Business Insights

Implementation & Adoption: How to Set Up Your Intelligent Automation Initiative for Success

An intelligent automation solution has huge upside potential for a mortgage company. It can help your operation run more efficiently, more cost-effectively and more flexibly.

But it can’t fulfill its promise unless you can ensure smooth implementation and organization-wide adoption.

In this blog post, our experts tell you how to do just that, from tips on selling an intelligent automation solution internally to getting end users excited about it. We’ll help you address objections, break down barriers, manage change and realize the potential to take your operation to a whole new level.

3 Common Concerns

Finding the right intelligent automation solution is the first step. But how do you find the confidence to move it forward? To answer that question, let’s look at the three most common concerns behind it.

ROI. The number one concern among business leaders considering automation solutions is making sure the investment will yield a return. If it’s your job to sell a recommendation internally, you need to be able to justify it from an ROI perspective.

Adoption. The last thing you want is to convince others to move forward with a solution only to discover later that end users aren’t using it. There’s no point in paying for a solution if your people don’t adopt it.

Efficiency. The third most common concern is around time savings and efficiency. Are you decreasing cycle times? Are you reducing manual effort and driving down costs to originate and perform back-office functions? Are you hitting your targets for efficiency gains? Knowing your goals can help you avoid overpromising and underdelivering.

Success Breeds Success

The first step to ensuring a successful initiative is to visualize what success will look like for your organization. People tend to fear that an automated solution will jeopardize their job security or disrupt day-to-day workflow, so it helps to anticipate negative reactions from employees and think about how you’ll allay their fears.

You also need to commit to measuring the project at each stage of implementation and then communicate that data out to your team. With proper communication, you can raise the excitement around your initiative. Without it, you risk seeing your project fall into a black hole.

Whether it’s at the C-suite or VP level, every automation initiative benefits from executive sponsorship. When leaders shape the messaging, convey the project’s importance and set clear expectations, employees know they’re in good hands and tend to embrace it.

Change is hard. If you have the resources, enlist help from an evangelist in project management so you have sight lines across all of the teams involved in the project. Finally, map out a change management plan. Projects that lack executive sponsorship, internal support and a solid plan can struggle to get off the ground. Those that include these elements are far more likely to succeed.

Solution + Support

In previous posts, we introduced you to the Mortgage Automation Suite brought to you by Richey May Automate and Zoral Group — a tailored solution for the mortgage industry that also offers tailored support.

For example, with our underwriting automation tool we collaborate with clients to do baseline and post-implementation time studies. That way, everyone is aligned on whether we’re hitting our targets and what constitutes success.

And because our solution is hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and designed to work in the cloud, the entire implementation process happens virtually. No need for on-site staff. No disruptions to your workflow.

During the onboarding phase, we provide training, typically on a team basis. Whether it’s a large group of underwriters or a small team of processors, training sessions can vary from an hour-long basic system overview to a more in-depth series of sessions. We conduct all training virtually, either as a webinar or hands-on session where end users get immediate feedback. You choose the length and type of training based on your change management plan and what will work best for your culture. We help with adoption in any we can.

The bottom line: The more your end users understand and engage with the solution, the more successful and seamless your implementation and adoption process will be. The key: Set clear expectations and communicate, communicate, communicate.

Give your intelligent automation initiative every opportunity to succeed. Contact us today to learn more about The Mortgage Automation Suite from Richey May and Zoral.