Catalyst Conference: Client Case Study
H&R Block Financial Advisors
SOA Makes System Development Less Taxing for H&R Block:
"SOA is much more than simply a collection of Web services.
Its value is really magnified when you tie all off these Web
services into a cohesive business process."
Scott Thompson, Senior SOA Architect, H&R Block Financial Advisors
Besides its tax consulting business, H&R Block provides financial
services, mortgage services and business services. In 2004, the
company began developing a service-oriented architecture (SOA)
based system to acquire customers for its financial advisor business
unit. H&R Block wanted to leverage its relationships with existing
tax services clients and cross-sell its financial service offerings
upon successful completion of their tax returns.
H&R Block had attempted to solve this problem three times,
resulting in an inflexible system that was expensive to
create and maintain. The existing client acquisition system
also required specialized skills and training that were non-transferable.
Six Months to Get It Right
With only six months to develop, test and bring a new client
acquisition system online, H&R Block adopted a role-based view
of third-party SOA components. "Using a business process solution
and Web services management solution makes it very easy to maintain y
our business focus," insists Scott Thompson, senior SOA architect for
H&R Block Financial Advisors.
The system's bottom-line results are nothing short of phenomenal,
boasting dramatic savings in recurring costs and management expense,
while increasing the quantity and quality of leads.
Challenges:
- Acquire, qualify and route leads to the most appropriate financial advisors
- Decrease exorbitant support costs
- Adhere to regulatory mandates such as Internal Revenue Code 7216 and internal and national do-not-call lists
- Handle peak tax season workloads
- Provide flexibility and extensibility
- Develop, test and bring system online within six months
Solution:
- Adopted an SOA approach using third-party components
- Business unit analysts defined rules based on existing business processes
- Used third-party process management tools for rapid integration
- Credits third-party Web services management products for helping create a true SOA roadmap and mature SOA architecture
- Handed off system ownership to financial advisors group
Results:
- Trimmed $2 million in license costs down to less than $50,000
- Reduced 10 full-time support resources to three shared support resources
- Increased direct referrals by 86 percent
- Increased revenue from $3.25 million to $4.75 million
- Received a 94 percent internal approval rating
Expert Analysis and Advice
Since 1990, Burton Group has enabled enterprise
technologists to make smarter IT architecture and
infrastructure decisions. Burton Group offers the
following resources and insights to help your
organization get technically in-depth, straight,
and practical research and advice:
- Reference architecture (decision-making framework)
- In-depth research
- Telebriefings
- Unlimited analyst dialogues
- Methodologies and Best Practices documents
- Catalyst Conference
- Consulting services
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