Success Stories
Getting the Right Solution - Application Development
Organization Overview
The Jefferson Group is a Birmingham-based company that offers various financial services to its corporate customers. One of the financial services that The Jefferson Group offers is managing tax lien portfolios for banks and other financial institutions.
Drivers
The process for managing tax lien portfolios requires gathering and tracking the relevant information on each account which can include property information, customer information, local jurisdiction rules, and payment information. Having complete and accurate data is important to ensuring the desired return on investment. When The Jefferson Group first began providing these services, they knew that tracking the details of each lien was critical to the success of each portfolio. To ensure success, they began researching a number of tracking tools from spreadsheets to pre-packaged financial applications.
As their business began to expand rapidly, it became evident that The Jefferson Group would not be able to track their portfolio using standard spreadsheet applications. However, due to the specific details that need to be tracked on each lien, most of the pre-packaged financial applications lacked the flexibility they needed for the task.
Solution
After realizing they would not find the solution in a canned package, The Jefferson Group decided to have a custom database solution built by an IT solutions provider. While this got The Jefferson Group closer to their target, they found it difficult for the Developers to translate their core business needs into a useful product.
Finally, The Jefferson Group turned to MicroPulse for advice. MicroPulse first sought to understand the core business objectives for the project and then began looking at the unique requirements of tax lien management. MicroPulse then reviewed the existing tools and applications that The Jefferson Group was using to determine what direction to take.
Leveraging The Jefferson Group’s existing investment, MicroPulse modified the existing data structure to build a new solution that allowed The Jefferson Group to easily track, manage and expand their tax lien management business. Once the initial development project was complete, The Jefferson Group also engaged MicroPulse to provide ongoing support services through a Managed Service offering.
Outcome/Benefits Achieved
Through this process, The Jefferson Group was able to get an application that fit their specific needs and allowed them to use technology to enable their business, not business enable their technology. In addition, they have been able to meet the requirements of their customers, easier manage properties, and reduce time spent reporting and managing data.