Once a Service Member requests SCRA (Servicemembers Civil Relief Act) benefits, a new case is created in the internal case management tool. The SCRA cases go through a process on whether the Service Member is eligible for receive benefits under the legislation.  This process is called decisioning. After a Service Member is confirmed as eligible, they move into the fulfillment workflow.  This is where benefits are applied to their account.  This usually means reducing the interest rate on any debts, eliminating minimum payment requirements, preventing fees from being assessed and even stopping default enforcement.

Specific fulfillment steps differ between lines of business and they require a series of manual steps to be done by agents. Agents were going  through about 5 different systems to be able to complete a fulfillment for an account, which makes the case complex and inefficient. The ongoing issue for the client was simply one of costs.  Manually processing work is expensive.  By reducing the staffing footprint, the client is able to redistribute staff to other areas which further improves bottlenecks and service for Service Members

The solution was to automate the fulfillment steps in the systems of records that have most of the volume of accounts processed. A new microservice was created that is triggered when an agent enters a decision, and executes the calculation and fulfillment steps that agents before did manually. In case of exceptions where the new service is not able to execute it in an automated way, a task is created in an agent queue. If the microservice was able to complete at least some of the tasks, the agent will only need to complete the remaining work.

Due the architecture of Empath that supports multiple, independent code repositories, the solution was developed to be embedded on the existing process. What before was seen as tasks for an agent was converted to the service and changes were made to make the automation transparent for agents.

Successfully ushering in a new era of efficiency and cost-effectiveness for the Service Member, our solution has saved an estimated $1 million per year. The work our team has done saved around 16k annual agents hours, which means they can now spend time on more important tasks. Estimated reduction of 38%  in monthly fulfillment task volume for agents has translated to faster and more accurate customer service. Service Members now receive eligibility notifications within 7-14 days, a stark improvement from the previous 30-day waiting period. The reduction of 50% of the Turnaround Time (TAT) for Fulfillment tasks ensures that clients gain access to benefits and services in a fraction of the time.

Moreover, the solution's ability to automate nearly 70% of TSYS account volume has brought about a fundamental shift in how agents allocate their efforts. The estimated 40% reduction in the creation of Fulfillment tasks reflects not only improved operational efficiency but also a strategic move towards a more streamlined and agile workflow. Finally the new architecture has resulted in an estimated 30% reductions on expenses in Run the Engine (RTE) costs. The solution's comprehensive impact, including an estimated annual OPEX savings of $600,000, underscores its role as a driver of sustainable growth and excellence for the Service Member.

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