Interview with Mamadou Ferrand, Underwriting Manager at Newable
Ultimately, we are enabling businesses to scale, expand, and drive business activity both domestically and globally. Duedil recently sat down with our Head of Underwriting, Mamadou Ferrand, to learn more about his role and how his team are leveraging
1. Tell us a bit about yourself and your responsibilities at Newable.
I work as the Head of Underwriting and Risk at Newable and have been in the role for just over 2 years, managing a team of 5 underwriters.
2. What is your number one priority?
Our number one priority was to have all of the information in one place, and allow multiple teams to access this information at any one time. We needed to put in steps to shorten the 3-4 hours it took us to on-board clients.
3. When deciding to transform and improve this process, what were the main criteria for evaluating different providers?
We ultimately wanted something that would save us time, was easy to use, and data that we could trust. DueDil met all of these requirements, and the fact that I had used it previously made the transition easier.
4. How was change managed within the organisation?
Given the time it took us to on-board new clients, the business was fairly open to a change that would increase efficiency and improve both the employee & customer experience. This made the uptake and adoption quite quick, which was only strengthened given some had used the DueDil free account previously. It’s because of this that I was already aware of the potential.
5. What has the impact been of using DueDil in your role, and the business more widely?
The great thing about DueDil is that we have all of the information we need in one place, and no longer have to rely on pulling information from multiple sources. However one of the biggest value-adds of using the solution is the attentiveness of their customer success team, who provided training and support from day one, which allowed us to hit the ground running and fast-track our success. We saw the value of DueDil straight away, with time-savings of 30 minutes to 1-hour per application when gathering background information, down from the 3-4 hours it was taking previously.
6. What advice would you give to anyone looking to improve efficiency in their underwriting process?
I would strongly suggest finding a solution that is easy to use and promotes strong user engagement across multiple teams. I believe it’s essential to have a tool that allows multiple departments to access client information, not only from a time saving perspective, but to ensure they have the scope to customise the tool/data to their own needs. Ultimately, helping to foster an autonomous and flexible approach to their work without having to approach and request information from other departments.
The speed of which you’re able to conduct checks is the end goal, which is why it’s important to have a team that understand’s process management, and have a tool that is robust enough to deal with the any and all of the challenges a business might face. By having the right infrastructure in place, and adopting the right Fintech solution, you’ll make huge inroads to safely and securely streamlining these functions.