Retail Credit Southern Africa Conference & Exhibition

17-18 November 2011

*The Ké Concepts exhibition area at the 2011 Retail Credit Southern Africa Conference & Exhibition.

The Retail Credit Southern Africa Conference & Exhibition took place from 17-18 November 2011 at the Indaba Hotel, Fourways. The conference/exhibition was divided into several sessions covering innovation, credit management, credit risk, credit technology, debt collection and governance and compliance.

The intention was to stimulate delegates with issues which would allow them to think broadly about the subject matter of credit in order to make a more meaningful contribution to strategic thinking around credit issues in their organisations.

Welcome

The New Year is upon us - and just in time - so too our 2nd Quarterly Ké Concepts Newsletter.

First off, a big thank you to all for the positive feedback on our 1st Newsletter! In our launch edition, where we were ‘Pushing new Boundaries’, we were so excited to chat to everyone through this new medium, and given the great responses received, we trust that you found the information and insight offered valuable.

Our ‘Name our Newsletter’ competition turned out to be great fun and once those creative juices started to flow there seemed no stopping the tide but there can only be one at the end of the day and that privilege goes to Floyd Nhlapo – thanks, Floyd, we really love ‘Ké In-Contact’ and trust that you enjoy your prize!

Now, in the spirit of staying In-Contact with you, our clients, readers and friends, please allow us to make use of this New Year’s newsletter to recap 2011 and boldly go forth into 2012…

2011 saw Ké Concepts transcend the language barrier with CreditEase by taking our solution multilingual! We now proudly offer a Portuguese version with the possibility of French in 2012 being hotly debated.

Another notable gem last year was the successful win by Ké Concepts of the KZN Growth Fund tender. Working side-by-side with Leonette Reynolds Venter, Acting CEO at KZN Growth Fund Managers (Pty) Ltd., the project is well under way with excellent results to date.

*Read further about both these milestones in their headline featured articles herein.

As some of you may recall, we moved offices a couple of months ago and thought it prudent timing at this point to share some pics of our stunning new home…

Ké Concepts’ brand new offices

Block F, Coachman’s Crossing Office Park, BryanstonBlock F, Coachman’s Crossing Office Park, Bryanston

Tel: 011-514 5900 | Fax: 011-514 5922

We also acquired three brand new staff members and wish Danie Fick, Lisa Cooper and Herman Fourie a warm Ké welcome to the team!

That’s it for now and let us just say in closing that we trust a wonderful Festive Season was had by one and all and that everybody is geared up for the exciting and prosperous year to come – Welcome 2012, may you be legendary!

To Enoch Benjamin’s family - Enoch Benjamin, killed in a car accident - our sincerest condolences and you remain in our thoughts.

Yours in Loan Management Solutions

In the News

Ké Concepts win KZN Growth Fund tender for Loan Management System

Further expanding on successful collaborations with government development agencies within South Africa, Ké Concepts are honoured to be granted the KwaZulu-Natal Growth Fund tender.

Established in 2007, the KZN Growth Fund is a Public-Private Partnership between the KZN Provincial Government, the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA), Standard Bank Limited and the Infrastructure Finance Corporation (INCA). By partnering with these influential financiers, an initial fund of R1.1billion has been raised. This long term debt fund aims to create an enabling environment for sustainable economic development, job creation and broad-based black economic empowerment.

In the News

Ké Concepts goes Multilingual: CreditEase launches in Portuguese

Established in 1998, Letshego Holdings has grown from being a consumer lending entity to the fully fledged financial services company it is today. With a market presence in six African countries, Letshego Holdings sought to add Mozambique to their collective thereby highlighting their need for an innovative and like-minded technology partner with a very distinctive characteristic – the ability to operate in Portuguese.

Ké Concepts (PTY) Ltd, more than comfortable with leading from the front, were wholly up to the challenge and welcomed the opportunity to institute a multilingual facet into their CreditEase software.

“What’s New” in CreditEase

Allps Integration

Ké Concepts are proud to announce that the CreditEase solution has successfully been integrated to the ALLPS payment solution, a Intecon Product (www.allps.co.za). The ALLPS payment solution combines 3 separate payment streams, AEDO, NAEDO and SASWITCH into one integrated solution. This integration eliminates the need to work in two separate systems, reducing errors in the loan originating process. Contact us for more information on this exciting new development.

CreditEase incorporates digital verification…

Biometrics

The CreditEase solution now boasts an integrated Biometrics solution. This not only reduces fraudulent transactions but also speeds up the application process for existing customers. Biometrics not only helps identify your customers with certainty but can also be used to identify the consultant processing the application.

“We have evaluated several solutions to ensure that we have selected a cost effective answer for our clients,” says Miles Hern, Managing Director of Ké Concepts. “It was recently announced that South African banks have collaborated with the Department of Home Affairs to have access to the department’s database to verify their customers. I am certain that it is only a matter of time before other financial services providers such as the Micro-lenders will have similar access. Having the ability to digitally save fingerprint scans just takes us one step closer in this verification process.”

Electronic Signature Pad

Thousands of businesses across the world are saving time and money by replacing paper processes with electronic signature and document solutions. By integrating an electronic signature pad with CreditEase, we allow our customers to reduce the time it takes to process an application and improve the customer’s interaction at the point of sale. The loan officer is no longer required to print out the documents for signature, have it signed and then scan the documents to index it to the applicant. The client digitally signs the contract using the Signature pad, which is automatically indexed to the applicant in the CreditEase document indexing module. The signature can also be stored for verification purposes.

Home Loan Origination

The CreditEase solution now boasts a Home Loan origination process. The process not only originates a standard home loan (mortgage) application but also provides the option to consolidate other debt into the home loan if required. The CreditEase application has always been able to administer home loans but only once the loan was approved and registered. This work flow origination automates the various steps, improving the time taken to process an application. It also has diary and inbox functionality ensuring that each step is undertaken timeously. “We continue to add functionality to CreditEase to allow our customers a single solution administering multiple products. Our origination module now has the functionality to process Personal loans, Credit Cards and Mobile phone applications and will soon have an Asset based finance application process,” adds Miles Hern.

CreditEase in Portuguese

We are proud to announce that the CreditEase application is now available in Portuguese. We have successfully included multilingual functionality in the CreditEase suite of products. At, present we have only rolled out a Portuguese version in Mozambique, but the development was done in such a way to ensure that we could roll out other languages if required. This not only opens up opportunities for our existing clients to expand into countries like Mozambique and Angola, but opens up the French speaking African countries of which there are many. We have not yet had a requirement to convert CreditEase into one of the other 10 official languages in South Africa, but the capability is there should our customers require it.

Staff Profile

With the spotlight once again on another of Ké Concepts’ Directors, our staff profile highlights Edwin Tam in this second edition of our Quarterly Newsletter.

Having studied at Rhodes University in the eighties where I gained a qualification in BSc. Computer Science, I used this skill to advance myself in my career, working with companies the likes of De Beers, amongst others. With a passion to continually expand on my expertise, I later gained a second degree (BCompt Hons) through UNISA.

In 1998, I joined Miles Hern, Gary Green and Gareth Jane as one of the founding members of Ké Concepts.

I function within Ké Concepts as the Operations Director. I also enjoy sharing my skills when consulting with clients, whilst I directly manage our corporate client base which would mainly consist of banks such as Barcleys Africa, NEF, Bidvest and the National Housing Finance Corporation, to name a few.

I enjoy anything to do with cars, especially Formula 1. I have taken part in a few advanced driving courses, 4x4 as well as Track and Skid Pan courses . If you ask me what I have taken away from this? Well, I can do a ‘doughnut’ with a four wheel drive…

Unlike most people who would attribute their drive to a role model, my inspiration comes from my family. Being able to provide them with the best possible opportunities in life is all the fulfilment and inspiration I need.

I believe that the future of Ké Concepts is very bright. We have a great product. We are currently focussing on key strategic areas and increasing our marketing efforts to include more engagement with our clients. I would like to see us focus on growing an international client base, having already achieved great success and results in South Africa and in Africa. We will possibly also aim to better leverage our Strategic Alliance Partners going forward.