National Australia Bank Group (NAG) and Experian have worked together for more than eight years to deliver and maintain Strategy Management systems for both application processing and behavioural scoring. NAG utilise Autoscore SM and Probe SM for its retail banking platforms to effectively manage automated business decisioning. As part of the migration to the use of full CAIS, it was agreed to upgrade the existing SM V2 systems to Generation 3 to enable NAG to take more control of systems development and change processes.  This article provides an insight into the benefits obtained from this, and also covers key learning points from the project.

In the UK, NAG consists of Yorkshire Bank & Clydesdale Bank, providing the full range of retail banking products to over three million customers.  Based on net profit, NAG is the second fastest growing bank in the UK, with a vision to be the fastest growing. With separate SM V2 application processing systems in place for mortgages, personal loans, current accounts and credit cards, the Probe SM V2 Retail Banking Platform is used for customer management. All upgrades are currently focused on the application processing environment. The reasons for upgrading included NAG’s desire to clean up historic strategies and portfolios built into the systems and to improve the speed of change - key to delivering the business’s vision of growth. Also, as well as wanting to move onto the latest and best platform, NAG was looking to be able to do more in-house with Design Level Access.

The process followed during the project can be summarised as:

1. Perform data mapping activities to assess the changes to current NAG data structure to fit into:
   1. The Experian Generic SM Generation 3 interface layout
   2. Additional Experian data sources
   3. Provide for future expansion of system – future proof as much as possible
2. Review the design of the solution to resolve questions such as:
   1. Single product per business area
   2. Separate business objective flows for each SM Call, i.e. Pre-Bureau, Post Bureau, Post Detect
3. Build an outline or shell system with the interfaces / data dictionary and key components defined.
4. Deliver the shell system to NAG to enable NAG to complete the build of the solution whilst Experian perform integration testing with the Autoscore application processing system.
5. Use of interactive and Non-interactive tester by NAG to ensure the solution built in Strategy Design Studio functions as expected prior to testing in the full UAT environment.
6. UAT in the Autoscore environment
7. Live implementation

The key difference with this process was the delivery of the shell SM system, which enabled some parallel activities to be carried out and the overall project timescales to be achieved.

It would be incorrect to say that the project was problem free. Some difficulties encountered included the fact that upgrading the software version mid-build was not ideal and there were also some issues over changes in Delphi. Unexpected enhancements and un-documented features caused other problems, as did the development costs when considering the business case. However, NAG is very happy with the project and the results and those learning points from the first project will be considered when planning further upgrades. A significant positive was that earlier-than-scheduled delivery has resulted in a slicker decisioning process for mortgage applications and allows benefits to be obtained over a full financial year.

Post-project feedback from NAG was very positive, stating that the user experience for Generation 3 is much better than V2, even going so far as saying that even senior managers can use it! The Design Level Access is also quoted as being a big improvement, as is the scripting (with brackets). There were also some very constructive comments passed to Experian for suggested improvements when developing future versions – which, as always, were fed back to the product development team.

At present, NAG has just finished upgrading its next portfolio which went live in January 2007, and successfully implemented as a result of all the learning points from the last project.  Looking forward, all application processing systems are set to upgrade to SM Gen 3 during 2007.

Jason Cartwright of NAG explains: “Working in partnership with Experian-Scorex to upgrade our decisioning systems to use Strategy Management Generation 3 facilitates our desire to grow our business at a rapid rate.  The software allows us to develop and deliver new strategies at a faster pace than we were previously able. We have now re-engineered two product systems and both have been delivered to plan and budget. We are happy with the results and are very confident in the use of the software.  The projects have been very well managed by Experian-Scorex and NAG and we are well on track to complete our remaining migration projects within our planned timeframes."

Bill Hill - Senior Business Consultant, Experian-Scorex - from the presentation given at the Experian-Scorex SM User Forum 2006

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