Digital Transformation for a Top 3 Building Society

The Society initiated a strategic transformation programme to modernise its mortgage origination process.

Aiming to stay competitive against high street lenders, the goal was to replace outdated manual systems with an automated, digital experience.

deploy12 was engaged to lead the successful delivery of this multi-year programme.

The programme included the implementation of Finova’s (formally Iress’s) industry leading MSO product, integrated with 12 third-party suppliers through over 50 individual APIs, and redefining the operating model across business and technology functions.

The Challenge

The Society identified a significant opportunity to modernise its mortgage operations by transitioning from a paper-heavy, manually intensive process to a scalable and digital-first approach. With existing IT infrastructure comprising legacy systems, tactical in-house platforms, and spreadsheets, there was clear potential to enhance efficiency, reduce operational risk, and better support growing volumes and complexity. Although a prior transformation initiative had not achieved its intended outcomes, this opportunity presented a renewed chance to define a more robust and future-proof way forward. By embracing a compliant, scalable, and customer-centric solution, the Society stood to unlock faster mortgage decisioning, improved service levels, and a stronger competitive position in the market.

The Solution

deploy12 took responsibility for the full programme lifecycle, applying proven delivery disciplines and deep domain knowledge to design and implement a transformation that reached every part of the Society’s mortgage operations.
Key elements of the solution included:

• COTS Implementation: Introduction of the market-leading mortgage platform, replacing legacy systems and enabling end-to-end automation across all mortgage types – new business, remortgage and product switch, with responsibility for the design of contract variations before hand over to the in-house delivery team.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: A delivery model built on genuine collaboration between all delivery stakeholders, creating a trusted “one team” culture with shared ownership, transparency, and accelerated decision making.
• Skills Transfer and Capability Uplift: A structured approach to building internal capability, with deploy12 embedding resources into in-house teams to ensure knowledge transfer and leaving a lasting legacy beyond the life of the programme.
• Use Case Toolkit: Development and rollout of a standardised Use Case Toolkit that improved the documentation of business needs, strengthened stakeholder engagement, and enabled faster, more precise alignment between business and technical teams.
• API Ecosystem: The use of deploy12’s “Factory Model” to deliver 52 API integrations across multiple phases and across internal and external systems, in turn connecting the Society with 12 third-party vendors across the entire ecosystem.
• Online: Roll out of the Society’s first online product switch portal.
• Channels: An enhanced user experience across digital, branch, and telephony channels. c.12,000 intermediary partners were enabled via the new platform.
• Operating Model Transformation: The definition and delivery of a new business operating model, restructured back-office roles, the training of both Mortgage Advisors and impacted staff across Compliance, HR, Product, and Data stewardship.
• Testing and Governance: The development of a strategic test environment, and a robust payments gateway alongside confirmation of full regulatory compliance throughout.

The Result

The programme transformed the Society’s mortgage operations from slow, manual processes into one of the fastest, most efficient platforms in the UK market.
Key achievements included:

• Year-on-year balance sheet growth
• Positioning the business to achieve a competitive advantage over leading high street lenders
• Achieved substantial reductions in application processing times, enhancing operational efficiency and service delivery
• Full compliance with industry regulations
• A scalable foundation for future digital initiatives

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