WO2001063493A1

WO2001063493A1 - On-demand application forms

Info

Publication number: WO2001063493A1
Application number: PCT/AU2001/000073
Authority: WO
Inventors: Barry Trevor Thomas
Original assignee: Lending Technology Services Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2000-02-23
Filing date: 2001-01-25
Publication date: 2001-08-30
Also published as: AUPQ579500A0

Abstract

A method of generating an application form for a combination of transactions, on demand, involves the steps of: determining a plurality of application form fields which contain pieces of information required for the completion of the application form, compiling a database which contains transaction types, application form fields and links which indicate which application form fields are required for a particular transaction type, selecting a combination of one or more transactions from the plurality of different available transaction types and generating an application form which contains all of the application form fields required for each of the selected transactions, but which does not have redundant application form fields. This method also serves to increase the efficiency with which a financial services organization provides products and services.

Description

ON-DEMAND APPLICATION FORMS

Field of the Invention This invention relates to a method of generating an application form on demand for a combination of transactions. It relates particularly but not exclusively to a method of improving efficiency in a financial services organization by using application forms generated on demand. The following description relates particularly to the financial services environment, but it is to be understood that the invention is not so limited.

Background to the Invention

It is becoming increasingly common for suppliers of financial products (for example, home or personal loans, credit cards, and various forms of insurance) to offer these products as "bundles". Thus, for example, the "purchase" of a home loan might automatically entitle the borrower to apply for a low-cost or free credit card. Applying for a financial product typically involves filling in an application form. Depending on the exact nature of the product being applied for the application form can be very lengthy and time-consuming to fill in. An application for a home loan, for example, will typically be much lengthier than an application for a credit card. This is because the risk to the lender is directly related to the amount of money being lent - the more risk, the more questions the lender will want to ask to. try to assess that risk.

Application forms for financial and insurance products or services typically ask very similar sets of questions - for example all of them would ask questions about the applicant's name and address. As a consequence, applying for multiple products can require frustratingly redundant question answering.

A different, though related, problem is that the approval processes for such product applications are typically handled by separate departments within the lender organisation. Redundant answers are thus redundantly verified, with the result that costs are higher and efficiencies lower than they could and should be. Summary of the Invention

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of generating an application form on demand for a combination of transactions, including the steps of: (a) for each of a plurality of different transaction types, determining a plurality of application form fields, each field being a piece of information required for the application form for a transaction;

(b) compiling a database containing transaction types, application form fields, and links indicating the particular application form fields required for each transaction type;

(c) selecting a combination of one or more transactions from the plurality of different transaction types; and

(d) generating an application form which contains all of the application form fields required for each of the selected transactions but does not have redundant application form fields.

The solution provided by this aspect of the invention to the above- described problem rests upon two facts:

1. An application form can be formally described as a data structure comprised of elements for "name", "address", "income" and so on. This data structure can be stored in a computer. This data structure can be used to construct an application form - that is, a form can be automatically generated listing each of the elements (questions) along with a field for the applicant to enter an answer to each question.

2. Every piece of information that a lender may require in support of applications for any of a defined group of products can be pre-determined and given a label unique within that product group (e.g. the element for an applicant's last name might be defined as always having the label

"surname" in all application forms).

The problem of redundant questions on multiple application forms can be resolved by generating a single application form as a merge of the application forms for each product. For example, if a customer requests a home loan and a credit card, the data structures for the respective application forms can be compared. Duplicates (such as "surname") can be ignored. Formally speaking, for credit cards can be created. The applicant has to answer each question once, and only once. Similarly the answer provided to each question need only be assessed once within the lender's approval process.

A system according to the first aspect of the invention does not require that the application form be filled out on a computer. The merged application form can be displayed on screen (or on another computer display device) and filled in by the customer or by a customer service operator directly on the computer, or alternatively the application form may be printed out on demand and filled in by hand. According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of improving efficiency in a financial services organization, including the steps of:

(a) for each of a plurality of different service and/or product types offered to customers by the organization, determining a plurality of application form fields, each field being a piece of information required for an application form to be completed by a customer when applying for one of the services or products;

(b) compiling a database containing service and/or product types, application form fields, and links indicating the particular application form fields required for each service or product type;

(c) selecting for a customer a combination of one or more services or products from the plurality of different service and/or product types; and

(d) generating an application form which contains all of the application form fields required for each of the selected services and/or products but does not have redundant application form fields.

This second aspect of the invention is directed towards financial service organizations. Efficiency may be particularly enhanced if the method includes the further steps of:

(e) determining verification and approval procedures required according to the organisation's practice for each of the services and/or products selected for the customer; (f) determining any overlapping steps in the verification and approval procedures required for different services and/or products selected for the customer; and (g) conducting the overlapping steps only once, thus eliminating redundancy Brief Description of the Drawings

The invention will hereafter be described in greater detail by reference to the attached drawing, which shows an example form of the invention. It is to be understood that the particularity of the drawing does not supersede the generality of the preceding description of the invention.

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a process according to an embodiment of the invention.

Detailed Description

A very much simplified example of the invention is illustrated in Figure 1. The financial organisation in question has three products (or "transaction types") on offer, namely a home loan, a personal loan and health insurance. The application forms for these products might ask customers to provide the following pieces of information:

Real application forms would or course have many more questions and repeatedly answering the same questions would be both annoying to the customer and a disincentive to purchasing more than one product or service.

The invention involves breaking down the questions that are asked of applicants for each product (or "transaction type") and converting them into "application form fields", where each application form field is a piece of information required for the application form for a product. As shown by Figure 1 , the transaction types and application form fields are then compiled into a database, with links indicating the particular application form fields required for each transaction type. The customer then selects the products which he or she wishes to purchase. The system then generates an application form which contains all of the application form fields required for each of the selected products, but does not have redundant application form fields. Each identifiably duplicate question appears only once on the application form generated by the computer.

Thus, if the customer were to select all three of the products offered in the example of Figure 1 , the merged application form would have the following questions:

Even in this very simple example the total number of questions to be answered has been reduced from ten to five.

A significant advantage of this invention is that it decreases the effort required of a consumer to purchase more than one financial product at a time. This both offers convenience for consumers and increases the chances of a vendor being able to cross-sell multiple products to each customer. A further advantage of preferred aspects of the invention is that the efficiency of the verification and approval processes of a financial services organization can be enhanced.

It is to be understood that various alterations, additions and/or modifications may be made to the parts described previously without departing from the ambit of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method of generating an application form on demand for a combination of transactions, including the steps of: (a) for each of a plurality of different transaction types, determining a plurality of application form fields, each field being a piece of information required for the application form for a transaction;

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the application form is generated on a computer screen or display.

3. A method according to claim 1 wherein the application form is generated on a printer.

4. A method according to claim 1 wherein the transaction types are financial or insurance transaction types.

5. A method of improving efficiency in a financial services organization, including the steps of:

(a) for each of a plurality of different service and/or product types offered to customers by the organization, determining a plurality of application form fields, each field being a piece of information required for an application form to be completed by a customer when applying for one of the services or products; (b) compiling a database containing service and/or product types, application form fields, and links indicating the particular application form fields required for each service or product type;

6. A method according to claim 5 including the further steps of:

(e) determining verification and approval procedures required according to the organisation's practice for each of the services and/or products selected for the customer;

(f) determining any overlapping steps in the verification and approval procedures required for different services and/or products selected for the customer; and

(g) conducting the overlapping steps only once, thus eliminating redundancy in the verification and approval process.