Jana Small Finance Bank Accelerates Digital Transformation with the UiPath Enterprise RPA Platform

When Jana Small Finance Bank started operations about a year ago, it was looking for innovative ways to transform into a leading digitized bank.

It deployed the UiPath Enterprise RPA Platform for ID management and credit report generation and verification, and could achieve 65-70% reduction in turnaround time (TAT).

Jana Small Finance Bank is among the most innovative and fastest growing small finance banks in India. In its earlier avatar as Janalakshmi Financial Services, it gained recognition as the largest Micro Finance Institution (MFI) in India and was among the ten financial institutions that got approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in 2015 to set up a Small Finance Bank. When its banking operations started, in 2018, the organization was looking for ways to accelerate transformation and establish itself as a leading digitised bank with the highest standards in performance, compliance and financial inclusion.

As a part of its IT strategy, Jana Small Finance Bank decided to use UiPath Robots for key processes like ID management and credit report generation and verification, thereby reducing turnaround time (TAT) by 65-70%.

Planning for new age banking

From the beginning, Jana Small Finance Bank has been proactive in using digitization across its various functions, from onboarding customers to managing records and overall delivery of banking services. With over 500 branches spread across 19 states, the bank needed a solution that could drive its long-term goal of inclusive digital banking. They wanted to create a strong backend IT infrastructure that could be seamlessly connected with the digital interface for better speed, accuracy and efficiency in services.

On recommendation from their IT partner, Ahana Systems, Jana Small Finance Bank decided to deploy the UiPath Enterprise RPA platform for automation of specific, repetitive and monotonous tasks. “Being a new bank, we had to move faster as we had a lot of catching up to do. We realised a lot of other banks had already been using RPA (robotic process automation) quite successfully,” explains Ashwin Khorana, chief information officer, Jana Small Finance Bank.

The need for automation

Before the deployment of RPA, each service request was manually executed. A service desk ticket was created in the system, and service agents were allocated these tickets for processing. This was a cumbersome and time-consuming way of doing things. In the case of ID management, for instance, every time the user forgot his password, the agent would have to first log into the system, unlock the ID, and send an email for new password generation. Considering that there were 300-400 such requests to reset passwords daily, at least three to four hours were spent every day on just managing passwords.

Similarly, for Credit Bureau reports, one had to login to the Credit Bureau agency portal and upload the required Know your customer (KYC) details through an XML file. The reports were then manually downloaded and assessed to decide whether the loan applications should be accepted or rejected based on the credit ratings. The entire activity took about two to three days as it involved manual analysis on multiple Excel files. The bank needed a solution to reduce the manual effort in such activities.

Partnering with the right RPA vendor

Unlike traditional automation that requires writing codes for every process, UiPath Enterprise RPA platform follows an easy-to-use drag and drop method. The tool is even useful in cases where you may not want to automate the entire process as it allows you to automate only the parts required.

Being a new bank we had to move faster as we had a lot of catching up to do. We realised a lot other banks were already using RPA... We picked up processes where we could quickly demonstrate results to the senior management.

Ashwin Khorana • CIO, Jana Small Finance Bank

“The reason why we chose UiPath was mainly because our IT service partner had comfort with the technology. They not only understood our environment well, but also had a good idea about using the RPA tool. This ensured smooth implementation” elaborates Ashwin Khorana. The organization initially decided to start by using a single UiPath Robot to automate the following processes:

• ID Creation, Deletion and Unlock & Reset

• Credit Bureau report Generation and Verification

Selecting the right processes to automate

As part of the proof of concept (PoC), the implementation team wanted to deploy RPA in areas where it could demonstrate significant benefits without impacting other routine functions or creating any major challenges for team members. “We had to pick up something that had the volumes to quickly show results. Before implementing any new technology, we have to first get everyone to agree on the processes after that automation doesn’t take time,” says Khorana.

ID management and credit report generation were the two areas identified to start the RPA journey. Some of the processes of ID management involved approvals. So the team suggested standardization of templates for request as well as approval messages. The business logic was built into the ID creation process to ensure that duplicate IDs were not created.

In case of credit report analysis, it had to gather all the acceptance rules to classify a borrower/co-borrower as “Cleared” or “Rejected”. The business logics were incorporated into the UiPath script so that UiPath robot could do the validation of the borrower/co-borrower’s score and classify them as “Accept” or “Reject” and update the Loan application in CRM accordingly.

Automation brings more accuracy & efficiency

With the deployment of RPA, the bank has been able to significantly bring down the time and effort required for ID management. The activity that was being managed by four to five people earlier is now almost entirely handled by a Robot working round-the-clock. Time taken to reset passwords has been reduced from three to four hours to less than an hour, which means a saving of almost 65-70%.

In case of credit report generation, the cycle time has been reduced from two to three days to one day. Moreover, automation has also brought in more accuracy, and efficiency at every step. Employees can focus their energy on more engaging tasks and used in critical activities, while the monotonous tasks that do not require much intelligence can be entrusted to a robot.

Apart from the savings in time, the processes have also been streamlined to ensure better results. With the standardization of certain templates for approvals and requests, the workflow itself has become more efficient, thereby resulting in better overall performance.

With the successful deployment of the first UiPath Robot, the bank now plans to expand the usage to other functions as well. Eventually, Jana Small Finance Bank intends to use at least one Robot at every branch office so that benefits can be spread across the entire organization.