Hammonds Direct turns regulatory requirement into business opportunity with help from Skywire Software

New automated system turns delivery of HIPs into a source of revenue

Hammonds Direct, one of the UK’s leading providers of conveyancing services, has turned a regulatory requirement into a new source of revenue by implementing a new, automated system for producing HIPs (home information packs). The new system uses Documanage – the robust workflow and content management component of Docuflex, Skywire Software’s leading customer communications management (CCM) suite for financial services – to manage workflow and store documents for Web presentment.

Hammonds Direct acts on behalf of some of the UK’s largest financial institutions, estate agency chains and major companies dealing with the transfer of domestic property. The recent introduction of HIPs legislation in the UK requires home sellers to supply a home information pack – containing legally binding information relevant to the sale – on all residential properties. Already processing 10,000 –12,000 conveyancing transactions per month, Hammonds Direct recognized the need for an improved workflow and document management system, which could deal with the projected volume and complexity of HIPs-compliant documents.

Working closely with the Hammonds Direct technical team, Skywire Software designed a system to deliver a fast, transparent service for creating HIPs in response to the legislation.

Tim Smith, technical architect at Hammonds Direct, commented: “We chose Skywire Software because we wanted a system that would interface with their Documanage software, which our research showed was one of the best available.”

The new system produces dynamic, data-driven HIPs from documents residing in the Documanage database, and presents them via the Web. The flexibility of the solution has allowed Hammonds Direct to create eight (at present) different layouts of HIPs to meet the branding needs of multiple clients.

Smith continued: “This was a valuable innovation, which put us well ahead of our competitors. This system plays a key role in establishing Hammonds Direct as a major supplier of HIPs to the market in substantial volumes. We expect the service developed with Skywire Software to deliver a return on investment within two years”.

To fully implement the solution, Skywire Software consultants provided training to in-house technical staff along with best practices guidelines during the course of the implementation project. The solution from Skywire Software, which includes document workflow for legal conveyancing, is now used to manage over 30 million individual documents, with over 10 million documents active at any given time.

Smith added: “Skywire Software’s solution has provided huge cost savings, reducing our annual maintenance for document management software by 90%. It has given us a reliable and scalable method to deliver workflow documents to the web.”

Jennifer Slaughter, director of professional services, EMEA, at Skywire Software commented: “Skywire Software has deep domain expertise in financial services, having worked with some of the largest financial services companies in the UK. We are committed to continuous innovation and customer satisfaction, and we are pleased to have been able to provide both to Hammonds Direct, helping the company meet both its compliance and business goals.”

For more information about how Skywire Software can help your company turn the HIP regulatory requirement into a business opportunity visit www.skywiresoftware.com/hip/.