Business Process Redesign

SBA's Business Process Redesign

Some factors identified by the SBA that affected its ability to provide timely disaster assistance and application processing are as follows.

* The DCMS system was incapable of handling large volume transactions as it used the 1994 Northridge earthquake as a bench mark for its new system. This benchmark did not consider any disaster simulations or risk models for large catastrophes that could affect its application volume.

* While implementing the new DCMS system the SBA did not take into account user access, as during the disaster large volume applications could not be processed due to user access issues. This could have been due to insufficient user licenses to operate on the software.

* Another major problem was that DCMS system was not tested for issues during maximum user capacity and as such they found out later that the wrong servers were installed by the contractor that could not support the initial planned capacity which led to system instability, slow response times and system outages. (gao.gov)

According to Laudon & Laudon, information technology can be used by the SBA to streamline business process and operations by improving speed, quality and service. This will involve business reengineering to create efficient workflows by eliminating repetitive tasks. The authors also suggest Work Flow Management a process to streamline internal procedures by using document management software to automate the loan approval process, which has the capability of routing loan documentation to different departments so that different people can work on the application simultaneously thereby reducing processing times considerably. This same system can be adopted for processing loan applications at the SBA. (Laudon & Laudon -2010)

The SBA contracted with SRA Inc., to host and support its existing Oracle based Federal Financial accounting system including developing a web based processing system that would get rid of physical paper files and give the SBA a virtual loan processing system that can be accessed from anywhere. The current system includes a lot of manual input of data by loan officers on paper at the disaster site that they have to re-enter into the system. SRA's business reprocessing eliminates this step by integrating the entire process online including sharing information from its existing database more easily. The new process is also cost effective as it saves the SBA valuable resources and money by not having to send as many staff to disaster sites. (sra.com) Apart from an online application system, SRA Inc., was contracted to modernize and implement a loan origination, loan servicing, litigation and purchasing an integrated financial system that would support its operations efficiently. (sra.com)

For the SBA to be more successful and efficient