Reliance Finance Automates Documents, Makes Loans Easier

The four-year old company which offers home loans as well as personal, business, healthcare, and commercial vehicle loans, among others, is focused on making an impact on the consumer finance space. It's a business where speed counts.

But to process loan forms they needed to be scanned, indexed, and stored away. All of this was done manually, taking time and creating inefficiency.

Shashi Kumar Ravulapaty, CTO, Reliance Consumer Finance, realized that automating documentation management using a scanning mechanism would help. So he stuck a barcode on the first page of each document before it went for scanning. He then developed an application that could read the barcode and instruct the scanner. By doing this he eliminated the need for a user to select whether a document needed to be scanned in duplex, or in color vs black-and-white, etcetera. This in turn reduced the need for manpower, pared turnaround time and improved efficiency.

The scanned images then get unique IDs and are stored in a central system. The user at the central desk can search and access the scanned documents making them readily available without manual intervention and "at no extra cost," says Ravulapaty.

Moreover, the sytem has capability to track, design and provide different types of reports, says Ravulapaty. "What we have developed can also be extended to other departments. For example, we will extend this facility to the finance and credit teams," he says.

Initially, Ravulapaty implemented the solution at 11 locations across India but it's seen so much success that the organization wants to expand it to 22 other offices.

With an investment of Rs 9.5 lakhs, Ravulapaty has managed to plan for an ROI of Rs 4.5 crore. The scanning project has trimmed the turnaround time for each document by 20 minutes, reduced cost, increased in productivity and cut manpower needs by 33 percent. It also allows each branch to act as a back-up for others when one branch cannot operate.  But most importantly he say, "it will facilitate the quick processing of loans to customer." And that's key in his business.

The Person Behind It

Shashi Kumar Ravulapaty, CTO

Reliance Consumer Finance

“We created a process which saved 20 minutes in the turnaround time for each loan form.”