Cloud1 helped S-Pankki develop solutions to prevent data quality errors in the positive credit register, which S-Pankki successfully adopted in April.
The positive credit register is a new industry-wide solution that requires high data quality. Data errors can have negative impacts on the public perception and customer experience of the banks.
"We are proud to say that everything went well on our part, according to plan and on schedule. This success was achieved through good cooperation with Cloud1 and our staff," says Annemari Airaksinen, S-Pankki's Loan Development Manager.
The reform involved creative problem-solving and collaboration in extensive networks among the various IT partners of the banks.
"The schedule was tight. The regulatory definitions were also partly incomplete when the work started. Developing the system required good cooperation between different parties and system providers."
Errors slipping into the credit register quickly make headlines and enter public discussion. A successful implementation goes unnoticed.
"And that’s the goal. Ultimately, it's about improving the customer experience. When information moves and is correct the first time, the end customer only notices faster, higher-quality customer service," says Simone Andreani, Cloud1's client manager for S-Pankki.
Cloud1, as S-Pankki's IT partner, ensured that the data sent to the credit register was accurate and timely. Cloud1 also handles the S-Pankki's system maintenance 24/7.
The smooth implementation of the positive credit register offers S-Pankki an opportunity to develop its digital business, customer experience, and the efficiency and quality of the loan process.
"After the implementation, we have ensured that the system works and the data is of high quality. In the next phase, we will add automation to different points of the customer’s loan process, which will streamline the loan application process," Airaksinen explains.
The register speeds up the S-Pankki’s loan application processing times by increasing automated decision-making at various stages of the process.
"We can make even better decisions automatically and simplify the application process for customers so that they don’t need to submit attachments as often as before. Reviewing attachments has also been a manual step that slowed down the S-Pankki’s loan application processing, which will now be partly eliminated," Airaksinen explains.
Ultimately, the success of IT reforms depends on human action, whether it involves the IT partner or the staff making entries in the systems.
"For us, this was a broader task than just meeting the regulatory requirements for reporting and IT reform. We involved the entire organization in the development work because in such projects, the significance of the entire staff in ensuring data quality and information security is emphasized," says Airaksinen.
The register's implementation was preceded by a nearly month-long testing phase, where different error situations, their possible causes were simulated, and new ways were developed to identify factors affecting data quality. Testing progressed from basic cases to increasingly complex situations. Development work and testing advanced in parallel in quick cycles.
The data implementation required by the credit register was built on the S-Pankki's Azure data platform. Thanks to this, the tools and processes were already available to S-Pankki. In the reform, it was possible to focus on the specific characteristics of the data to be sent.
The data for the positive credit register is collected from multiple different sources. It consists of a wide range of different credit products, debtors, and credit information processing procedures. First, the diverse data must be standardized. After this, the quality of the information is ensured with hundreds of rules. Errors and incomplete information are presented to the handler via a Power App-based user interface.
Once the information is corrected, it continues on its way to the credit register. The registry that receives the customer information also verifies the data quality and returns erroneous rows for reprocessing. The correction and submission of information must happen quickly and seamlessly. Changed and new customer information must be stored in the register within two days.
