.

Rhedey said the company’s first transformation move was a project called eDocs last year, which enabled brokers to go paperless.

“It allows them to take all the documents that you need when you go through a mortgage process and make them easily submitted, trackable online, and secure,” Rhedey said.

“It also provides visibility to the broker and the customer [on] where they are through that journey at any stage.”

eDocs was rolled out to brokers nationally in February this year, and has so far managed about 16,000 home loan applications.

“We know from talking to our top brokers that this tool can save them anywhere up to two hours per application, so if you think about that, since February we've given well over 20,000 hours back to our brokers to be out there providing more service to more Australians,” Rhedey said.

Importantly for Rhedey, however, the project has also created an appetite among brokers for further digital change, which will come in the form of a Salesforce CRM implementation.

Salesforce will ultimately help brokers manage leads and opportunities, work from mobile devices, and provide a “360-degree customer view for greater visibility of each customer’s individual journey” with the company.

“We need to make the home loan process better, and that all starts with the customer,” Rhedey said.

“The tool that our brokers have today [has] been around for a while. It's very much centered on the mortgage origination process, and the customer happens to be part of that. 

“What we're doing with Salesforce is we're starting with phase one, and we're rolling out CRM, and it's all of that lead and opportunity management, but also providing a 360-degree view of the customer, and then the mortgage becomes something that relates to that customer.

“That's being rolled out as we speak to our pilot group [of brokers] and will be rolled out to the network more broadly in the coming months.”

In the second phase of this project, Aussie plans to remove mortgage origination out of the incumbent tool and put it into Salesforce.

This will mean that “a broker end-to-end can meet with you, know everything about you, and do the actual mortgage origination through the one tool,” Rhedey said.

“The exciting thing for us is they can do that at their desk, they can do that in front of the customer, [and] they can do it on their mobile phone, and that's something that they don't have the capability to do right now,” he said.

“Again, it's not just providing a seamless experience for the broker, but also the customer.”

Rhedey said Aussie also planned to invest in better online experiences for customers.

This will enable customers to start exploring a mortgage online and continue seamlessly in front of a broker.

“So if on a Friday night you're sitting there exploring what you want to be buying, and then you go and see an Aussie store on the Saturday morning, all of your details and data are there so you're not starting from scratch,” he said.

Rhedey said in a statement that the investments would be made as part of a three-year strategy.