WebApps and TangoWeb Systems

International Acceptance Pty Ltd
Queensland, Australia

Our company Expert 1 Pty Ltd specializes in developing loan origination and loan management software with interfaces to most major banking systems and credit agencies. Our client, International Acceptance Pty Ltd (IA), is a trans-national lender that provides consumer finance to borrowers in six different countries.

TangoWeb lets debt collectors manage overdue loan accounts.

IA uses our Phoenix software to evaluate loan applications, which are then managed to completion by our Tango32 software. To improve efficiency, IA commissioned us to write two systems using Iron Speed Designer:

	The WebApps system lets IA brokers and customers enter loan applications via a secure website.
	The TangoWeb system allows IA to outsource their delinquency management facilities by letting external debt collection agencies manage accounts via a secure website.

The two applications are used outside our organization, in this case by International Acceptance Pty Ltd. WebApps is used by brokers and potential borrowers applying for loans, while TangoWeb is used by debt collectors to manage our client's delinquent accounts. The TangoWeb system is now available as an add-on module for our other Tango32 clients.

WebApps allows brokers and potential borrowers to enter loan applications. After capturing the information, it applies proprietary credit scoring logic to assess the credit worthiness of the application. WebApps then exchanges information with a local credit agency before deciding whether or not to accept the application. If accepted, WebApps prepares a complete populated set of loan contracts in PDF format which the borrower can print, sign, and return to the lender.

TangoWeb allows debt collectors to manage a portfolio of delinquent loan accounts. Collectors can review the arrears status of each account, enter notes, and send standard PDF letters and statements to borrowers. Each collector's performance is monitored by an administrator. A unique feature of TangoWeb is that it communicates directly with a legacy application (Tango32), which it calls upon to produce customer statements and payout quotes. This feature of communicating directly with Tango32 sped up the implementation process because it meant we didn't have to write the Customer Statement and Loan Payout modules in Iron Speed Designer.

WebApps
A potential borrower goes to the WebApps site and answers some simple questions about his loan application. He also enters his employment details and information about his assets and liabilities. All information is validated to ensure accuracy.

WebApps allows potential borrowers and brokers to enter loan applications online.

WebApps applies a credit scoring policy against the application. This consists of a set of rules that is used to gauge the risk of the application. Part of this process involves communication with a credit agency via an XML Web Service. The XML Web Service allows WebApps determine if the applicant has any prior bad debts. It also verifies the client's information against the Agency's data to ensure accuracy.

If the loan application is accepted, WebApps creates a PDF loan contract, pre-populated with the applicant's information. The contract is then printed by the applicant and mailed to the lender.

In most cases, the decision to accept or reject the application is done in a matter of seconds. The applicant does not notice any delay.

Brokers may also enter loan applications on behalf of their clients. Brokers have the added ability to review the status of any applications they have submitted. They may also amend applications that may have been referred or require more information.

Brokers can send data to WebApps electronically via an XML web service. They can use their own software and websites, and send the data to WebApps using software rather than manually keying it via a website.

TangoWeb
The Tango32 system allocates overdue accounts to a team of collectors.

TangoWeb allows collectors to review their portfolio of delinquent accounts. It provides information about the arrears status of an account, as well as recent payments, contact information, and a history of all interaction with the borrower.

TangoWeb lets debt collectors print payout quotes for borrowers.

A collector may phone a borrower to request payment or use the PDF generation facility in TangoWeb to generate a standard arrears letter to send to the client. The collector can also use TangoWeb to generate a loan statement for a borrower, or a payout quote for those borrowers who want to pay out a loan prior to its scheduled completion date.

Each action that the collector takes is logged by TangoWeb. TangoWeb allows administration to monitor the performance of each collector. It also keeps an audit trail of interaction with each borrower for legal purposes.

TangoWeb is unusual in that the website communicates directly with the Tango32 legacy application. It sends requests in real time to Tango32 to prepare customer statements and payout quotes. Tango32 saves these items as PDF documents, which are then streamed to the website user. The website user experiences a five to ten second wait. The advantage of this approach is that we can include legacy functionality and reports in our Iron Speed Designer application without having to rewrite that functionality in ASD.

Both WebApps and TangoWeb applications are new, but both applications interface with existing legacy systems.

Application size and scope

WebApps utilizes two Microsoft SQL Server databases, the origination database and the WebApps management database. TangoWeb uses one database. The tables and stored procedures required for TangoWeb to work were added into the existing Tango32 database with no problems.

WebApps incorporates 45 tables and one view, while TangoWeb uses 15 tables and has six views. Our largest database table for WebApps: Applications Table is 2,000 rows and 223 columns. It uses 228 ASPX pages, and handles approximately 200 users and 200 loan applications per month. TangoWeb can handle 500,000 loan transactions and 14 users per month, monitoring 700 delinquent accounts. TangoWeb consists of 79 ASPX pages.

The project

It took us six weeks to implement WebApps and four weeks for TangoWeb. There was one developer for both systems, and IA provided one person as a tester. The Iron Speed Designer portion of the project took five weeks for WebApps and three weeks for TangoWeb.

Code extensions and customizations

We wrote several code customizations to extend our generated applications. These include:

WebApps:

Incorporating the PDF4NET assembly to allow creation of PDF documents.

Incorporating our Phoenix credit scoring assembly to allow credit scoring and interface with credit agency.

Writing an xml web service and authentication routines to allow remote delivery of loan application data.

Minor customizations to the application form to provide a wizard-like look and feel. This was done where application data is collected more intuitively in a series of pages rather than just on one large form. It involved storing primary keys in session, but was a minor modification.

Minor customizations to provide loan repayment calculations as the user keys in loan information.

TangoWeb:

Incorporating the PDF4NET assembly to allow creation of PDF documents.

Developing a remote request facility to allow TangoWeb to request documents from the Tango32 system.

Our code customizations took approximately one week for both applications and involved approximately 1,400 lines of code, most of which was to provide an interface with PDF4NET, a third-party component PDF4NET creation utility.

Page layout customizations

We did not make any page customizations, nor did we create an application-specific design theme.

Iron Speed Designer impact

We believe that by using Iron Speed Designer, we saved approximately six months and $45,000 on each system. Without Iron Speed Designer, each project would have taken six to eight months to complete — and neither project would have been feasible due to cost constraints!

Next steps

We do have plans to extend our applications in the future. We will use a similar approach to debt collection and loan application capture when we release our next generation of Loan Origination and Management software — Expert Enterprise.

We will be adding many more users in the future and deploying to additional sites. Many of our new users want an application capture facility similar to WebApps. All existing Tango32 users can now purchase the TangoWeb system as an add-on module for Tango32.

About the developer

Neil Ennis has a Bachelor of Science from the University of Queensland, 1981. He is the creator of the popular IBS Finance and Tango32 loan management systems. His software has been used by lenders throughout Australia, the South Pacific and the UK since the 1980s.

Neil founded Expert 1 Pty Ltd in 2004. It specializes in the development of Loan Origination and Loan Management software with interfaces to most major banking systems and credit agencies.

Neil is an enthusiastic cruiser and built the ShipWatcher.com website as a free service to lovers of cruise ships.