Dedicated Team
To ensure that you have a successful launch with EPIC we assign to you a dedicated Implementation Team including an Implementation Manager, a Project Coordinator, a Training Manager and an Application Configuration Specialist. This team is committed to training and educating you and your team, configuring your EPIC environment to effectively advance your portfolio strategy and to getting you launched on the EPIC system on the timeline you have established.
Portfolio Kickoff
Once you have aligned with EPIC, one of the first interactions you will have with us is your Portfolio Kick-Off Meeting. During this meeting, we introduce the EPIC Implementations Team to you and your team. We explain our various roles, introduce you to our interactive project planning tool, discuss details about your business and your initial strategies, find out which third party providers you plan to work with, as well as establish your desired portfolio launch timeline. Our objectives are to get to know you, your team, your industry experience and your expectations. We use this information to formulate an Implementation Project Plan that is customized for you, including a meeting schedule that works for you and your team.
Orientation & Training
When your Implementation Meetings begin, you will also start spending quality time with an EPIC Trainer. It is critical in advancing your implementation – that you and your team get very familiar with the EPIC LMS, with commonly used EPIC terminology, as well as with industry terms and definitions. This initial orientation is designed to kick-start your Implementation.
Vendor Referrals
EPIC has partnered with and integrated with many of the most widely used ACH Payment Processors, Underwriters and Lead Providers in the industry. While you are preparing to launch your portfolio, your Account Manager will be happy to refer you to any of these vendors that you may wish to connect with. Our integrated partners are some of the most recognized service providers in the short-term lending space. These are long-term collaborations that can help pave the way for your successful portfolio launch.
Recurring Meetings
EPIC keeps your Implementation on track with once or twice weekly Webinars, which allow us to train and educate you and your team, get status updates on critical tasks, work through roadblocks, customize the configurations of the application, and review and plan for next actions. We stay laser-focused on your launch target and do everything possible to keep all parties on track.
Industry Best Practices
While the Implementations Team is teaching and training you in the most effective use of the EPIC application, we are also listening to you and getting to understand your business strategies, goals and objectives. We then use this information to give you guidance related to industry best practices. Although we never share the strategies or proprietary information of other lenders, we can help you configure your EPIC environment to avoid common mistakes and to insure you are applying known best practices in the industry.
Online Project Plan
Immediately upon completion of your kick-off meeting, you will get access to your Implementations Project Plan. We use an Online tool that allows you and your implementation team complete access, allowing you visibility to ALL tasks in the project plan, as well as assignees and due dates. We encourage you to update your tasks statuses, upload required documentation, add comments of your own, view and respond to the statuses and comments provided by the Implementations Team – in short PARTICIPATE in the project plan. You always have full transparency with regards to the overall plan, the critical tasks and timelines – allowing you to manage and set expectations for both teams.
Coordinated Training
Throughout the Implementation process you will receive strategic training that coincides with the overall Project Plan. Using this immersive training strategy, you and your team receive specialized training on the various modules, features and functionality of the EPIC application simultaneously, as you are covering the same topics during your Implementation calls. It can be intensive, but this two-pronged approach is invaluable in terms of getting your team ready and for keeping the implementation on track with your launch target date.
Website Development
If you are an Online Lender and have not built your Website yet, EPIC will refer you to one of our preferred Web Development partners. These folks are experienced Web Developers, who are very adept at building sites for the short-term lending space. They know exactly what the site needs to do, as well as how to integrate it with the EPIC application – which is the process that feeds your organic leads into EPIC. You can shave weeks off your development time by working with one of our experienced web development partners.
Configurations Specialist
At EPIC, we fully recognize that our application is powerful, robust and in some ways quite complex. We do not hand you the keys and tell you to figure it out. As part of our Implementation Project Plan, EPIC configures the most complex elements of the application for you, WITH you. We literally share our computer screen with you, while YOU share your desires and strategies and WE configure the application. In other words, we GIVE you the fish, while we teach you HOW to fish. But don’t worry, if you don’t remember how to do it later, when you want to make tweaks to your strategy, we will show you again, or if needed, we’ll make the changes for you!
Coordinated Testing
Once you have figured out which integrated third party services you want/need and who you will be contracting with, EPIC’s Implementations Team completes the required pre-launch testing, typically in coordination with a representative from the vendor(s). Our Implementation Team has been working with these various Implementation Teams for many years. We know and understand each others’ onboarding systems and processes. We save you the time and hassle of trying to run system tests, file transfers and other pre-launch integration elements yourself. We will give you the green light for launch only after we KNOW that everything is ready for prime time!
Dedicated Account Manager
EPIC gives you a great opportunity to succeed in this highly competitive industry, by providing you with our EPIC LMS, a professional Implementation Team, customized orientation and training, as well as access to our experienced Client Services Team to address your day-to-day operational and strategic needs. These are certainly powerful ingredients for success…
But, we even take it a step further by assigning you a dedicated Account Manager (“AM”), who is your champion at the highest levels within EPIC, as well as your partner in defining and executing your business strategies. Your Account Manager is always just a phone call or email away. Having an Account Manager in your corner can make a powerful impact on your portfolio and your overall success with EPIC.
Rapid Response
Once you’ve made it through the Implementation and are ready to originate your first loans, we prepare you to launch. If you’re like most new lenders, you’re a little nervous and a lot anxious! With EPIC’s Post-Go-Live Rapid Response Program, we ease the pressure for you and your team. For the first two-weeks, post-go-live EPIC’s Implementations and Training Team CONTINUE to support you, meet with you and work out common technical and operational issues in REAL TIME – as they occur. We talk to you after hours every day to rehash the day’s events and determine if there are any gaps in training, internal processes and/or strategies. During this post launch period EPIC treats EVERY issue you encounter as if it were urgent – because we understand that to you it IS urgent! You can count on the EPIC Rapid Response program to effectively support you, your team and your portfolio launch.
Portfolio Pulse Checks
As the finishing touch to our Implementations Program, EPIC completes your very first Portfolio Pulse Check within one month of your launch. We schedule a session with you and your team in which we review and analyze your loan volume, cost per lead, default rates, collections and many other system pulse points. This analysis is critical in determining if your launch strategy and operational processes are steering your portfolio toward profitability. It’s a bit early to tell the long-term health of the portfolio, but the first Portfolio Pulse Check allows us to alert you to early red flags, which can frequently be corrected.
Client Services
At EPIC, Client Service begin with a deep understanding of the industry, as well as each of our lenders and the portfolios they operate. In additional to intense and ongoing training on the EPIC LMS and known operational standards, each Client Services Representative (CSR) receives specialized training and education related to the lending industry and its best practices. Each CSR is fully trained on EPIC’s system configurations, loan life cycle modules and the end to end loan management process. But equally important – each CSR fully understands the nuances of different portfolio strategies and management. As a result you receive so much more than software support. You have access to uncommon expertise and knowledge. Access to a team that can offer guidance when needed, provide answers, recommend solutions and take immediate actions on your behalf, as directed. You have a team of advocates. With EPIC Client Services, your success is our top priority!