Equifax UK (Improvement at the centre of our business)

Editor's note: this transcript was generated by AI and has been lightly edited for clarity and relevance — some sections have been shortened or removed, and minor transcription errors corrected.

Full transcript

00:01:11David Robinson

This session looks at Consumer Credit Reporting Agency Equifax's efforts to get a scalable quality management system that supported its business, maintained quality, drove improvement, and met regulatory requirements.

00:01:30David Robinson

Our speakers today are Eva Newbury, senior manager for business quality assurance and global consumer solutions at Equifax UK, and Michael Cousins, managing director at Triaster.

00:03:18Michael Cousins

In terms of drivers, I will talk to you about the objectives and the requirements that we had, how we broke new ground with Triaster and why Triaster was picked, the establishment of a new way of working, the return on investment, and the benefits that we have had.

00:05:12Michael Cousins

One of the key things was sustaining FCA authorisation. We are a regulated business here in the UK, and we need to be able to maintain that FCA authorisation and drive our practice with that regulator firmly in mind. Building a quality management system: the FCA handbook doesn't talk about having a quality management system, but it's inherently written between the lines. You need to be able to demonstrate that you're in control of your business.

00:05:55Michael Cousins

We needed employee engagement. It needed to be organised, intuitive, repeatable and scalable.

00:06:19Michael Cousins

It was very important that we had one version of the truth with multiple lenses, senior management right down to the coalface. Access without barriers was really important — you didn't have to log in to get access to your processes; it needed to be there in real time. We needed to give operational areas ownership, so RACI was really important.

00:09:45Michael Cousins

Having courage to do something different and confidence that this was going to work — it provides the senior leadership team with everything they need, and a tool for everyone with clear ownership. It puts improvement at the centre of our business, with a consistent and standardised process approach.

00:21:21Michael Cousins

Our QMS and process approach improves the link between corporate and operational governance. We have a strategic approach aligned to company objectives, a clear mechanism for monitoring, a central source of accurate information, and a controlled document store linked to our business processes.

00:22:44Michael Cousins

In terms of compliance benefits, we can capture detailed information which links to FCA, Sarbanes-Oxley risk and quality controls. We link policies to processes and procedures, so we can always demonstrate that level of compliance, with evidence for FCA, ISO audits, and internal audits.

00:23:33Michael Cousins

From a quality perspective, linking 9001:2015 clauses directly to our process activities demonstrates where and how we maintain compliance — one version of the truth, a central repository for documents, a unique URL for publication.

00:42:29David Robinson

Eva, did acquiring your system with Triaster replace your original system at the time, or did you use it to complement it?

00:42:29Eva Newbury

When I joined the organisation, the part of the organisation that I joined didn't have anything. So this was all from scratch. We built the quality management system, and we built the process management approach with Triaster all from scratch. I wasn't replacing anything. I was creating something brand new.

00:47:16David Robinson

Can the process performance data, for example lead time, be integrated into the process model? Does Triaster have performance dashboards integrated with the process flow?

00:47:35Michael Cousins

Triaster comes with a dynamic simulation engine. Any performance data entered onto the system, such as typical lead times or cost or effort, goes into the pot, and we can produce dynamic reports or dashboards on the simulated outcomes.

00:48:26David Robinson

Eva, what makes you call Triaster a partner rather than just a supplier?

00:48:35Eva Newbury

Although Triaster is a relatively small organisation, it thinks very big. Their approach is quite unique in terms of their delivery, their support, and their project management. My goals are their goals — they're intricately linked, and you don't get that level of service by buying an off-the-shelf package. Their user group meets twice a year to share best practice and help drive the development roadmap. They are truly collaborative and inclusive, and that really makes them strategic. That's why I would call them a partner and not a supplier.

00:49:33David Robinson

Eva, how did you get buy-in at each level from senior management to end users?

00:49:43Eva Newbury

I let the tool speak for itself with demonstrations to users and senior management, and being able to articulate my passion and vision for the future was part of that. The arguments were clear: being able to deliver process to end users, not just to business analysts, the ability to use Data Managers, the ability to have change management, and a consistent methodology and approach. Those were big selling points and very easy to articulate to all levels of the management and the end users.

00:51:02Eva Newbury

There are three parts to the library: the sandpit, where the person creating the process map has control before it's published; pre-live, where it goes for approval; and live, once approved. So you can manage any non-conformity, any elements that are not quite right, before it even gets to published.

00:52:52Eva Newbury

The three major groups in our organisation are operational areas, compliance, and risk management. Having captured processes for the first time in this way allowed the operational areas to demonstrate and provide evidence during compliance monitoring to say, this is how we work. That gave compliance monitoring confidence that the operation was working effectively, efficiently, and was compliant with policy.

00:55:11Michael Cousins

A realistic expectation would be 6 to 12 months before the first go-live of a reasonable set of processes. The software itself can be installed in a matter of days, and training can be supplied in a small number of days, but wider organisational issues around take-up and governance typically push those timelines out.

00:56:15Eva Newbury

Has it replaced our procedures? No, I think process mapping has enhanced access to processes, procedures, work instructions and guidelines — the things people doing the processes day to day are actually looking to have access to.

00:57:12Michael Cousins

We do find there can be a reduction in the volume of procedures, but Triaster is not a replacement for procedures. They're just as necessary as they always were — it's just that the volume of them can reduce quite drastically because the visual flows are there instead.