Padmaja Bhaskaruni
The COVID pandemic caught everyone off guard. Amid the massive economic shutdown, many employees are out of work, and business owners are struggling to pay their workforce. The financial stimulus from the U.S. government softened the shock to some degree. However, to get the relief out the door, banks were not prepared to handle the unprecedented demand. While news about the federal grant was doing the rounds, INRY saw a need to make a difference for small and medium-sized banks and the communities they serve.
The idea that gave rise to a solution
The government intended to have the funds disbursed in hours rather than weeks, and to make that possible, banking systems and their teams had to be ready to handle the surge in applications. INRY chose to go full-steam ahead. Our strategy was simple - we wanted to create a solution that can ease the load and reduce processing times for banks and their small business customers, who are in the eye of the storm.
"INRY worked round the clock with ServiceNow to build a digital workflow solution for SBA Lenders (Banks) who process PPP forgivable loans under the CARES act. Our solution helps banks get ready to manage the loan forgiveness process for approved PPP borrowers. With unprecedented volumes and evolving guidelines, we are staying a step ahead to support banks in adapting and continuing to assist their borrowers,"
Bipin Paracha, CTO and CoFounder, INRY
"At ServiceNow, we recognize that small businesses are the bedrock of society, and it is on their shoulders that economic recovery and growth can begin. Helping banks to help these businesses quickly, efficiently, and with minimum distress has been our primary driver throughout. We are delighted to have been able to bring expertise from across our company to support INRY in releasing this app in such short timescales. This is another great success from the stable of COVID-19 crisis response apps that ServiceNow and its partners have delivered."
Keith Pearson, Senior Director, Financial Services at ServiceNow
INRY collaborated with ServiceNow to launch the Small Business Loan Management app - a digital workflow solution that equips banks to increase the speed and efficiency of their lending process for SBA's PPP forgivable loans. It streamlines the work of borrowers, loan officers, and back-end teams of the bank, all critical stakeholders in the loan approval and forgiveness process. ServiceNow's expertise helped enhance the existing capabilities of the solution, which is now ready for implementation. The loan application and processing workflows provide clear program guidance for loan officers and their clients. Furthermore, it allows the bank to update changes to guidelines and keep everyone informed as the program evolves.
"Our partnership with INRY on this project has been an excellent example of how ServiceNow and its partner ecosystem can come together to deliver high-quality outcomes quickly. INRY has worked tirelessly to get this solution to market. We have collaborated very closely and are delighted to have been able to help them to accelerate through the development and release process,"
Dan Barrett, Global Architect for Financial Services at ServiceNow
Read more on the ServiceNow Blog: New partner app helps banks process emergency loans
Creating solutions that prepare banks to help impacted customers
In the first phase of processing loans, banks were overwhelmed by the number of loan requests they had to process. They were not prepared to handle the massive volumes, so their teams worked overtime to ensure that small businesses did not get affected by any delays.
From our conversations with banks, who had already processed the PPP loans, it was clear that they did not want their teams to go through the same stressful situation again. They now wanted to be prepared with a solution to tackle loan forgiveness processing and also handle the second phase of SBA PPP loans.
"The Paycheck Protection Program has required significant collaboration between lenders and clients, and the Small Business Loan Management app will help streamline communication and reduce case processing time," said Mark Hokanson, CTO of Bridgewater Bank in Minnesota and an early customer of this solution. He also added, "The capabilities of the app, including a consistent and user-friendly dashboard with real-time data, will help our leadership focus attention where it is most needed – on providing the fastest, highest quality of service for our clients. This framework also sets us up for future work with loan forgiveness, and other steps that we will need to be addressed further down the road."
The Small Business Loan Management app is available for immediate deployment from the ServiceNow store. With a small window to process these loans, INRY will work with banks to quickly deploy the solution that streamlines the application process for borrowers and the bank's front and back-end staff.
Learn more about the small business loan management app.