MGMT474.10
Frank Dinh
Define a BPI Project
For the assignment chosen for the class, I will describe a situation from my previous employer. I
used to work as a litigation quality analyst at JPMorgan Chase and one of my responsibilities
was to review and approve documents and audit accounts before sending them out to our
attorneys. Considering that there were strict deadlines set by the court, we marked these cases
high risk. The suggested situation calls for a change in work turnaround time. It will be
measured by percentage of court documents filed on time. At our current rate, we are
submitting between 90-95% on time, management wants an increase to 98% or higher.
At the time, the process that was used to service the cases was very slow and inefficient. The
first intake of a case is brought to our attention by our attorneys. They would notify the legal
triage team to set up the case in our system. Then triage would then sort the case and forward
it to the appropriate departments (auto finance, mortgage banking, credit, and etc.), they
would also assign specific outside counsel (OSC) to the case, which was dependent on the state
that the court case was filed in. Once the cases get to the department managers, they would
assign the case to a legal support analyst (LSA). The LSA and OSC would work together to gather
all necessary documents and info to put together the case. Once that is completed, the case
would then be sent to the Quality Control team to verify that the documents were correct, the
verbiage is allowed, the figures were accurate, and that the loans were coded correctly. At this
point, if the account needed to be corrected the QC analyst would have to submit a request to
another team to fix errors or they would have to reach out to certain departments to obtain
more information. Once everything is correct and accurate, the case will be passed back to the
LSA. This process will go back and forth until the case is built strong enough to be used and filed
in court by our attorney.
To explore the possible cause of the slow turnaround time, we first have to look at how we
service the loans. All the servicing systems we used were extremely outdated and cumbersome.
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Frank Dinh
When we receive a case, we have to pull up multiple systems in order to review the account.
There has to be a better way to ensure we get the correct information easily without having to
dig through so many different programs. This will increase productivity and ensure that we are
able to submit our work to counsel on time.
The other cause for the slow turnaround time is improper training and a poor staffing structure.
The team was newly formed after the Department of Justice mandated that all banks must
have a quality audit team to review documents and loans. The team was spread out across the
country which made training ineffective and also contributed to communication problems. So
essentially, improper training and poor allocation of resources contributed to quality problems.
Finally, the entire process is inefficient because of the approval process we had to go through.
We sometimes had to get approval from our Assistant Vice President, Vice President, or OSC
before we could resubmit the documents back to the LSAs. This slowed down the process and
contributed to the slow turnaround times.
As you could see, there were a lot of issues with how our case management process worked.
When working with legal cases where our company could be fined millions of dollars it is crucial
to make sure that our work is correct and that our deadlines are met. That is why a business
process improvement project should be considered.
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Frank Dinh
BPI Analysis
After creating the As-Is process flow it came to my attention how convoluted the process was.
Considering how important gathering and reviewing the documents is, the process needed to
be changed in a way that could speed how efficient the cases were being passed.
As the case moved down the swim lanes, each level could be a cause for potential slowdowns.
The exchanges between each team or person could be delayed because they would need to
manually assign the case to the lower level. All these people have other tasks so I was not
surprised some cases that were assigned a week earlier finally reached the litigation support
analyst to be reviewed. The time lost is critical here as every day the case is not worked, could
delay the court filings.
As mentioned in the the earlier document, when the approval process needed to be approved
by Assistant Vice President, Vice President, and Outside Counsel this caused a major slowdown
in the process. We need to review the process in order to determine which cases needs specific
approval and identify an alternative solution in order to streamline this process in order to get
high risk cases reviewed.
Another key problem that was identified was the lack of interaction between the Outside
Counsel and the Quality Control Analyst. If we could improve the communication between the
parties involved, we could cut down on approval time. This could eliminate the process of
having the review go back to the Litigation Support Analyst by going directly to the OSC for the
review and approval.
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Court
MB LITIGATION AS-IS PROCESS
Frank Dinh | October 28, 2016
Documents Filed
Case Created
End
Notified of Case
Assigned to
Attorney
Notified of Case
Documents
received
Codes account
and sorts by
department
Assigns to
department and
outside counsel
Receives case
and loan
information
Assigns to Legal
Support Analyst
No
Litigation Support Analyst
Litigation AVP
Triage Team
Internal Attorneys
Start
Receives case
and loan
information
Gathers
information
Creates
documents
Sends to QC
Manager
Receives case
documents
Yes
Changes
needed?
No
Yes
Does
changes
need OSC
approval?
Changes made
and sent back to
QC analyst
Request
approval from
OSC
Quality Control AVP
Yes
Receives case
documents
Assigns to QC
Analyst
Approve
changes?
Review case
documents
No
Yes
Quality Control Analyst
Yes
Receives case
documents
Audits case
documents
Is this a
high risk
case?
No
Outside Counsel
Are the
documents
correct?
No
No
Are the
documents
corect?
Yes
Yes
Received
Request received
Are the
changes valid?
No
MGMT474.10
Frank Dinh
BPI Changes Made
For the To-Be process map I came up with some ways to create a better flow and decrease the
number of times the case gets passed down. This will help with getting the case to the correct
people in order to speed up the process. As mentioned earlier, it is extremely important to get
these cases filed back with the court in a timely manner.
The first thing that I decided to do was remove the involvement of the Department Managers.
Sending them the case only delayed the process, so the triage team will now be responsible of
assigning the cases to the Legal Support Analysts. The managers will still be notified of the
assignment, but they will no longer be responsible for that activity. To add on to the triage
team’s responsibility, they will now code the account accordingly. Once triage receives the
case, they should immediately mark the account as high risk. This should indicate to the Legal
Support Analyst that it is high priority.
The second suggestion I would make is to create a new position from the Quality Control Team
that would have higher authority to work these high risk cases. This will eliminate the extra
process of having the QC manager approve the review. Now after the LSA puts together the
case files, they know where to send it for review.
The final change I decide to implement was to have QC analysts communicate directly with
Outside Counsel in order to approve changes to the files. This would cut out a major slowdown
problem by having these approvals go directly to the appropriate parties. Once these approvals
are made, it would go directly back to the LSAs to correct or send to the court to be filed.
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Court
MB LITIGATION TO-BE PROCESS
Frank Dinh | October 31, 2016
Documents Filed
Case Created
Documents Filed
End
Triage Team
Internal Attorneys
Start
End
Notified of Case
Assigned to
Attorney
Notified of Case
Documents
received
Code Account
Litigation Support Analyst
No
No
Quality Control Analyst 1
Received
Gathers
information
Creates
documents
Require
Review?
Decision
Yes
Yes
Receive Case
Audits case
documents
Quality Control Analyst 2
High Risk?
Yes
Decision
Yes
Are the
documents
correct?
No
No
Receive Case
Audits case
documents
Obtained
Change
Approval?
Outside Counsel
No
Received
Review Change
Request
Receives case
documents
Changes
needed?
Yes
Changes made
and sent back to
QC analyst
MGMT474.10
Frank Dinh
Organizational Change
After reviewing the process improvement project, I believe there will be a variety of changes
throughout the legal department. Change management will be needed in order to implement
these improvements. The method of this will vary from communication plans, training plans,
and meetings.
First of all, from a technical perspective we plan on working with the IT department in
redesigning the case management system in order to code the accounts more efficiently and
clearly. We will also be implement a new case docket system that will allow the analysts to pull
up case files to sort and save accordingly. The introduction to this new system and the updates
to the old systems will require a training plan put in place to ensure successful transitions.
From an organizational perspective on change, the case files will now be forwarded straight to
the legal support analysts and quality control analysts which means it will bypass the
department managers. They will still be notified of the assignment, but will not take part in
assigning the cases to their team members. The LSAs and QCAs will also be in close contact with
the outside counsel and any changes to the documents will be directly requested in the
auditing subprocess. Since their will be more work done on the triage end of the process, we
will be looking to open new positions in order to fulfill the work demands. These changes will
be managed with a communication plan to ensure everyone is on the same page.
The changes done on a cultural level will focus on the emphasis of quality work and timeliness.
Because these are litigation cases, the accuracy of the documents and information presented in
court is crucial. It is also important that the cases be worked within a reasonable timeframe as
late court filings can result in fines to the organization. We will focus on implementing this
mindset by providing training to key management figures that will focus on motivation and
team building. We will also work out a employee recognition system in order to promote
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Frank Dinh
quality work. Providing these extra training and incentive will benefit in improving the culture
within the department.
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MB Litigation BPI Project
Stakeholder Analysis
Stakeholder(s)
Role
Interest Level
Influence Level
How SH will be effected
How could SH contribute
Approach
Patrick Sang
VP - Legal
High
High
Head of department responsible
for litigation work
Input on issues with the overall
picture of the process
Key Stakeholder, will need to be
informed weekly and lead weekly
meetings
Sheldon Maglocke
AVP - In House
Counsel
High
Moderate
Head of team that receives initial
cases
Input on case filing process
Key Stakeholder, will participate in
daily meetings
Raymond Choo
AVP - IT
Low
Moderate
Head of team responsible for case
processing system
Input on coding the case files
Will be kept informed through
email and weekly meetings
Michael Barrow
AVP - Triage
High
Moderate
Head of team responsible for
sorting and assigning cases
Input on process for assigning
cases to appropriate channels
Key Stakeholder, will participate in
daily meetings
Mike Tanner
AVP - Legal
Support
High
High
Head of team responsible for
gathering documents and info for
case
Input on the main bulk of the
work that is done here
Key Stakeholder, will participate in
daily meetings
Armando Reyes
AVP - Quality
Control
High
Moderate
Head of team responsible for
auditing and correcting cases
Input on the audit process
Key Stakeholder, will participate in
daily meetings
Don Nugent
AVP - Outside
Counsel
Low
Moderate
Responsible for outside counsel
legal services
Input on work being sent
externally to OSC
Will be kept informed through
email and weekly meetings
Byron Murphy
DOJ
Representative
Low
Low
Work with Department of Justice
in determining rules and
regulations
Could be used as Subject Matter
Expert to assess case filing
information
Will be informed through weekly
emails
Dino Nayune
Human
Resources
Low
Low
New process will open up new
posititions and training
requirements
Hiring and Training purposes
Will be informed through weekly
emails and involvement will
depend on need
MB Litigation BPI Project
Stakeholder Analysis
High
High
Will be responsible for process
improvement project
Planning project
Key stakeholder, will be involved
in daily meetings
In House Counsel
High
Low
Group of attorneys that will
receive initial cases
Input on case filing process
Will be informed through weekly
emails
IT Department
Low
Low
Will look at case processing
system
Input on coding the case files
Will be informed through emails
whenever required
Triage Team
High
Low
Will look at process of sorting and
assigning
Input on process for assigning
cases to appropriate channels
Will be working closely with
process improvement project
Legal Support Team
High
Low
Roles will need to be reevaluated
to increase efficiency
Will have the most input on
process improvement ideas
Will be working closely with
process improvement project
Quality Control Team
High
Low
Roles will need to be reevaluated
Will have input on document
to increase efficiency
rejection and acceptance criterias
Outside Counsel
Low
Low
Frank Dinh
Project Manager
No major effect
Will have input on approval
process
Will be working closely with
process improvement project
Will be contacted when needed
MGMT474.10
Frank Dinh
BPI Project Costs
Since this is a year long process, we have projected the expected cost annually.
Category
Labor Cost
Employee Salary
System Developer
Outside Counsel
Description
Expected Cost
270,000 hours @ $43
120 hours @ $53
520 hours @ $300
~$11.6 Million
$6,360
$156,000
Tools
MSP
Microsoft Office
PACER
Training
Material
Instructor
Administrative
Travel Expense
Managers Salaries
Vice Presidents
Assistant Vice Presidents
Office Space
Utilities
Supplies
Taxes
Computer Equipment
Office Furniture
Miscellaneous
TOTAL
$72,500
$72,500
$36,250
16 hours @ $100
80 hours @ $150
$1,600
$12,000
$290,000
3 VPs @ $160,000
12 AVPs @ $110,000
180 Employees @ $4,200
$480,000
~$1.3 Million
$756,000
$315,000
$125,000
~$1.6 Million
$360,000
$250,000
$324,000
~$17.8 Million
I have split up the categories into labor, tools, training, and administrative.
For employee salary the first step I took was to calculate the average time (per hour) spent
working on a case. After reviewing the To-Be process map I estimated that 20 hours of labor is
spent working on each case. To calculate the labor hours per year I took the estimated amount
of cases per year (13,500) and multiplied by 20. This gave me the number of 270,000 hours per
MGMT474.10
Frank Dinh
year. This amount of hours plus the salary of $43/hour gave me as estimate of $11.6 million.
We will procure externally a system developer who will be tasked with coding the MSP
(Mortgage Servicing Program) to be more user friendly. This will help increase work efficiency
and speed up the case review process. The expected timeframe to complete this will be 3
weeks. Outside counsel is expected to be billed 10 hours a week for legal advice. The cost for all
the labor services is expected to be approximately $11.7 million.
The tools we will be using to service the loans will be MSP, Microsoft Office, and PACER (used to
pull up court documents). In order to assess these systems, we will have to pay a licensing fee.
The yearly fees are estimated to be $181,250 for these licenses.
Training will have to be completed in order to implement the new changes. It is expected that
the training materials will take 16 hours to develop. We will bring in two instructors who will
spend one week training our staff. Training is expected to cost $13,600.
The administrative cost will include business expenses such as travel expenses, manager
salaries, office space, utilities, supplies, taxes, computer equipment, office furniture, and other
miscellaneous expense. With manager salaries we are expected to have 3 Vice Presidents and
12 Assistant Vice Presidents. For office space we calculated that with 180 employees at 175
square foot per person, we would get 31,500 sq feet of office space. At $2 per sq foot, this
would be $63,000 per month. Over a course of a year, the rent would be $756,000.
Total cost of the entire business process improvement project is estimated to be $17.8 million.
MGMT474.10
Frank Dinh
BPI Final Project Metrics
How the mortgage banking litigation department measures its performance is crucial because
of the legal and financial implications involved. These measurements must be reliably and
consistently performed in order to have quantifiable metrics to determine the success of the
BPI project. It must align with the department’s objectives, which is to ensure that the intake of
cases are properly handled correctly, in a timely manner, and accurately. We will go into further
details below.
The first form of metrics that will be looked at is how correct the cases are coded and assigned.
As it currently stands, once a case is opened it is submitted to the triage team to code. This
must be done correctly as it determines how the loan is worked on when it is currently in
litigation. For example, if their is a case that is opened against us then the loan that is
associated with the case must be suspended so that we do not collect or assess any fees against
the loan. This would be a direct violation and cause problems down the road. How we will
assess this is the percent of loans that is kicked back to the litigation department after it has
been closed. If a case is ever opened against us for mishandling of account, it would be
considered a mark against us. This should be limited to less than 1% of all cases worked and any
more would fail this metric.
The second metric that will be considered is the accuracy of the documents that is drawn up.
When we receive cases we will be asked to gather supporting documents in order to file our
own motions and requests. When these documents are created and submitted in court the
legal verbiage and any figures must be correct and/or match with information we have on
hand. For example, if counsel requests that we present a payment history on the owner’s
default account than the figures and dates must be accurate. It is important as presenting
incorrect information to court can cause delays and hurt our case. How this will be measured is
having management pull random documents to audit the analyst’s work. We will also look at
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Frank Dinh
the rejected documents by the judge for having incorrect information. The rejected rate should
be below 1% to determine success.
Finally, we have to look at the timeliness of our filed documents. When we receive the cases,
the judge orders them to have certain information filed by a specified deadline. If we have to
request an extension or we miss this deadline, the judge may assess the company a fine. How
this metric will be evaluated is by the rate of cases filed in terms of percentage. As it currently
stands, the as is process has us returning cases more than 90% on time. The goal is to bump up
the percentage of timeliness to over 98%.
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BPI Final Project Wrap Up
The main purpose of the BPI project is to increase the quality of our work and to ensure that
the case handling process is done in a timely matter. We found deficiencies during the intake of
the cases, issues with assigning the cases, an inefficient reviewing process, and poor
communication channels. We are expecting an improvement of this process by cutting out
certain steps, creating a new position, and streamlining communication between the internal
and external groups. The next step requires us to obtain approval from key executives in our
department. Once approved, we will call a meeting within the department with all the
stakeholders in order to kick off the project. The next few weeks will be used to gain
information about the servicing platform in order to implement key changes in its coding. We
will then have to issue a requisite for a new Quality Control position that will have approval
clearance for high risk documents. The next step is to reach out to outside counsel to develop
and implement a new communication plan with the Legal Support team and QC team. After
these key steps are completed, we can then focus on creating and delivering the training
material to all the affected parties. Once we that is completed, we will test the new process and
focus on the key metrics. We will roll out the new process once we are satisfied with the
results. At this point, the focus will be on the organizational change and ensuring everyone is on
the same page with the new process.
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Frank Dinh
The project will start on January 1st with the following activities planned:
Activity
Executive Approval
Target Completion
December 21, 2016
Project Kick Off
January 1, 2017
Mortgage Processing System Coding Completed
January 31, 2017
Requisition for New Position
February 7, 2017
OSC Communication Plan Completed
February 15, 2017
Training Materials Created
February 28, 2017
Training Completed
March 14, 2017
Testing of New Process
March 28, 2017
Review of Process
Full Roll Out
April 13, 2017
May 1, 2017
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