LIXI at Work
It has been an exciting period for LIXI over the past few months, with the roll out of workshops on the business processes on electronic conveyancing, the delivery of a new approach to training for our technical members, the AGM with some significant additions to the LIXI board, member participation in standards development and NCCP standardisation, and of course the Annual Forum. Firstly, a message from the chairman on a new emphasis for LIXI
Message from the Chairman
Since LIXI's inception, standards have been delivered according to members’ needs and their desire for change along with their ability to rally other volunteers to create impetus for a new standard. While the existing model has served us well, one of the challenges is that it is generally a bottom up approach and only "the squeaky wheel gets attention". Beyond the obvious standards, this business model will generally only ever deliver incremental change. Accordingly, the LIXI Board has concluded that waiting for standards to bubble up through the membership is probably not in the best interest of LIXI members.
As a result, we agreed LIXI needs to reposition itself to a more strategic and proactive model. We also felt there was a gap in the lending industry where there is no formal mechanism that the industry can utilise to discuss inefficiencies across the lending chain. The Board concluded we could deliver enhanced value to the industry and our members if we took a thought leadership position and supported collaboration and problem solving at industry level. Additionally, limiting this approach to XML data standards, rather than standards for the good of the industry, may limit what we can achieve. While we still believe XML standards will be an outcome of most collaborative problem solving, we need to ensure it is not limiting our discussions and thinking.
Moving forward into 2011 and beyond, the Board will ensure that we continue to support the industry and members by creating opportunities for the lending industry to have strategic discussions on matters that are non-competitive in nature, facilitating solutions that enhance the efficiency of the industry and information sessions such as our annual forum and evening series.
While achieving these goals, we will ensure we never lose focus on our core reason for being - creating standards for the good of the lending industry.
John Hearne
Chairman, LIXI Limited
The AGM and the new-look Board of Directors
The LIXI Annual General Meeting was held on 4th November at the Westin Hotel in Sydney. The board of directors for 2011 was appointed, and includes:
Martyn Beer
Curtis Brager
John Hearne
Simon Libbis
John McDonald
Jason Millett
Phil Naylor
James Sheffield
Mike Thanos
John de la Torre
The presentation from the AGM is available here.
2010 LIXI Forum: The Art of Co-operation and Collaboration
The fourth annual LIXI Forum followed the AGM, where industry leaders discussed current challenges and LIXI’s role in improving the manufacture and delivery of mortgages in Australia.
The Forum was well attended with representatives from across the industry, including lenders, valuers, conveyancers, broker groups, mortgage insurers and IT providers. Innovation was the key theme throughout the day. A full write up of the Forum can be found on the LIXI website.
NCCP
The four major lenders invited LIXI and the MFAA to participate in a series of discussions on standardising how lenders approach the responsible lending provisions of the NCCP, for third party originated home loan applications. It was agreed that consistency in approach would deliver the best outcome for both brokers and their customers, and the group has delivered a draft set of recommendations to the LIXI members to generate further feedback. We look forward to the recommendations being finalised in November.
All members interested in following the NCCP discussions are urged to express their interest to the LIXI CEO.
e-Conveyancing Workshops Prove Popular
Between the 20th and 26th October LIXI CEO, Erik Fenna and Director, Simon Libbis conducted a series of e-conveyancing workshops in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. The workshops explored different ways of enabling industry to improve business processes through integration with the e-conveyancing system and land registries. Over 150 people registered to attend.
The workshops included an overview of e-conveyancing, including its current status from Simon Libbis, while Erik Fenna provide an overview of a number of specific processes that will increase efficiency during settlement, delivering incremental value to business. As a result, the discussions that followed focused more on the way industry communicates with the e-conveyancing system than on the requirements for that system. Workshop participants were keen to continue exploring the content and form of messages between industry and the e-conveyancing system. In response, LIXI will host further workshops on this issue early in the new year and will include additional locations as part of the schedule.
LIXI is playing a pivotal role in the electronic conveyancing project, since data messaging will be the primary mechanism for communication between industry and the titles offices. All LIXI members with an interest in settlement are urged to participate in the standards review process. To express interest please contact the LIXI CEO at ceo@lixi.org.au
Technical Training
The 3rd November saw the first in a proposed series of technical training sessions being delivered by LIXI. This session focused on Schematron, a language popular for writing so-called ‘assertion’ rules, i.e. business rules that can be enforced for XML data files. LIXI was pleased and honoured to have Rick Jelliffe, the inventor of Schematron, provided the training. The slides from the day are available here. The session was a huge hit with the technical members, with 100% attendance on the day, virtually overflowing the room.
This is very encouraging and LIXI will be pleased to offer a follow-up session on a related subject in the new year. The key message coming from the training session was that portable business rules are a real possibility and LIXI members will be in a perfect position to manage the development and rollout of the new architecture.
Contact us
If you have any comments or enquiries about this newsletter or any other aspect of LIXI, please contact one of the following people:
General enquiries: Lisa Mills
All other enquiries: Erik Fenna
LIXI@Work is keen to hear from members with implementation experience or other news. If you would like to share any insight with the LIXI group please email us.
