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Financial Services Authority (FSA) Case Study

Financial Services Authority (FSA) Case Study image

The challenge

The FSA had identified that continuing to work with paper based case files would not be sufficient to handle the future growth in volumes of incoming cases and associated paper and electronic documents.

This, together with challenges presented with the increase in remote working and possible restrictions in access to the office during the London 2012 Olympics, led them to embark on a project to introduce an electronic filing (e-file) system to supplement their existing case management system.

Key to the success of the e-file system would be the implementation of a digital mailroom facility that could accurately determine document type and file the documents against the correct case in the e-file system. Furthermore, the system had to replace a paper filing system that included all inbound and outbound documents, including printed copies of e-mails.

The model office

Restore was engaged at an early stage to provide consultancy services to form part of a model office team that would investigate options for e-file and digital mailroom and to present these options to key business areas.

This enabled the project team to show their users how the new paperless way of working might look; which was an essential part of winning over a number of sceptical users who could not initially imagine life without paper case files. Through model office testing, all major objections were handled and the project was able to progress with full sponsorship across all departments.

At this stage the client was also able to determine the exact range of products that would form part of the solution through trials and analysis of multiple products and alternatives, including scanning hardware, capture software and image repository. This was done through a combination of product evaluation against pre-defined criteria, requirements analysis and requests for information to suppliers and manufacturers.

Digital Mailroom Solution

On completion of the model office testing and the selection of the product suite to be used, Restore was engaged to analyse the existing workflow for hard copy documentation and design the inbound digital mailroom.

This went far beyond the configuration of the capture software and extended to looking at the entire process from post arrival through to long term archiving. Restore’s own tracking system was chosen to manage the routing of boxes, packages and documents whilst in the system and to provide reporting on the entire activity including time spent on each process and the volumes of work in the system. Restore also assisted in the design of the physical inbound mail handling and scanning facility in order to ensure the process ran efficiently.

Key factors

With the Olympics and the need for flexible working fast approaching, the pressure was on to get the e-file and digital mailroom function up and running so as to ensure business continuity throughout. Restore’s experts fully integrated with the FSA’s teams to implement the solution and ensured all staff were trained and ready for switch on day.

Key to the success of the digital mailroom was the need to scan live case files so that inbound items could be viewed on screen along with images of the paper based case files that arrived prior to the transition. This amounted to 10 million images and was conducted in a six week period prior to switch on.

The result

Solutions were put in place for electronic submission of documents from key businesses and the automated filing of these into PDF format in the e-file. The electronic submission project resulted in a 25% reduction of physical post being handled within the mailroom.

All case management is now performed against the e-file system. The solution is able to track any document at any time right down to which box it is in, on which shelf whether archived internally or externally. Full reporting and auditing of the process is available at any time through dashboard reports.

Highlights

  • 30 million sheets of paper scanned in the first year and converted to PDF
  • 5 million emails converted to PDF and filed
  • 10 million images in live case files back-scanned as part of implementation
  • 25% reduction in physical post
  • Document classification to automatically identify document type
  • Automated extraction to determine an existing case file to populate or to set up a new case
  • Automated extraction of data from structured and non-structured documents; used to prioritise tasks and cases in workflow
  • Integration with in-house case management and e-file system
  • Accurate and auditable processing for highly confidential files
  • Records management system to track individual documents, packages and boxes through both internal and external archives
  • Complete design and build of in-house inbound document processing solution

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Business Sector
Regulatory Board


Organisation
Financial Services Authority
(FSA)


About

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) was a quasi-judicial body responsible for the regulation of the financial services industry in the United Kingdom between 2001 and 2013.

In addition to regulating banks, insurance companies and financial advisers, the FSA also regulated mortgage business and general insurance intermediaries.

The FSA implemented a digital mailroom for handling inbound documentation for 1 million live and 500,000 new cases per year.


The review

Operating efficiently and realising significant time and cost savings, resulted in zero down time during the Olympic period. The FSA experienced sizeable growth in new cases without the need for a major increase in staffing that would have previously been required.

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