Is there an ROI to Notes and Domino customization? Bank on it.
Category Case Study Domino NotesA few months ago, SNAPPS was tasked with the development of some pretty interesting capabilities for a Domino intranet application, and produced some innovations that I thought I would share here. This falls under the category of "I had no idea you could do that," so I'll explain. (P.S. for those of you who think of us just as the Quickr guys, we actually do more high-end Domino and integration work than Quickr, even though that practice is still substantial. Who knew? Deep bench.)
Scenario
The central bank of another country (Americans, think "Federal Reserve") has the task of processing all manner of paperwork for foreign individuals and corporations who seek to invest either in companies or real estate in their country. This information - all standard forms - originates from the individuals or corporations (or their lawyers) and is submitted to one branch of the company's government. From there, the forms are sent to the central bank where they are evaluated, scanned, and stored in perpetuity. Once all the documentation requirements are met, the bank is able to do business with the foreign entity. Pretty straightforward legal stuff, with about 25-30 forms involved. It's all tracked in Lotus Notes with back end connections to a plethora of relational databases and an ECM. Not bad, they had been well organized for years because of this investment.
Problem
The business challenge had always been the handoff from the government to the bank, and communication back to the foreign individual or company about what was still required of them. Couriers, mail, and document shipments were unwieldy and caused human error, lost time, and confusion when coding the forms and associating them with the right entity. Automation and process improvement was necessary, and as the bank was already a Lotus Notes shop, a Domino application seemed the perfect solution.
The devil is always in the details, of course. The new intranet application had to integrate with the current Notes application (no brainer), initiate the same workflow (a little more brains required), produce PDFs on the fly for the web user (head scratcher), automatically notify the foreign entity of the missing documentation (whew), and generate two different kinds of bar codes on the PDFs (whoa).
Solution
Since it's now in place, allow me to switch to present tense. When the government agency fills out the online form indicating which documents they are going to submit, two things happen. For the forms they DO have already, the Domino system spits out "cover pages" with bar codes identifying the documentation. The agency then prints these PDF cover pages, places them in front of the documents to be submitted, and securely scans them directly to an ECM at the bank that is already designed to accept and categorize them based on the bar codes.
What about the forms they DON'T have already, but are still required? For those, an email is sent to the originator (the foreign person or corporation) with the remainder of the PDF cover pages for the missing documents, with instructions on how to submit them. When the documents are ready, they either fax/scan them in themselves or mail them to the government agency who does it for them.
With this application, the central bank now has eliminated human error, has a no-touch paperless (a.k.a. "greener") system for processing the hundreds of pages of documentation required of these individuals and businesses, and the government, bank, and foreign entity all have confidence that the required documentation is processed rapidly and efficiently. All because of Lotus Notes, IBM back end systems, and some toolkit wizardry with PDF generation and bar code printing via the web. Oh yeah, The Amazing Julian figured out those fun toolkit bits.
Customization, Innovation & ROI
This isn't the kind of solution you wake up and architect. It's the kind you figure out when you have a team that's been working with business processes for 15-20 years, applying innovative solutions to challenging problems. It's the kind that, when you look back, is elegant in its simplicity and still produces a great return on the client's investment - one that will last for years while making the client appear (and truly be) cutting-edge. It's what we like to do because the value is clear and the work is fun.
The moral of my story is this. Next time you're faced with a draconian corporate edict of "no customization" think about this case. Think about the environmental impact of your processes, and think about the time and money that the muckety-mucks' supposedly cost-cutting decision can truly cost in the long run. Innovation and customization isn't always the right approach, but sometimes, it's just a no-brainer.
