Technology

"Leverage technology to improve the customer experience, not just the back-office." That was the message ABN Amro executive vice president William Newman gave attendees in his keynote address at the Sixth Annual Mortgage EC Conference in Las Vegas."We spend too much time managing the business that comes through the door and spend too little effort and money acquiring new clients and improving their experience," Mr. Newman said. Though ABN Amro and its Mortgage.com division have led the way in offering one-fee mortgages and monitoring the consumer experience, he said that message applies to his company as well.

Jackson & Associates Inc., an Orange County, Calif.-based law firm, has announced that it will replace its OnDemand case management platform with Symphony, which it calls "the first comprehensive solution" for real-estate-owned legal process management.Now in the final phase of beta-testing, Symphony provides full management capabilities for evictions, post-foreclosure bankruptcy matters, and litigation, as well as enterprise-level resources for broker management, cash-for-keys/cash-for-trash offer management, and attorney/broker grading, the law firm said. "The legal matters that arise in the REO industry are complex, and there has been a need for a more cohesive and comprehensive approach to managing the entire process," said Robert Jackson, president and senior managing attorney of the law firm, which provides legal services and legal process management to the REO industry. " .... As much as 40% of an REO asset portfolio can be tied up in possession-related matters, and simple workflow and tracking systems don't go far enough in delivering the complete solution that's needed."

Mortgage Benefits Corp., Redwood City, Calif., has announced an agreement with eAppraiseIT LLC to offer discounted fees on property appraisal services to members of MBC's MortgageChoice Plan group mortgage benefit.MBC said benefits will include discounted fees, guaranteed cash credits toward nonrecurring closing costs, a choice of loan products from over 100 wholesale lenders, a self-service Web portal, a searchable agent database, a help center, and consumer protection. "Plan members will receive substantial savings, and The Mortgage PPO providers will benefit from unique products and standardization throughout the network to achieve better service levels," said Marsha Tiller, MBC's founder and president. The companies can be found online at http://www.mortgageplans.com and http://www.eappraiseit.com.

Fidelity National Financial Inc., Jacksonville, Fla., has announced a partnership between its LSI Credit Services division and Impac Lending Group to allow LSI's mortgage credit reports to be seamlessly ordered or re-issued through ILG's automated lending system.The Impac Direct Access System for Lending enables brokers to import applicant information directly from various loan origination systems or to enter the information manually into an electronic 1003 form, Fidelity said. Users can select LSI as the credit vendor and order credit reports that will download directly to the system. LSI will provide users of the Impac system with a Three-in-One Credit Report that incorporates data from the nation's three credit bureaus, Fidelity said.

Washington, D.C.-based iComply Inc. has announced the introduction of version 2.0 of iComply, which it terms a next-generation online mortgage compliance subscription service.Version 2.0 adds new navigation, more convenient tools, and a 10,000-document library, according to iComply, an affiliate of Lotstein Buckman LLP, a Washington-based law firm that serves the mortgage industry. Users of the system log in to a "dashboard" that contains the latest news, a continually updated log of the latest changes to iComply, and notes that can be shared among team members, the company said. It also facilitates direct contact with the iComply support team. The new 10,000-document library provides integrated, direct access to laws and regulations from every state, iComply said. Lotstein Buckman can be found online at http://www.lotsteinbuckman.com.

LendingTree Inc., Charlotte, N.C., has announced the acquisition of iNest, a referral network based in Bloomingdale, Ill., that specializes in serving builders and buyers of newly constructed homes.The terms of the deal were not disclosed. LendingTree said iNest will remain an independent brand, but that its services will be integrated over time into RealEstate.com, an operating business of the online lending and real estate exchange. Through its patented Featured Builder program, iNest provides a directory of more than 500 builders and over 8,000 new-home communities in 20 states, LendingTree said. "Consumers who purchase a home from one of the company's featured builders are able to use iNest's cash-back coupon to receive a 1% rebate on the base price of the home," LendingTree said. The companies can be found online at http://www.lendingtree.com and http://www.internest.com.

Dexma and Prime Alliance Solutions have announced the creation of Prime Alliance Services Co., citing an effort to deliver loan fulfillment coordinated with other mortgage services.Prime Alliance is a partnership between Boeing Employees' Credit Union and Dexma that originates roughly $2 billion in loan volume a month -- about the same volume as a top-15 retail lender -- for affiliated credit unions. By guaranteeing volume for a preferred network of service providers such as credit, appraisal, flood, and title companies, Prime Alliance Services offers to negotiate favorable rates and bundle services on behalf of affiliated credit unions, creating savings the CUs can pass along to their members. The companies said the new entity has already negotiated contracts with several providers, including First Lenders Data and Automated Collateral Solutions. Minneapolis-based Dexma can be found on the Web at http://www.dexma.com.

Fair Isaac Corp., Minneapolis, has announced that its Enterprise Decision Manager system is available for use as a foundation for developing a customizable automated underwriting solution for mortgage bankers of all sizes.The system enables mortgage lenders to standardize lending decision management and strategy refinement across originations and secondary-marketing initiatives, including point-of-sale marketing decisions, cross-sell and up-sell offers, score-based processing, best-fit product selection, risk-based pricing, and best execution. Fair Isaac said the system features a decision engine that can incorporate credit, collateral, and fraud decisions to properly underwrite against multiple investor guidelines while accelerating lending processing cycles. The decision engine's open platform generates decisions based on a multitude of available internal and external data sources, including seamless interaction with e-commerce credit and mortgage banking exchange networks. Fair Isaac can be found on the Web at http://www.fairisaac.com/mba.

Fiserv Integrated Loan Services, Rocky Hill, Conn., has announced the formation of a valuation services division through the merger of its own valuation services with those of two other Fiserv companies: Case Shiller Weiss and Lenders Financial Services.The division, ILS Valuation Services, will be managed by Walter Morgan, who will be the organization's executive vice president. CSW, based in Cambridge, Mass., is a developer of home price indices and of CASA, an automated valuation model and collateral scoring system. LFS, based in Agoura Hills, Calif., is a provider of broker price opinions, fee appraisals, title services, property inspections, and related services. Fiserv Integrated Loan Services is a unit of Fiserv Lending Solutions. Fiserv can be found on the Web at http://www.fiserv.com.

Framework, a Tarrytown, N.Y.-based technology company, was acquired last year by Bank of America, but now BoA has decided to cut its losses and shut the company down by the end of this year.A spokeswoman for BoA confirmed in an interview with Mortgage Wire that the lending institution has decided to close down the technology company. Framework provided an e-business platform in the form of its configurable enterprise software, called LendWare. With LendWare Workflow 3.0, Framework upgraded its Web-based software service component to enable the sharing of configuration and run-time information between different workflow engines. Earlier in the year the company announced plans to release an out-of-the-box version for smaller lenders because larger lenders were reluctant to buy bank-owned technology. (For more details, see the Nov. 8 issue of National Mortgage News.)