From spreadsheets to software: a 90-day recovery modernisation plan
How to retire the recovery spreadsheet without setting your team on fire. A pragmatic 90-day plan for ARCs, banks and NBFCs.
Every recovery operation we walk into has the same artefact: the master tracker. A 28-tab spreadsheet, owned by one person, last refreshed at 11 PM, with formulas only the original author understands. Replacing it is rarely a software problem. It is a sequencing problem. Here is the plan we recommend, broken into three thirty-day blocks.
Days 1–30: data and decisions
Do not implement anything in the first month. Audit. Catalogue every file in the master tracker. Resolve duplicates. Reconcile against the LMS or core banking. Decide on three things: the canonical NPA list, the canonical NPV calculation, and the canonical recovery rate definition. Without this, every dashboard you build later will be wrong in a different way.
Days 31–60: workflows, not features
Map the actual workflow — not the one in the SOP. Where do files wait? Who approves what? What is automatic versus manual? You will find three or four real workflows: SARFAESI, DRT, IBC, and OTS. Configure those. Resist the temptation to model edge cases. The 80/20 here is brutal — 87% of files in the typical portfolio fit four workflow shapes.
Days 61–90: integrations and adoption
Now connect: LMS for live balances, e-auction platforms for sale data, SMS/email gateways for notices, and your document repository. Integration timelines are usually overestimated; adoption timelines are always underestimated. Run a daily 10-minute standup with one rule: every file with a status change in the last 24 hours gets a one-line update in the system, not in chat. Compliance becomes muscle memory in three weeks.
What we have learned about adoption
Recovery officers do not resist software. They resist double work. If the system does not write back to the LMS, they will keep the spreadsheet. If notices generated in the system do not match the legal team’s template letter for letter, they will keep their Word documents. Get the integrations to two-way and the templates to pixel-fidelity, and adoption is a non-issue.
A short pre-flight checklist
1. Single source of truth for active NPA files. 2. Two-way LMS sync agreed with IT. 3. Notice templates approved by legal, exact wording. 4. e-Auction platform credentials in escrow. 5. One executive sponsor with calendar visibility into the standup. 6. A 90-day target metric — usually NTP or PTS — picked before day one.
Modernisation does not need a transformation programme. It needs ninety days of discipline and someone willing to delete tabs from the master tracker.