AFCA has partnered with an external provider to design and build the new integrated IT systems.
Member feedback about pain points and frustrations with our systems and process have been a key input into the design process. These include:
Portal reliability and navigation
Inability to see progression of cases and timeframes
Document, file type and size upload limitations
Invoices and payment difficulties
Cumbersome membership administration
Difficulty in accessing documents
Portal example images
New Member Interface
A clean design that will highlight items requiring action and clear steps to achieve your objective.
Complaint status
The new member portal makes it easy to understand where a case is progressing and find relevant files and action items for everyone assigned to the complaint. Under 'Appointments' you will be able to view upcoming conciliations.
Simplified management
See and manage contacts within your organisation and assign roles to your team members that gives them access to relevant complaints.
Improved efficiency and automation
The new system will streamline the dispute resolution process by removing administrative tasks and introducing new automations to remove unnecessary delays.
Complaints will automatically be processed and progressed at key points of our process, including newly lodged complaints being automatically referred to the financial firm.
What’s changing?
- Referral will be automated
- Timeframes align with ASIC RG271
- Live notifications of activity on a complaint
- New methods to upload and exchange documents.
- Complaint documents automatically shared with all parties (opt out available in limited circumstances).
What does it mean for members?
- Members will receive new complaints immediately upon lodgement with AFCA
- Cases will require a response by the final day of the maximum IDR/EDR timeframe (no three-day grace period)
- Members will receive automatic complaint updates and correspondence.
- New methods to upload and exchange documents
Enhanced communication
The new member portal, consumer portal and complaint management system will be fully integrated, allowing for enhanced communication and document sharing across the systems.
Members will be able to communicate with AFCA about specific complaints, systemic issues, and their membership within the member portal, significantly reducing the need for emails.
What’s changing?
- Functionality available in the portal to raise requests as well as view, manage and track open and closed requests
- The portal will become the main communication channel
- Communications automatically associated with specific complaints
What does it mean for members?
- New portal functionality will reduce administration for members and AFCA.
- Members will be corresponding with AFCA primarily through the portal - significantly reducing email communication.
- Improved information security
New accounts and roles
New account control will enable all member staff with differing roles to access the areas of the portal they need to do their job. Member administrators will be able to create accounts and control permissions.
What’s changing?
- Accounts required for each individual caseworker
- News ways of allocating, tracking, and reporting complaints within the portal
What does it mean for members?
- Members will be required to set up accounts for individual team members, and can assign permissions based on their role
- Each case worker will need to activate their account and use this to manage their cases directly
- Role based ability for a user to view complaints and allocate to individual case workers
- Members who operate as a group with multiple AFCA entities will be able to use a single log in to access cases from multiple entities
Improved case management and reporting tools
New and improved features will give members more control and visibility of the complaints process.
What’s changing?
- Custom dashboard reporting on overall complaints profile
- The dashboard will display statuses, required actions and due dates
- Role-based access with dashboards will be available within the member portal
What does it mean for members?
- Enhanced reporting for members to manage caseloads more efficiently
- Members will be able to review all complaint information and milestones to date via dashboards
- Member caseworkers are expected to regularly access the portal to monitor and manage their cases
Membership management and payments
New account types will enable all member staff to access the AFCA member portal to perform different tasks. Member administrators will be able to create accounts and control permissions.
To fully realise the efficiency and communication benefits of the portal, AFCA encourages all members to set up accounts for their teams.
What’s changing?
- New notifications, requests and methods to manage membership
- Self-service administration i.e. changing contact details
- New finance account role to manage invoices and payments in the portal
- Automated payment receipts
- Invoice and payment history
What does it mean for members?
- Members will be able to view and pay invoices, annual fees, dispute invoices, see the total amount due, and review previous invoices and payments via the portal.
- From April / May 2023 until the new member portal launches, invoices will be sent via email with credit card payment unavailable.
Data and reporting
New automation and streamlined process will enable more data collection and analysis which can be shared with members.
Upon release, there will be no changes made to the Member Benchmarking Dashboard and Datacube, or the data they display.
Future releases will use complaints data and member information to enhance capability in reporting.
What's changing?
- The new integrated IT systems will improve data collection and analysis.
- New functionality will allow members to group multiple entities in the case management system. This will be used in a future release to group data in the member benchmarking dashboard.
- In response to member feedback, an enhanced version of the determination search will launch on the AFCA website to make finding decisions more user-friendly.
What does it mean for members?
- No changes to data and measures in the current Member Benchmarking Dashboard or AFCA Datacube – providing consistency during the transition to new systems.
