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Australian Financial Group (AFG) aims to revolutionize user experience (UX) in the mortgage broking sector by bringing together the complex world of broking information into a single app-based platform, injecting artificial intelligence into the mix.
AFG is an aggregator platform for brokers that provides its users with information about the mortgage market and all kinds of professional development offers. AFG currently provides brokers with information on approximately 4,000 mortgage products offered by approximately 50 lenders. Brokers use this information to best meet the specific requirements of their customers.
At a time when the share of residential real estate is growing digitizes, AFG aims to make this process smoother and more efficient for the 3,000 brokers in its partner network. According to Matt Fries, Chief Information Officer (CIO) of The Australian Finance Group, the company’s new solution reflects the “app-like” experience that is thriving in many other sectors.
“We’ve spent quite a bit of time over the last 12 months really understanding what the opportunities are for us to look at how most brokers currently do business and then how they can engage more digitally with their customers and how we might be able to use technology to improve the quality of results,” he said in a discussion with Computerworld.
The project team developed new and improved processes using a design thinking approach, including customer surveys and interviews. IT professionals then built a prototype, after which the prototype was tried and tested by a user group of key users, allowing the team to further improve the product in cycles.
Oracle in the cloud
The new portal is built on Oracle technology and is hosted in the cloud. According to Fries, the most interesting feature of the portal is the built-in artificial intelligence (AI). “The machine helps brokers gather the right information and ask the right questions, but it also acts as a recommendation engine.” While AFG has around 4,000 products on offer, brokers typically compare only 100 products per customer, with AI making this unboxing process much faster and probably more accurate as well.
The AI engine is also helping brokers consider changes in the banking and finance sector across Australia at a time when new funding models and changing lending behavior are changing the face of the mortgage market. “At the end of the day, brokers should be spending more time connecting with their customers and providing value and advice than just facilitating the process of making sure all the paperwork is done,” Faries said.
The customer experience transformation at Australian Finance Group is supported by a number of external service providers, including Ekulus Consulting, a Melbourne-based IT consultancy specializing in customer experience and Oracle CX Cloud implementation services.
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