Rapport and Rapport360

Transcription

1 Technology Review of International Decision Systems Rapport and Rapport360 by Richard Ryan and Nick Keal November 2011 The Asset Finance Technology Council is a forum for senior IT practitioners from leading asset finance organisations worldwide. Managed by Invigors EMEA, a division of The Alta Group and Asset Finance International the council holds quarterly meetings for discussion, research and the sharing of best practice, and provides objective research on asset finance technology solutions. Asset Finance Technology, all rights reserved

2 Contents 1. Introduction Background and objectives Asset Finance Technology Council Evaluation process and sources Background Overview of IDS Background to Rapport Future Vision Executive summary Alignment of Rapport with key market drivers Customer relationships Multinational capability Cost to serve Compliance and risk management Flexibility and agility Rapport functionality and design Configuration and workflow Front office functionality External systems integration Systems architecture and design 13 ASSET FINANCE TECHNOLOGY COUNCIL NOVEMBER 2011 PAGE 2

3 Introduction Background and objectives The purpose of this paper is to provide a detailed review of International Decision Systems (IDS) frontoffice origination system, Rapport, and its associated back-office integration solution Rapport360. This will be of interest to leasing organizations considering an upgrade or replacement to their current front-office system, to organizations seeking a front-office solution for new leasing business operations or to those wishing to benchmark the functionality of their existing inhouse developed systems. The paper provides leasing organizations with an overview of IDS in terms of the business structure and global reach of the company. It also summarizes the systems portfolio offered by IDS to place Rapport and Rapport360 in context with the overall end-to-end asset finance solutions set. There is also an assessment of the future vision for the solution set in terms of meeting the future requirements of the industry. Research undertaken by the Asset Finance Technology Council identified some specific market drivers which have implications for the functional capabilities and design of asset finance systems. To place the review in context with the business environment in which leasing companies now operate, this paper provides an assessment of how Rapport is aligned with the key market drivers impacting frontoffice systems. A detailed review of the functional capabilities of Rapport and Rapport360 is covered in this paper. These address a comprehensive range of requirements in terms of support for multinational business operations, front-office operational capabilities, process automation through workflow, and ability to integrate with external applications and data sources. Asset Finance Technology Council The Asset Finance Technology Council is a joint initiative between Asset Finance International and Invigors EMEA and was established in June The council comprises CIOs and senior IT decision makers in major national and international asset finance organizations operating within Europe and across the globe. The objective of the Council is to review, research and exchange information on the technology supporting the business operations of asset finance organizations. The Council s activities enable its members to keep abreast of developments in asset finance systems and related technologies, establish and share best practice in IT deployment and to act as a forum for communicating the requirements of member organizations to the IT industry. The Council operates independently of IT systems suppliers and is funded by contributions from its leasing organization members. Evaluation process and sources This paper has been compiled from input provided by IDS in the form of responses to a structured questionnaire together with the provision of technical data and product demonstrations and is believed to be correct at the time of compilation. The findings and conclusions published in this paper are based on our understanding and interpretation of the factual data as provided. Neither Asset Finance International nor Invigors EMEA LLP make any representation or warranty as to the accuracy of information in this report. Whilst this information has been checked with the appropriate sources and every effort has been made to ensure its accuracy, this is naturally subject to change. It is not possible to verify all claims or to confirm each piece of functionality. Vendors may upgrade and enhance the systems reviewed in this study or introduce new ones. Organizations and individuals using this information as part of a systems review or procurement process are strongly urged to undertake their own research, requirements analysis and due diligence. In no event will Asset Finance International or Invigors EMEA LLP be held liable for any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising from the use of the information in this report. Unless otherwise explicitly stated, this report is copyright Asset Finance Technology Council, irrespective of whether a copyright symbol or statement is present. All trademarks are acknowledged. ASSET FINANCE TECHNOLOGY COUNCIL NOVEMBER 2011 PAGE 3

4 Background Overview of IDS International Decision Systems (IDS) is an international, U.S. based software and services business providing lease and loan solutions to the equipment finance industry. IDS has over 30 years experience in supplying asset finance solutions and is one of the leading global players in the sector. It has a particularly strong presence in the U.S. where its systems are used by around half of the major leasing companies. IDS also has an international customer base including both bank-owned and independent leasing companies, as well as several manufacturer captives. Major financial institutions using IDS systems include:- BNY Capital Funding CIT Group De Lage Landen Farm Credit Leasing Services Wells Fargo Equipment Finance Westpac Banking Corp Manufacturer captive finance organizations which are IDS customers include:- Agfa Finance Corp Bombardier Capital Canon Financial Services Ford Motor Credit John Deere Credit Komatsu Financial NEC Financial Services PACCAR Pitney Bowes Volvo Commercial Finance In addition to the two applications covered in this profile, Rapport and Rapport360, IDS offers InfoLease, its fully featured flagship back-office system. InfoLease is a well-established, proven enterprise-scale application which provides a full range of back-office functionality. Rapport and InfoLease have been tightly integrated by IDS to offer a complete end-to-end asset finance solution supporting the complete asset life cycle from origination to end of term. IDS offers a number of other specialist finance solutions:- InfoAnalysis a PC-based quotation tool for the sales force. Hamlet a lease versus buy calculator. TopCalc a cost of car ownership calculator for fleet managers. CreditLine Plus a dealer stocking and inventory finance application. DataDirect a vehicle and LCV data tool for use in creating quotations. While Rapport has been integrated with InfoLease to offer an end to end asset finance solution, both products can be deployed independently if so desired. To service its customer base, IDS has local representation in the USA, UK, Australia, Singapore and India with over 300 personnel providing global sales and support. In addition to software, IDS also provides consultancy services based on business process reviews for Rapport and InfoLease users. Other services offered include implementation services, consulting, training and support for all IDS software products. IDS is privately owned by SV Investment Partners, a New York-based private equity investment company. Background to Rapport Rapport was initially launched in 2003 and is a contemporary, Web-based application focused on frontoffice origination and pricing with support for process automation through configurable workflow and business rules. The current version of Rapport is 6.3, releasing in early Q4/2011. A new version of Rapport is formally released one to two times a year. One of the benefits Rapport provides is the ability to upgrade to a new version without losing any customer-specific configuration and extensions with third-party systems. Rapport360 was introduced in 2010 and provides a unified front-office origination system which integrates and synchronizes with multiple heterogeneous back- ASSET FINANCE TECHNOLOGY COUNCIL NOVEMBER 2011 PAGE 4

5 office systems. Rapport360 enables customer information from multiple servicing systems to be viewed at a consolidated level. Back office information such as exposure, and payment history including delinquency, can be rolled up and viewed from a single screen, providing a single view of customer and single location for critical data. Rapport360 synchronizes customer records between the front office and multiple back-office systems in real time with information updated in one system automatically replicated in the other back office systems. Future Vision For over 30 years, IDS has offered the asset finance industry a robust, enterprise-scale set of integrated solutions supported by an ongoing investment in research and development. IDS vision builds on this experience and investment with the goals of:- Providing asset finance companies with the systems infrastructure that delivers the flexibility and agility required to exploit and respond to the changing dynamics of the markets in which they operate. Enabling organizations to reduce cost to serve by realizing efficiencies in operation through automation and optimization of their business processes. Delivering the capability for companies to manage multinational asset finance businesses with standardized business processes and consistent service levels while providing the flexibility to tailor products and service to meet local market requirements. Ensuring asset finance companies can measure and control risk to help meet compliance requirements at both subsidiary and parent-company levels. Delivering systems capabilities which allow asset finance companies to optimize customer relationships, enabling them to identify and develop more profitable customers, provide the means to cross-sell and upsell throughout the contract lifecycle and retain customer business at the end of lease. Executive summary Rapport is a fully featured, enterprise-scale front-office origination system capable of addressing a wide range of equipment leasing requirements from high volume small ticket flow business through to big ticket lending. The application supports the majority of leasing and loan products and can be configured to meet all commonly-used payment structures. Rapport will support multiple channels to market, including direct sales, vendor programs and brokers as well as providing integration with online third-party Web portals. The flexible configurability of Rapport enables the application to be tailored to meet the requirements of bank-owned lessors, independent asset finance companies as well as the captive leasing operations of manufacturers. Rapport360 addresses the requirements of organizations requiring integration of multiple back office systems under a single front office solution. The system enables organizations with multiple back offices to improve risk management by providing a single, consolidated view of customer exposure and to reduce cost to serve through the implementation of standard policies and procedures. The highly user-configurable nature of Rapport typically enables the application to meet the origination requirements of leasing organizations without requiring customization by the vendor. The user-defined configurable workflow and business rules, combined with the use of Web services, ensure that Rapport can be tailored to match existing business processes and can integrate with external systems and data sources. Rapport offers a comprehensive range of front office functionality including proposal generation, quotations, automated credit scoring and deal booking. The embedded InfoAnalysis Quoting Engine supports both matrix-based rate card pricing as well as asset and riskbased pricing implementations. The requirements of multinational leasing companies are met by the comprehensive multilingual and multicurrency functionality of Rapport. The use of Web services to extend the application s functionality, configurable credit decisioning rules and automated credit checks are particularly powerful features. The system provides users with a clear, intuitive, modern user interface which can be ASSET FINANCE TECHNOLOGY COUNCIL NOVEMBER 2011 PAGE 5

6 configured to meet the functional and corporate branding requirements of the user organization. Rapport has been interfaced with several wellknown credit agencies while Web services enable other custom interfaces to be easily developed. The application is Web enabled, so that internal users, dealers and other intermediaries can create and process applications over the Internet and the system can also be integrated with third-party portals. A wide range of customer and third-party management features are provided by Rapport. Integration with external CRM applications is available with leading CRM applications such as Salesforce.com. Organizations using external CRM systems can utilize Rapport360 s smart synchronization capability to exchange customer record data between the two systems in real-time. Rapport has been developed on the Microsoft.NET platform and is based on modern systems architecture. It will therefore integrate easily with other enterprise applications in organizations using the Microsoft platform on the desktop and in the data center. The option of Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle for the database server provides a choice likely to fit most corporate database standards. Alignment of Rapport with key market drivers Discussions with CIOs and senior operational and IT executives at major asset finance organizations have provided insights into how internal and external business drivers are changing business strategies which, in turn are reshaping the strategies for IT. Although specific factors will vary according to a leasing company s market focus, ownership structure and business scale, there are five major factors driving asset finance businesses which impact their choice of strategic options and operational capabilities. Customer relationships Maintaining quality customer relationships has clear bottom-line benefits to customer retention, referral and cost to serve. However, while it is universally acknowledged that some customer relationships are more valuable than others, measuring actual profitability of customers and introducers can be especially difficult. It may be difficult to obtain a single view of customer with multiple lease administration systems, especially where different back-office systems have been implemented in different countries. This can be a particular issue with multinational customers where systems need to be capable of relating and aggregating data from customers trading under different names into a single entity. With the introduction of Rapport360 in 2010, Rapport has the ability to provide an integrated view of customers with contracts held across disparate back-office systems. This enables asset finance companies to take a single view of customer even though records are spread across multiple back office systems. Companies can choose to manage the relationships with multinational customers on a local or international basis and relationships with customer subsidiaries can be handled on the same terms as those of their parent businesses. By this means Rapport360 provides lessors with the ability to not only offer standardized terms but also to deliver a consistent level of service across a multinational customer base. Response times can be improved as customer data is replicated automatically in real-time across systems and higher transaction volumes can be supported while increasing customer satisfaction. Multinational capability Leasing companies are increasingly moving towards a standardized operational business model across Europe with a consequential shift from country-specific lease administrative systems to a single common system across regional or global operations. Multinational functionality is therefore a primary requirement for a common system which implies support for multiple languages, multi-currency and multi-gaap. Multinational implementation Rapport is currently implemented in 20 countries with over 50 unique customers worldwide. Outside North America, Rapport is used in Europe, Far East and Australia. In Europe, Rapport has been deployed in 12 countries, including Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, ASSET FINANCE TECHNOLOGY COUNCIL NOVEMBER 2011 PAGE 6

7 Figure 1 - Example of Rapport page in Chinese Multicurrency Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. For centralized asset finance business models, Rapport can be configured to allow management of multiple countries from the same application and database. Rapport supports multiple languages by utilizing translation files through an optional module. IDS provides three, non-us English dialects while other dialects can be added. Rapport supports multiple languages in one country by assigning each user ID a language, so allowing them to access the system in their own language. The application supports a wide range of languages including Chinese, Arabic and other multi-byte languages. Rapport provides full multicurrency support as an optional module. Currencies can be activated through the Universal Administration Tool and made available to each user. Exchange rate tables can be imported and maintained for use within the system. Currencies are assigned to the customers and applications while financial fields on applications can be toggled to other currencies for viewing. Rapport enables users to enter an application in one currency and its setups in different currencies. The Application Credit Summary displays the currencies that the applications and setups were entered in and booked in if they differ. ASSET FINANCE TECHNOLOGY COUNCIL NOVEMBER 2011 PAGE 7

8 Rapport360 extends the multinational capabilities of Rapport by supporting cross-border activity. Using Rapport360 linked to multiple back-office systems in different countries, companies can originate customer deals in one country while booking them in another. Similarly, multinational lessors can roll out program offerings or promotional campaigns to dealers and partners across the world. Cost to serve Figure 2 - Rapport Application Credit Summary Customer exposure and payment history information can be gathered in multiple currencies and displayed to the user in one consolidated currency. The total exposure window shows the currency the applications and setups are entered in and converts these to the currency for that customer to give a total rollup. Figure 3 - Rapport Customer Exposure Reporting Cost to serve has become something of a mantra amongst leasing companies with the financial crisis driving a renewed focus on reducing costs and preserving the bottom line. From a systems perspective there are two aspects to this the ability to measure cost to serve accurately at a customer, introducer, vendor level, amongst others, and the role that systems can play in reducing the cost to serve. IT systems not only assist asset finance organizations in measuring and allocating costs, but can also play a key role in reducing cost to serve. By embedding business rules in workflow, business processes can be automated throughout all stages of the asset life cycle. The cost reductions resulting from the efficiency gains and removal of manual processes directly impact cost to serve, particularly for flow business. Rapport enables asset finance companies to reduce cost to serve through supporting the automation and optimization of business processes through business rules and workflow. Manual processes and workarounds can be eliminated by implementing origination processes and decisioning in workflow while underwriting costs can be reduced with automated and more consistent rule-based decisioning. Where disparate back-office systems are deployed, Rapport360 can provide a single front-office interface to these, reducing the requirement for multiple entries, avoiding the need for users to access different systems, automating processes and improving the consistency and integrity of data. Processing costs can therefore be lowered and productivity increased. Rapport360 enables users to keep track of data across different back-office systems, provides an audit trail of changes, facilitates consolidated reporting and allows organizations to track service levels consistently across the business. ASSET FINANCE TECHNOLOGY COUNCIL NOVEMBER 2011 PAGE 8

9 Figure 4 - Rapport360 view of customer exposure Compliance and risk management Compliance is an ongoing overhead for asset finance companies and one over which they have little or no control. The administrative burden of complying with regulations, contractual arrangements, internal policies and procedures has little benefit for the bottom line but has grown considerably as a result of the financial crisis. The most obvious implication for IT systems is the increase in demand for reporting which has led to a greater volume of queries made on asset finance administration systems and also an increase in their complexity. Improvements in risk management have been imposed on the asset finance industry by regulators, including the management and control of arrears and bad debt. As the industry moves forward in an environment of economic uncertainty, managing credit risk remains a key focus for leasing organizations, particularly where the availability of capital remains constrained and margins are under pressure. Rapport meets local regulatory requirements in all countries where it is in use. Both IDS and customers are involved during and after implementation with ensuring that implementations are compliant with regulatory requirements in existing and new markets. In addition to customer feedback, IDS also monitors local requirements through market research and active participation in asset finance industry organizations. Responsibility for compliancy testing is shared between IDS and customers, and also, in some cases, with local third-party partners. Costs incurred securing compliance with local regulations are negotiated with customers. Rapport360 facilitates risk management in organizations with multiple back-office systems. This ensures that customer records are synchronized across systems so that changes made on one system are replicated across others. It also provides a single, consolidated view of customer exposure which can otherwise be difficult to obtain where multinational customer records are spread across disparate systems. Flexibility and agility Since the financial crisis, asset finance companies have had to cope with an increasingly uncertain business environment with economic uncertainty, changes in legislation and an increased focus on managing risk. Nevertheless new business opportunities continue to arise, though in order to exploit these opportunities, organizations need both flexibility, in terms of their ability to develop and market a compelling proposition, and agility, in terms of their speed of response. Executing strategies for new market entry or the acquisition of leasing portfolios places demands on the IT infrastructure. Systems which are inflexible or costly to change, for example requiring customization by the supplier, act as a barrier to progress. ASSET FINANCE TECHNOLOGY COUNCIL NOVEMBER 2011 PAGE 9

10 on its original system which involves managing two systems at least, or migrating the portfolio onto their current system which usually requires a major migration exercise. Rapport360 allows the acquired portfolio to remain on its original back-office system while providing a unified view across both acquired and current portfolios. This not only facilitates administration but also enables consolidated reporting and risk management across both portfolios. Changes across multiple business units can be administered from Rapport360 using adaptive configurability. Organizational growth or change can be managed more easily from a single standardized front-office system while IT complexity and ongoing maintenance costs are reduced. Rapport functionality and design Figure 5 - Rapport Web-based User Interface The embedded workflow and business rules in Rapport allow organizations to set up automated and manual business processes which can be changed easily to reflect new requirements or a change in business environment. Rapport incorporates a Universal Administration Tool which enables workflow to be configured and maintained internally without recourse to IDS. Key variables are parameterized including credit scorecards, business rules and pricing models so that products, terms and processes can be easily changed and new products, terms, or credit policies quickly introduced. Rapport s multinational capabilities, such as support for multicurrency and multiple languages, facilitate the standardization of front-office systems across geographic boundaries so that asset finance companies can enter new geographic markets while leveraging their existing front-office investment. Rapport also supports a wide range of leasing and loan products, which, combined with parameterization, allows organizations to tailor their proposition to meet the requirements of local markets. Rapport360 facilitates the acquisition and management of new portfolios. Typically organizations have the choice of maintaining the acquired portfolio Rapport is a finance origination software application capable of managing a wide range of contracts, from flow business through to highly complex big-ticket deals. Although primarily focused on business-tobusiness markets, Rapport also supports some level of consumer business. Configuration and workflow User Interface Rapport is a user-configurable Web-based application. The default interface configuration of Rapport is a simple, uncomplicated layout. The interface uses intuitive icons, a clear menu structure and familiar Web application controls, such as dropdown boxes, calendar tools and tick boxes. The application follows the standard browser convention of using tabs to reduce complexity on a single page. The Rapport Universal Admin Tool provides customers with the ability to define the look and feel of the application as well as controlling business rules and workflow, configuration and parameterization of the system. The functionality of the Universal Admin Tool includes:- Back-office connection setup Screen layout and field placement User setup and maintenance Role-based security maintenance ASSET FINANCE TECHNOLOGY COUNCIL NOVEMBER 2011 PAGE 10

11 Configuration and parameterization Rapport is highly configurable, allowing users to configure fields, screen layouts, business rules and scorecards. Full training is provided in the use of the configuration functionality during the implementation phase of a project, enabling users to configure the application without recourse to IDS. The Rapport InfoAnalysis Quoting Engine allows users to define pricing models and maintain rate tables to support contract and asset-based pricing. Rapport offers an extensive range of user-defined codes, (e.g. branch, region, payment method, etc.) and free format comments can be added throughout the application. All parameters can be configured at asset, contract, customer and lessor levels plus Rapport stores full audit trails of all configuration actions. Front office functionality Figure 6 - Exchange rate management with the Universal Admin Tool Workflow configurations Business rules configurations Multiple language and currency System alerts and notifications Document templates Integrations to other systems Business rules and workflow Through the Universal Admin Tool, customers can tailor the application to meet existing business processes. The configurable workflow tool utilizes an unlimited number of business rules and processes to drive all activities within the application. The Rapport workflow supports the inclusion of automatic and manual decision-making processes. User security levels control access to, and the rights of users within the system and its applications. Rapport stores a full audit trail, including time, date and user ID, of all changes made within the application. Documentation is provided which details the configuration of the business rules and processes and additionally, Rapport supports comments describing the rules. Changes to the business rules and what-if scenarios on historical data are checked in a test environment, before promoting changes to the production environment. Proposal/Quotation System Rapport incorporates a highly configurable, Web-based quotation and proposal application. User-defined pricing models are set up in Rapport Rules and the InfoAnalysis Quoting Engine. Although Rapport can be configured to capture whatever level of detail is required, it also provides a Quick Quote facility to create a quote with minimal data input. Rapport includes functionality to copy a quotation and generate multiple quotes from that copy. Buyout quotes can be generated directly from Rapport for end-of lease and allow external users the ability to provide this quote information to their customers without logging into multiple systems. Information from back-office systems can be displayed to users in Rapport, providing a single point of information. The use of Web services extends Rapport s functionality, by adding such tasks as the transfer of data to and from external agencies, performing custom financial calculations and communicating with other enterprise applications used within the organization. For example, the External Data Search automatically extracts customer records from other systems and imports them into Rapport while LDAP integration allows user information to be shared between Rapport and corporate Active Directories. Large tender quotations are supported to a certain ASSET FINANCE TECHNOLOGY COUNCIL NOVEMBER 2011 PAGE 11

12 extent, based on configuration, but Rapport does not currently support tactical campaigns. Non-asset related customer agreements are supported when Rapport is not interfaced with InfoLease. Internal users and the sales force can create and access quotes via the Web and the Customer Portal Integration module enables the proposal/quotation system to be directly interfaced with customer and third-party portals. The interfaces with customer portals utilize Web services and data import functionality. This is not a separate module, but built within the base system enabling the application to integrate with any portals that a customer may already have in place. Asset Data Rapport supports an unlimited number of assets and sub-assets per contract. Due to the highly configurable nature of Rapport, any data, including usage data, can be captured at both the asset and sub-asset level. Customer, Supplier/Third-Party Data and CRM Rapport has a role-based organizational architecture which supports multiple parties to a contract, and multiple contacts within a third party. Rapport stores third-party relationships (parent company etc.), and hierarchical views of the customer and its contacts can be created by customization using optional extensions by IDS professional services team. Rapport can store extensive third-party data based on configuration and reporting is available at all levels of a corporation s hierarchy. The organizational structure in Rapport allows for customer, third-party, and related party roles. Rapport supports automated supplier payments, and records payments details, such as automated bank payments references, date paid, etc. Images of invoices and other documents can be stored in the system. An audit trail records all third-party data changes. Commissions Rapport supports an unlimited number of user-defined commission charges, including volume and other bonus calculations. It is possible to automate commission payments. The application also includes commission clawback functionality and can send out information to third-party systems for invoicing. Credit The Scorecards for Rapport module combines credit bureau data with internal credit criteria such as payment history and delinquency information to provide a fully-automated decisioning scorecard. Scorecards can be user-defined or sourced from third parties. Web services provide the links with external data services while workflow and decisioning rules configured using the Universal Admin Tool drive the processing and routing of applications with or without manual intervention as required. User-defined data validity checks are also configured by the user with the Universal Admin Tool. The Portfolio Reviews for Rapport module enables companies to resubmit individual customers or entire portfolios to credit bureaus automatically so that trends in credit scoring can be tracked and customer accounts managed proactively in order to mitigate risk by predicting the likelihood of delinquencies. Rapport has been interfaced with Dun and Bradstreet, Fair Isaac, PayNet, Equifax, Experian and Graydon in the US and UK. Rapport s credit functionality also includes the storage of credit related data such as credit reports and bank statements. Finance Products Rapport supports the majority of common finance products including all main types of leasing and loans. Floor plan stocking can also be supported though this will depend on the specific requirements. The application will support most types of payment structures including balloon payments, RVs, structured payments and secondary/tertiary rentals. External systems integration External systems integration is primarily provided by Rapport360. As an optional addition to Rapport, Rapport360 provides integration between front-office origination and multiple, heterogeneous back-office systems managing disparate portfolios. Changes made to customer data in Rapport360 are automatically replicated in the appropriate back-office systems through smart synchronization. This ensures that all systems are updated in real-time, so an accurate view of the business is always maintained and ASSET FINANCE TECHNOLOGY COUNCIL NOVEMBER 2011 PAGE 12

13 Figure 7 - External integration capabilities of Rapport360 productivity losses and errors associated with rekeying of data are eliminated. Customer management can take place in either front- or within back-office systems. Back office updates are automatically integrated and replicated across the organization. Rapport360 utilizes Web services to integrate with different back-office solutions. While this currently includes IDS InfoLease, other third-party back office systems can be integrated as required. Similarly Rapport360 can integrate information from other sources. Rapport360 gives users an integrated view on different back-office systems through application metadata which provides a single set of fields across the application, irrespective of the data design of the back-office system. Organizations using external CRM systems can utilize Rapport360 s smart synchronization capability to exchange customer record data between the two systems in real-time. Currently Salesforce.com is supported though again, the use of Web services means that integration with other CRM systems could easily be developed. The interface supports data from customers, contracts, assets, comments and messages, but not currently attachments or documents. However, Rapport also provides the ability to integrate with document management systems (DMS). Rapport will send data to the DMS to create documents and can be configured to upload attachments as necessary. Interfaces are also available with credit bureaus though, in this instance, the data exchange is typically one-way. Rapport360 currently has interfaces to Equifax, D&B, Experian, TransAct and Graydon whilst others can be developed as required. Rapport360 enables asset finance companies to report across multiple business operations without recourse to specialist reporting tools and BI systems. By synchronizing and consolidating data in real-time from back-office systems, the application provides organizations with a comprehensive, cross-company view of customer records and activities including credit bureau information, credit scorecards, payment history, arrears and exposure. Business processes across multiple systems are managed in Rapport360 by a feature termed adaptive configurability. This allows administrators to set workflow, screens and business rules to meet the requirements of each business operation but can also ensure consistency and share best practices across the organization. Systems architecture and design Figure 8 - Rapport360 view to back office Rapport is an n-tier application built on an XML/http SOA model. The application comprises a database server, application server and Web server with client interface via Web browser or Windows GUI for the Universal Admin Tool. ASSET FINANCE TECHNOLOGY COUNCIL NOVEMBER 2011 PAGE 13

14 Figure 9 - Rapport Internal Architecture Rapport is a monolithic application in respect of its functional design, but uses Web services to exchange data with external applications or services. Customer, application, contract and asset data are stored natively in XML format in Rapport using definitions which are configurable by the customer. The SOA implementation enables data exchange over http, with the XML transformed for exchange with external applications or services. Rapport includes fixed Web service APIs for synchronizing data with back-office systems but offers open APIs for building and executing Web service callouts to other applications. The functionality has been designed so that business processes can span multiple applications facilitating, for example, the integration of Rapport with separate back-office systems. Rapport is based on the Microsoft Windows platform and runs on Windows Server 2003 and The application is written in.net and Delphi, an integrated development environment for Windows applications. The database server runs on Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle. Both applications run on a single database instance though Rapport360 is capable of fronting more than one back-office system. Rapport and Rapport360 are available for in-house deployment or as hosted services by IDS though its technology partners in Europe. In the U.S. IDS has a Rapport SaaS solution for small- to medium-sized asset finance companies. ASSET FINANCE TECHNOLOGY COUNCIL NOVEMBER 2011 PAGE 14