PEXA widget saves time and stress

Having to do any task repeatedly is tedious. But when it’s hundreds of times every day, automation is a welcome aid. PEXA’s Mike Price has created a widget that helps banks automate and streamline their PEXA processes, saving time and tedium.

The ‘widget’ Price built is an applet, or small piece of software, that works within web pages on the client’s browser to perform a specific task.

“The PEXA application currently facilitates much of the process involved in the lodgement of property transactions,” Price says. “But sometimes users asked if it could automate another task, and this is where the widget was born.”

Several bank users mentioned particular documents that need to be created en masse, such as when a developer buys a block of land with a single mortgage and turns it into 200 homes, each requiring a separate mortgage and title by each mortgagee. In response, Price suggested the users first create a simple CSV file containing the values they would normally populate into the PEXA screens.

“We then built a widget to create both a workspace and document within PEXA for each of those values, reducing the time needed for each task from around 90 seconds to four seconds.”

Improving NAB efficiency daily

NAB currently uses the PEXA widget to process volumes of nominations files on a daily basis, with substantial impact.

NAB spokesman Matt Kerr says it has automated a task in the PEXA process that previously had an Active Operations Management timing of four minutes when performed manually.

“We usually process around 150–200 of these tasks per day in the Victorian releases team. The difference is that we can now do 150 nominations in 39 minutes on the widget, compared with 600 minutes manually.”

When widget becomes core

Price can quickly generate new functionality and let users try it out.

“It’s not always possible to deploy because some organisations’ security and audit requirements might not allow plug-ins installed in their browser. That’s entirely understandable, though there are workarounds – it can be locked onto a standalone workstation, rather than being on the normal office network. Some make adjustments to their processes to accommodate the widget because they see the benefit of using it.”

If a widget turns out to be beneficial and time-saving, such as Price’s applet, PEXA then looks at building that functionality into the core product. It becomes a feature, not just a plug-in.

Price sees a lot of widget building in his near future.

“Now the banks have seen what this one can do to make their processes flow more smoothly, they’re starting to look at other things we can make happen. And with each new addition, the PEXA core product becomes more valuable to all its users, at every level.”

PEXA has a history of creating apps to help create a streamlined online property settlement process. SettleMe makes communicating with your clients easy.