JM Family improves customer service and employee productivity

JM Family Enterprises, Inc. is a recognized leader in the automotive industry. JM Family’s visionary business practices have enabled the company to capitalize on market trends and maintain a rapid rate of growth. In 2008, JM Family is currently ranked No. 23 by FORTUNE magazine as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For in the United States, its 10^th consecutive year on the list. The company is also ranked No. 7 on Computerworld’s list of “100 Best Places to Work in IT.”

Founded in 1968 by Jim Moran, JM Family has grown from a core distribution business into a diversified automotive corporation whose principal businesses focus on vehicle distribution and processing, financial services, finance and insurance products, retail sales, and dealer technology products and services. The company is a 12.2 billion USD force in the industry with more than 4,700 associates nationwide.

JM Family’s World Omni Financial Corp. (World Omni) is a diversified financial services company, headquartered in Deerfield Beach, Florida. World Omni provides a broad range of automotive financial products and services to consumers, dealers, and lenders.

Business challenge

JM Family’s World Omni call centers had already established a reputation for quality customer service. More than 700 customer service associates located in Mobile, Alabama and St. Louis, Missouri annually processed tens of thousands of automobile loans and leases. However, processing was complex, involving volumes of paper documents, frequent interaction with customers, and multiple information sources and systems. Each of these loans/leases had to progress through a specific sequence of steps involving many customer associates, approval levels and audit steps.

Known challenges to productivity included manual processing of forms, faxes, e-mail and letters associated with the loan/lease process. The volumes of paper involved in the process made it difficult, if not impossible, to accurately and efficiently comply with the corporate records policies. Lost or misplaced documents, combined with re-keying of data into various information systems, frequently delayed loan/lease process completion. When customers inquired about loan/lease status, customer service associates were unable to access all relevant information to provide a quick and certain answer. Ideally, JM Family wanted the two call centers to operate as one virtual call center with customer service associates able to respond to inquiries regardless of where the loan/lease was initiated.

Solution

Given JM Family’s reputation for technical innovation, it recognized that business process management could be a key enabler in improving the quality of customer service as well as the productivity of the customer service associates. JM Family also wanted a business process management capability that could be used to improve additional business processes throughout the organization.

JM Family employed IBM FileNet Business Process Framework to manage information and customer requests arriving from multiple sources such as phone, fax, mail or e-mail. When a loan/lease request is received, a customer associate begins the process by completing the appropriate electronic forms or templates and electronically attaching any associated documents. IBM FileNet Forms Manager software is designed to make data entry efficient and accurate through the use of data verification, auto-completion, and integration with external data sources. Data contained in electronic forms eliminates the need to re-key data and, via integration, also enables the sharing of data with mainframe and client server systems that are part of the loan/lease process.

In conjunction with business process rules, information contained in the electronic forms controls the routing to the appropriate loan/lease processor, thereby eliminating delays inherent in a manually executed system. The combination of business process, electronic forms and systems integration enabled automation of the entire loan/lease process.

To facilitate auditing, JM Family designed the process to automatically record the status of key process as well as the participants involved in reviews and approvals. By using IBM FileNet Records Manager software, JM Family was able to automatically capture and retain loan/lease documents in accordance with corporate compliance policies.

“The major business objectives in our organization are excellence in customer service and increased productivity of our associates. IBM ECM is a key enabler of these objectives,” says Keith Tempinski, director, Enterprise Content Group, JM Family Enterprises, Inc.

Solution Components:
Software:

• IBM FileNet Business Process Framework
• IBM FileNet Business Process Manager
• IBM FileNet Business Process Analyzer
• IBM FileNet Content Manager
• IBM FileNet Forms Manager
• IBM FileNet Records Manager

Combining business process analysis and business intelligence

JM Family used IBM FileNet Process Analyzer software to record loan/lease performance metrics. These data are then used by IBM Cognos software to create daily performance reports, allowing continual monitoring of the automated loan/lease process and the individual customer service associates participating in the process.

Key benefits

The IBM FileNet Business Process Framework enabled JM Family to achieve its primary goals of improved customer service and increased call center productivity. Customer service associates now quickly determine the status of a loan or lease—a task that previously required significant manual effort. The complete view of a customer’s information allows associates to update account data and have these applied systematically and consistently across all systems involved in the process. As a result of the automated business processes, loan/lease transactions are now completed more quickly.

JM Family also achieved secondary goals of data quality improvement, paper reduction, improved compliance with corporate records requirements, and the ability to monitor process performance metrics. JM Family estimates projected savings of approximately $202,000 annually and anticipates further savings as additional business processes become automated using IBM FileNet Business Process Framework.

Business Benefits:

• Annual projected savings of approximately $202,000
• Reduction of manual auditing steps equating to approximately $68,000 annual savings
• Faster transaction completion through a fully integrated customer service system
• Quicker response to customer inquiries regarding status of a loan or lease
• Significantly improved information quality due to major reduction in data re-keying
• Eliminated approximately 168,000 pages of paper being printed annually
• Improved corporate records compliance through automated declaration and retention of critical documents
• Continuous monitoring of customer service associate efficiency and overall business performance via business process metrics and Cognos

Improved data quality and reduced audit costs

By eliminating many processes that required substantial re-keying of data across systems, JM Family reduced data errors and insured that consistent, accurate data was transferred among systems. The new business processes were designed to automate World Omni approval authorities and implement firm controls, thereby reducing the amount of auditing required. JM Family estimates an annual savings of $68,000 attributed to the reduced cost associated with the audit steps.

Greener productivity

Paper, formerly printed and routed for transaction approvals, was the root of much process inefficiency. Eliminating paper documents improved the loan/lease process and provided a corresponding “green benefit”—approximately 168,000 pages of paper are no longer printed annually.

Compliance made easy

The paper-based loan/lease process made it difficult to comply with corporate records standards. With the elimination of paper documents and the implementation of the new loan/lease process, critical corporate records are now declared automatically at key steps in the process and retained according to the file plan established by JM Family.

Performance monitoring via Cognos

Not only has JM Family improved the loan and lease processes, but their progressive IT culture motivated them to strive for continual process improvement. JM Family uses the process metrics gathered by the IBM Business Process Analyzer software as input to Cognos software to create daily reports on customer associate activity and overall process performance. With this data JM Family can quickly identify customer associates who may benefit from coaching and determine if adjustments need to be made to any part of the process.

Business process platform serves future process improvements

JM Family’s investment in IBM ECM allowed them to obtain the productivity, quality and cost benefits described above. More importantly, JM Family recognized the IBM ECM capabilities as a proven means to deliver future productivity improvements, specifically in the area of business process management, as JM Family continues to transform itself through future optimization initiatives.

About JM Family

JM Family Enterprises, Inc. (JM Family) (www.jmfamily.com ) is a 12.2 billion USD diversified automotive company ranked by Forbes as the 22^nd-largest privately held company in the U.S. It is currently ranked No. 23 by FORTUNE® as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For, its 10^th consecutive year on the list. The company is also ranked No. 7 on Computerworld’s list of “100 Best Places to Work in IT.” Primary subsidiaries and divisions include: Southeast Toyota Distributors, LLC, the world’s largest independent distributor of Toyota and Scion vehicles; World Omni Financial Corp., a diversified financial services company; JM&A Group, one of the largest independent insurance and extended warranty groups of companies in the U.S.; JM Service Center LLC, the company’s internal shared services center; JM Lexus, the largest volume Lexus dealership in the world; and JMsolutions, a dealer-focused technology products and services company. Headquartered in Deerfield Beach, Fla., JM Family has major operations in Jacksonville and Margate, Fla.; Commerce and Alpharetta, Ga.; Mobile, Ala.; and St. Louis, Mo.

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For more information on JM Family Enterprise, Inc. visit: www.jmfamily.com