Pisces said its recent purchase of a new messaging transaction platform will allow the specialist IT company to create a level of structure and governance around non-structured and or manual mortgage processes, including the receipt and use of faxes, e-mails, voice messages and SMS.

"On a simple level, it has the ability to take data out of any type of message, take some action on the data using a built-in business rules engine... and then output the required data or a response to it in any messaging format," said Des Papac, GM, strategy and marketing at Pisces Group.

"Alternatively, the data can be automatically entered into another software-driven process."

Papac told MPA Lender the new platform can be used in multiple ways. This included alerts (to let a person or a process know that an event has happened or is about to happen), facilitation (using messaging to make a process more accessible and or easier to carry out) and/or transaction enablement (using the system to create and manage a specific transaction).

He said the system is sparked into action as a result of a particular event. "Specific to an individual customer, the messaging system can be set up to automatically deliver some pertinent information, make a request for information or provide a warning to that individual," he said. "The delivery medium can be any format or a combination of formats, eg SMS, e-mail, fax, voice."

At the basic level, Papac said the platform can be used, for example, to generate a reminder for a bill payment deadline or alert for missed payment, while for a mortgage transaction the customer can be automatically reminded that they need to send in or complete specific documentation for the process.

At the facilitation level, in the mortgage process a customer may be asked to provide a confirmation that they have completed a specific step in the process, and or provide some simple data on the spot, like a TFN using SMS or voice. "This data will be read into the system, that is, the information will be taken in, interpreted as data and entered into appropriate fields."

If the system cannot interpret the data, for whatever reason, such as illegible handwriting in a fax, error or mismatch in information expected, the customer can then be messaged to request the data again or in another format. Alternatively, the fall-back step may be that the customer is transferred to a call centre or asked to make a call, or a call centre is alerted to call the customer so the transaction can be completed.

Papac sees the new platform as part of the shift towards straight through processing (STP). "People are getting [savvier] with technology so they expect technology to work for them, they're becoming less tolerant of inflexible systems applying a single-minded approach," he said. "All the benefits of a faster, more efficient process or STP can be undone by a bad customer experience."