Student Loan Centre

In 2013, Diákhitel Központ Zrt. (the Hungarian Student Loan Centre) launched an IT renewal programme. Loan accounts were managed by an existing transaction system, and the first studies and feasibility documents on the organisation's future IT direction had already been prepared. Before making a decision, management asked for a professional review of the cost estimates for the proposed alternatives. Between May and September 2013, BlackBelt worked on the programme in two consecutive engagements: first reviewing the cost estimates, then contributing to the comprehensive feasibility study.

The organisation had three strategic options: fully replacing the loan account management system, keeping and further developing it, or consolidating it in a service-oriented architecture (SOA) with workflow support and unified document management. The available documents identified the operational problems well, but the cost estimates were not backed by analytical calculations, so the cost of none of the options could be verified. An ESB-based SOA transformation is also more than an IT project: it takes many years and reshapes how the organisation works, so an underestimated budget would have put the entire programme at risk.

Before the numbers, we clarified the goals: discussions with management made it clear that the primary objective was cost-efficient operation, not greater IT flexibility for its own sake. Measured against this, we re-examined the man-day and cost estimates of each option item by item and showed where implementation had been underestimated – particularly in consolidating the existing system, introducing the ESB and providing system support for business processes. In the feasibility study, we assessed management and IT requirements, developed and costed the logical design and toolset of two IT solution alternatives, and took part in the TCO and ROI calculations. We also proposed quick wins: automated testing for acceptance tests with an ROI model, online loan applications and electronic document submission, a shared document repository, and a low-cost, CRM-like internal query interface for customer service and the back office.

Before the renewal decision, the management of Diákhitel Központ received a calculation-based picture of the effort each strategic option would require, and of which one truly served the cost-efficiency goal. Alongside the major decision, short-term steps with measurable returns that could be assessed quickly were also put on the table.