Redefining standard.
How we worked with a family business to shake-up a traditional industry and reinvigorate customer experiences.
We’ve seen 18% growth since introducing the new system.
Paul Langley
Chairman, Estone
Introducing Loop.
Loop is a new approach to credit applications, administration and management. A software application designed to shake-up a traditional marketplace and redefine expectations for the 21st Century.
The software has been designed and developed to enable entirely remote processing or to augment more traditional in-person interactions.
Loop
has enabled Estone to offer a far richer experience to their customers.
Breaking the frame.
The Estone team relied on several 3rd party software applications for various elements of loan processing. Multiple systems were challenging to work with and the mix of technologies and processes meant a lot of duplicated effort and a greater chance of administration issues and poor data.
The management team could not find an off-the-shelf provider that could enable their modern vision of the industry. Conversations around commissioning an in-house solution began and after discussing their needs with several developers the management team elected to work with us due to our agnostic approach to software development and initial contextualising of the challenges and opportunities we demonstrated could be achieved.
A helping hand.
With no prior experience of software project planning a partner that could provide pro-active input was a key requirement.
Before a line of code was committed, we worked closely with the team to brainstorm, and to mutually educate each other from both technical and industry perspectives.
We needed to be aware of both current and future regulations, something the Estone team were keen to lead within the industry.
Security was also a key requirement. We advised on best practice to ensure the Microsoft Azure infrastructure was planned and specified appropriately.
Open minds.
Having sketched the initial direction, we were keen to get under the skin of the day-to-day requirements of the application.
When reinventing operational process it is key to gain insight from end-users to truly understand requirements and enhancements that will ultimately improve users daily tasks and effectiveness.
The Estone team were very receptive, holding several workshops, canvassing opinions of their staff to ensure both 'buy-in' and to ensure knowledge gaps were catered for.
The discovery and development process were a true team undertaking and the application refelcted the collaborative spirit behind the development process.
What we've ended up with at the end - it's gone way beyond what we expected it to be.
Paul Langley
General Manager, Estone
Microsoft technologies used by Loop.
The application utilises several Microsoft technologies and we continue to research and develop enhancements utilising the Microsoft stack.
Cloud Based Infrastructure
We utilise the Microsoft Azure cloud computing platform to create, deploy, and manage our customers' infrastructure in a more efficient and cost-effective way.
On Demand Data
Azure SQL can easily scale up or down on demand enabling us to efficiently manage customers' workload and application performance.
Automated Failover
Built in disaster recovery features automatically replicate data to secondary geographical regions in the event of an outage to help maintain application availability.
Proactive Security
We implement automated cloud-native security solutions to detect and respond to potential threats to our customers' applications.
AI Technology
By utilising Azure AI technologies we can provide our customers with advanced capabilities for machine learning, cognitive services, and natural language processing to enhance automation and decision-making processes.
Data Protection
Our customers' critical data and workloads are protected through continual cloud based monitoring, backup and restoration.
Hello world.
Loop allows Estone to seamlessly manage their loan process.
Loan applications, customer management, credit checks, underwriting, approval and payment collection is now handled by one application. Hugely reducing paperwork, bureaucracy and ultimately letting agents provide a better level of service.
Migrating 7 years’ worth & 3 million rows of data from the incumbent system over to Loop ensured business continuity and minimised friction for the change-over.
At the time of launch much of the administration was done by staff in the homes of customers.
As the pandemic hit and remote processes became normalised, Loop was able to support the process change and was as effective remotely as originally intended in-person. A factor that gave Estone stability during challenging times.
Integrations with 3rd party partners and credit agencies mean a seamless experience for both users and customers.
Thinking outside with Jay & Charlotte Langley.
General Mangers, Estone Ltd.
What surprised you?
The most enjoyable part for me was the sit down with Richard at the beginning where we did the original specification document.
It was great to see our business through the lens of somebody else. He brought a lot of ideas that we may have never fully been able to capture with us only seeing what we see on a day-to-day basis.
What was fun?
What we've ended up with at the end - it's gone way beyond what we expected it to be - both what it’s got currently and its potential moving forwards. It’s not just one piece of static software.
What's next?
We’ve got additional development work we want to embark on.
At the moment, for internal communications, all our staff have an off-the-shelf chat system on their phones. But we want to get away from having extra systems and instead centralise it within the software so that the office can go onto loop and they’ve got a chat channel to speak with individual agents and agents can reply back.
Client Success.
We've worked with numerous partners, delivering scalable application development, technical insight and recommendations. We're confident we have previous experience that will add value to any challenge we're presented with.
We're proud to be a Certified Microsoft Partner.
This recognises customer excellence and Microsoft product expertise and puts us amongst the top 5% of Microsoft Partners worldwide.
Drop us a line.
We love hearing from like minds looking to challenge standard.
You can pick our brains on any number of related subjects from Proof-of-Concept and development of applications to infrastructure and security we'll happily discuss how we can help.
Email us:
hello@wearebluebox.com
Call us:
01684 362778
You can also find us here:
