SYDNEY, 6 MAY, 2022: Appian (NASDAQ: APPN) announced today that Pepper Money, a leading consumer finance company in Australia is using the Appian Low-Code Platform to support its Asset Finance Loan Origination solution, SOLANA, which has allowed the company to grow its business volumes by 70% ¹ while improving efficiencies. 

This business growth was achieved by increasing the Credit and Settlements team’s productivity, with each team member now processing 53% more applications ².

Pepper Money worked with Appian to develop SOLANA as a market-leading solution for the creation and end-to-end processing of finance applications for a wide range of asset types across both Consumer and Commercial asset finance and Novated Leasing. 

Pepper Money’s Chief Information Officer Steven Meek says that SOLANA has enhanced the asset finance application journey for staff, customers, introducers and partners.

“As well as increased business volumes, SOLANA’s automation of credit rules, scorecards and conditioning provides our customers with an initial approval decision within minutes of submitting their applications and a third of applications are approved in under one minute,” says Mr. Meek.

SOLANA enables introducers to create and process the loan applications via an intuitive UI with built-in controls to align to policies and support the business process. 

“One of the solution’s key benefits is its suite of APIs, which allows Pepper’s partners or introducers to interact with SOLANA from their own CRM systems to complete the entire finance journey,” said Luke Thomas, Regional Vice President APAC at Appian. “This new innovation allows introducers to avoid re-keying between their own system and Pepper’s and also reduces the training required for their staff.”

The digital journey SOLANA provides is further enhanced through electronic documentation and e-signing capabilities.

Using Appian’s Low-Code Platform to create SOLANA allowed Pepper Money to revise its business processes, increase automation and integrate various external sources to provide a faster and more scalable solution. 

“There has been a significant reduction in the time it takes staff to complete their tasks, including validations and controls that help avoid errors,” explains Mr. Meek. “This improved efficiency has led to a considerable decrease in overtime requirements of the teams, and SLAs are still being met even though volumes processed are growing. 

“Additionally, SOLANA’s workflow supports many previously off-system processes that used to be managed through emails and phone calls. The screens and workflows have been designed to suit the needs of each user role to help make it easier to do their job,” he said.

¹Based on Previous Comparative Period (PCP) CY2021 versus CY2020
²Applications assessed per credit agent Q4 CY2021 versus Q4 CY2020

Pepper Money has been an industry trailblazer since its establishment in 2000, and the business was confident that partnering with Appian would give its staff, introducers, and customers a digital journey worthy of one of Australia and New Zealand’s largest, most trusted, and award-winning non-bank lenders.

According to Mr. Thomas, “SOLANA has improved internal efficiencies and allowed Pepper Money to deliver an unparalleled customer experience. Appian provided a solution that also allows Pepper Money to react quickly to emerging market opportunities by expanding product capabilities and introducing new asset categories.” 

Pepper Money’s SOLANA solution was also a global finalist in the 2022 Appian Excellence in Low-Code Awards. The annual awards honour companies leading exceptional business transformation programs with low-code technologies, with SOLANA being recognised as disrupting its market, serving as a catalyst for a new standard in how work is done.
 

About Pepper Money

Pepper Money is Australia and New Zealand’s leading non-bank. It was established in 2000 as a specialist residential home loan lender in Australia with a focus on providing innovative home loan solutions to customers that were being underserved by traditional lenders. Today Pepper Money has a broad product offering of residential home loans, asset finance commercial real estate and novated leases in Australia and residential home loans in New Zealand. For more information visit www.pepper.com.au