Digital Transformation at Australian Settlements Limited

The Opportunity

Australian Settlements Limited (ASL), is an ADI (Authorised Deposit Taking Institution) and market-leading payments pioneer, offering advanced solutions that access a range of payment services. The organisation had been operating with highly manual processes such as PDF forms, spreadsheets and email-based workflows to manage crucial tasks, including on-call scheduling and client onboarding. These methods were not only time-consuming but also prone to errors, impacting both internal efficiency and customer experience. The need for streamlined, automated solutions became apparent, especially as the company expanded and diversified its client base while concurrently offering a broader and more technically advanced payment solution and client service.

Creating a Plan and Finding a Partner

ASL identified a strategic program of work to be completed, using Jira Service Management (JSM) as the base technology, to extend its capability and service offering in key areas of the business.

The team followed a formal procurement process which involved evaluating and selecting the best partner to assist in the design, development and rollout of its vision.

Initially, Elegance Group (EG) was included for consideration for this program based on a very positive work experience and recommendation from one of the key senior personnel at ASL. Following further vetting, the pool of considered partners was narrowed to three, with EG included in that pool. In the final round of evaluation EG proved to be the most responsive, relevant and cost conscious throughout and was ultimately selected for the body of work.

The Solution

The First Phase: Streamlining Process Management and On-Call Scheduling

In the initial project, Elegance Group addressed ASL’s process inefficiencies by replacing manual processes with a more automated, integrated solution:

• Request Management: ASL transitioned from using cumbersome PDF forms to digital forms powered by automation. This allowed for efficient routing of requests to the appropriate team members, reducing delays and minimising human error.
• On-Call Schedule Management: Opsgenie, integrated into JSM, replaced colour-coded spreadsheets for on-call scheduling. This offered real-time visibility into on-call personnel, ensuring that the right team members were alerted promptly, especially during escalations. By automating the process, the risk of human error was eliminated, and the response time improved significantly.
• Incident Management: Utilising a combination of Opsgenie and Twilio, Elegance Group implemented a robust alert system that sent proactive SMS notifications to key stakeholders during critical incidents, ensuring rapid response times.

Results

This project was completed efficiently within 100 hours, delivering a value of approximately 170 hours of work. The automation solutions improved scalability and adaptability, enabling ASL to better meet evolving business demands. The new system provided a seamless, error-free escalation pathway and increased overall operational efficiency.

The Next Phase: Automating Client Onboarding

Building on the success of the first project, ASL re-engaged Elegance Group to automate its Client Onboarding process, a critical component of their business. ASL’s existing manual onboarding, involving PDFs and spreadsheets, created bottlenecks and inconsistencies, particularly when onboarding multiple clients for various solutions and products.

Key Solutions Implemented

• JSM Forms: The outdated method of receiving customer details via email and PDFs was replaced with automated JSM forms. These digital forms streamlined the process of collecting essential customer information and initiated task generation based on specific product selections.
• Task Automation: Once customer details were submitted, automation processes kicked in, generating a tailored set of tasks for internal teams. These tasks, dependent on the chosen product or service, were automatically distributed to the relevant teams, ensuring timely and organised execution.
• Single Source of Truth: By digitising forms and centralising data in Jira, ASL was able to maintain an up-to-date record of client information and automate internal workflows. Any updates or changes to customer details were reflected in real time, ensuring accuracy and improving communication across teams.

Customer and Internal Benefits

For customers, the new digital forms were user-friendly, with intuitive drop-down menus and guided navigation. Internally, ASL benefited from real-time data capture and automated task assignment, reducing administrative burden and increasing the speed of onboarding. The system also provided ASL with the flexibility to handle concurrent and complex onboarding scenarios, further enhancing their client services.

Gavin Strelitz, Implementation Leader, ASL adds “The one other outcome on the onboarding side that has been really valuable is the reporting, dash boarding and visualising timelines of the portfolio of onboardings. This has helped with planning and resource allocation.”

The Impact

Key Outcomes

• Efficiency Gains: By automating the onboarding process, ASL significantly reduced manual input and administrative errors. Tasks were automatically distributed, and project timelines became more predictable.
• Scalability: The solution was designed to scale with ASL’s growth, with the ability to extend features and integrate additional products and services without major changes to the infrastructure.
• Collaboration and Flexibility: Throughout the project, Elegance Group worked closely with ASL to ensure all deliverables aligned with their specific needs. This included adapting the solution to meet security requirements and accommodate last-minute changes, demonstrating Elegance Group’s commitment to flexibility.

Working with Elegance Group

Says Gavin “Elegance Group works in a very collaborative, agile style within a defined process and framework. They used JSM to onboard us, then collected all the relevant information around our team, scope, timelines and ultimate end state. This was further refined on a scoping call where we worked through discovery and then ultimately into solution design. Once this was agreed upon, we started the rollout with a weekly meeting in place and with daily interaction via Slack and ad-hoc calls as needed. EG employs other agile tools such as Miro to refine scope and solution and inform decision making during roll out.

All training material and user guides were developed throughout the rollout and ASL staff were using the solution autonomously by the time we went live. We found EG to be highly responsive and engaged throughout the project. They also drew on their experience to provide input and guidance to us on best practice where required and to help with practical design considerations.

All in all it was a very professional, collaborative and easy working engagement which resulted in strong outcomes for ASL.”

Conclusion

ASL’s digital transformation journey with Elegance Group has been a resounding success. From improving operational efficiency through automated on-call schedules to revolutionising the client onboarding process, ASL now has a scalable, agile solution that supports its growing business needs. This project showcases Elegance Group’s expertise in delivering tailored, high-value solutions that enhance client operations while positioning them for future growth.

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