Despite the popularity of the topic of electronic document management, in Russian banks and the financial sector in general, most of any transactions are executed the old fashioned way, on paper. And the point here is not so much in the conservatism of banks and their clients, but in the lack of adequate software on the market.
The more complex the transaction, the less likely it will be possible to conduct it within the framework of the EDF. For example, a leasing transaction is complex in that it involves at least three parties - the bank, the lessee and the supplier. They often add a guarantor and a pledgor. We decided that such transactions can also be fully digitized, for which we created the E-Leasing system, the first service in Russia that fully provides EDI in such scenarios. As a result, at the beginning of July 2019, 37% of the total number of leasing transactions concluded through E-Leasing. Under the cut, we will analyze E-Leasing in terms of functionality and technical implementation.
We started developing the system at the beginning of 2017. The most difficult thing was to start: to formulate the requirements for the product, to transform ideas into a specific technical task. The next step is to find a contractor. Preparation of technical specifications, consultations - all this took about four months. Four months later, in November 2017, the first release of the system was released, which is quite fast for such an ambitious project. In the first version of E-Leasing, there were functions for requesting and signing documents - not only basic ones, but also guarantee agreements and other additional agreements that may be required in the process of working under a leasing agreement. In March 2018, we added the ability to request documents as part of monitoring, and in July of the same year, we added the ability to send electronic invoices.
How E-Leasing Works
We started developing the system at the beginning of 2017. The whole journey from formulating product requirements to choosing a contractor and releasing the first release took less than a year - we graduated in November.
The request for a package of documents from counterparties is made from our business system based on the Corus SQL database and Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009. All documents that the participants provided as part of the transaction are also sent there for storage. Frontend is an E-Leasing portal that allows suppliers and customers to request, download, print documents and sign them using ECES (enhanced qualified electronic signature).
Now we will analyze the operation of the system in more detail according to the scheme above.
A request is generated from the entity "Counterparty card" or "Project". When a request is sent, records are generated in the request table. It contains a description of the request and parameters. The codeunit object is responsible for generating the request. An entry in the table is created with the Ready status, which means that the request is ready to be sent. The request table contains a description of the request body. All requested documents are in the table of documents. When a document is requested, the value "Requested" is set in the "EDI Status" field.
A job on the CORUS server running on the SQL Agent monitors entries in the query table with the Ready status. When such an entry is found, the job sends a request to the E-Leasing portal. If the submission was successful, the entry is marked in the table with the Responded status, if not, with the Error status. The result of the response is recorded in different tables: the response code from the server and the description of the error, if the request could not be sent, are stored in one table; records describing the body of the response - in another, and in the third - records with files received as a result of the request, with the value Create in the Status field and the Check value in the Scan Status field. In addition, the task monitors events from the E-Leasing portal and generates requests in the request tables, which it processes itself.
Another job monitors entries in the received documents table with a value of Create in the Status field and a value of Verified in the Scan Status field. The task runs every 10 minutes. The antivirus is responsible for the Scan Status field, and if the scan was successful, then the Verified value is recorded. This functionality belongs to the IS service. The codeunit object is responsible for processing the records. If the record in the table of received documents was processed successfully, then it is marked in the Status field with the value Success and the requested document in the "EDI status" field in the document table receives the status "Received". If it was not possible to process an entry in the table of received documents, then it is marked in the Status field with the value Fail and a description of the error is written in the "Error text" field. Nothing changes in the document table.
The third task monitors all records in the document table that have a status that is neither empty nor "Accepted". The task runs once a day at 23:30 and revokes all contractual documentation not signed for the current day. The task generates a request to delete contractual documentation in the tables of requests and responses and changes the "Status" field to the value "Withdrawn" in the table of documents.
E-Leasing by the user
For the user, it all starts with receiving an invitation to join the EDF from our client manager. The client receives an email and goes through a simple registration procedure. Difficulties can arise only if the user's workplace is not ready to work with an electronic signature. This accounts for a significant number of calls to technical support. The system allows the counterparty to give access to his personal account to his employees - for example, accountants for working with invoices, etc.
Register
The further scheme of work is also as simple as possible for each of the parties. The request for transaction documents, as well as the signing of contractual documentation, is carried out through setting tasks in our internal system.
Dossier request
After sending any request or documents for signing to the client, a notification is sent to his email address that the corresponding activity has been generated in his personal account. From his interface, the client uploads a package of documents to the system, puts an electronic signature, and we can consider the transaction. After that, the contractual documentation is signed along the route "Supplier - Client - Sberbank Leasing".
Current contract
Electronic document management in our case does not necessarily involve any client actions from start to finish. You can connect to the system at any stage of the transaction. For example, a client provided a dossier on paper, and then decided to sign a deal in an EDI β this scenario can be implemented quite well. Similarly, customers who have a valid lease agreement with Sberbank Leasing can connect to E-Leasing to receive invoices electronically.
Having calculated the economic effect of using E-Leasing, we offered our customers an additional discount for using the service. It turned out that the absence of the need to travel to the client and supplier for signing, as well as print and staple contracts, as a result reduces the cost of the transaction (creation and maintenance) by 18%.
How will the project develop
At the moment, E-Leasing is working stably, although not flawlessly. The mechanism for sending electronic invoices for our employees is not user-friendly yet. The problem is explained by the fact that this procedure itself is quite complicated, since an EDF operator is constantly involved in it. He issues a receipt stating that he issued an invoice, the manager signs this receipt. Then the user on the other side (client) signs the notification and receipts, which again go through the electronic document management operator. In future versions, we will try to make this process more convenient. The "development zone" also contains the functionality of requesting monitoring documents, which is quite relevant for large clients.
In the next six months, we plan to move the system to a new platform, which will optimize work with EDI, make the interface more understandable and pleasant for the user, and expand the functionality of the personal account. And also add new features - from generating a request to viewing documents for all transactions that the client made through E-Leasing. We hope that the system, which customers, suppliers and guarantors are already actively joining, will become even more convenient for everyone.
Source: habr.com