Wachovia Delivers Tech Tips

After an 18-month implementation of a loan origination system, Wachovia was on hand at the 10th Annual SourceMedia Mortgage Technology Conference in Tempe, Ariz., to share helpful hints on how to undertake the process successfully.Steve Daniels, senior vice president and director of business technology at Wachovia Mortgage Corp., noted that time is the biggest enemy in LOS implementations. Wachovia works with 15 vendors to formulate its origination strategy, with one core LOS at the center. Mr. Daniels stressed the importance of creating a steering committee that includes at least one representative from the technology vendor; assigning a dedicated program administrator to every task to keep things moving; knowing the nature of one's competitive advantage before selecting a vendor; holding the vendor accountable for everything in the request for proposal submitted during the due-diligence process; and understanding that an LOS implementation is a business process that senior management has to "own." Mr. Daniels also maintained that a cost/benefit analysis should be done on every change, and that each change should be evaluated on its own merit and how it affects any past or expected changes. Wachovia can be found online at http://www.wachovia.com.