LIXI - the future direction
Since its inception in the mortgage industry, LIXI has made
great progress in developing standards and providing a forum
for discussion. However, with LIXI maturing, 2006 has been
a time to again look to our future and the evolving needs of
the members and community.
It was in this context that the Board instigated an organisational
review of LIXI, including a strategic plan, IP licensing regime
and examination of the membership structure. The objective
of the review was to improve planning for the future and the
Board intends to share the contents and recommendations at
the next AGM, however, we felt that it was important to preview
some of that information in this newsletter.
The review
This review process included an online survey, workshops and
one-on-one sessions across the industry. In addition, research
was done on both the mortgage industry and similar standards
bodies elsewhere. This work confirmed the positive aspects
that LIXI:
- sets open standards
- is a believable/credible body
- is a business enabler
- is flexible – can adapt
- has a networking/solution focus
- is a well recognised brand
- provides cost reduction.
However there were also areas identified for improvement.
Members felt LIXI is:
- too slow
- too optional – work is required for each implementation
- "LIXI compliant" is too opaque
- volunteer fatigue exists
- not active in promoting itself in the market.
Another important finding was that whilst there is lots of
activity, often this is not communicated well across the membership.
The clear message is LIXI needs to focus on key issues and
once they are agreed, deliver these.
Strategic plan 2007-2009
To ensure that LIXI remains focused the vision, mission and
LIXI value proposition have been re-stated as follows:
Vision
To create an Australian lending community where information
flows freely amongst participants.
Mission
Promote efficient interactions in the Australian mortgage community
through the creation and maintenance of standards and assist
in their implementation according to the needs of the community.
LIXI value proposition
In developing the strategy we also refined our customer value
proposition, that is, how we add value to our members. Specifically
we found that this emanates from three areas:
- Efficient: LIXI helps make our members more efficient
through initiatives such guidelines and standards which allowing
members to “build once” flowing through to testing
etc.
- Enabling: Members receive value not only through
the standards which enable a technical link but also through
the forums LIXI creates which enables networking and introductions.
- Community: This surprised some members. Through
the research we found that many members receive value through
our LIXI member community and its co-operative nature, intellectual
sharing; and they will readily lobby for the community.
These three core elements of the customer value proposition
are areas we will continue to look to as we move forward.
To help to focus the plan has also identified what LIXI is
not:
- an international body
- operating outside of mortgage lending
- a software company or switch
- a statistics collector/market share provider
In addition
to continuous, ongoing improvement of LIXI’s
standards development, the following tactical initiatives
which will help to improve the LIXI experience:
- Communication to members and the broader community
- Education for technical and non-technical people
- Networking for members
- Lobbying to ensure that LIXI is engaged by government
and industry.
We trust this has provided some background to
what the Board and the Sub-Committees have been doing to
ensure LIXI continues to deliver on the member’s needs.
We look forward to sharing and discussing these with our
members at our next AGM.
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