By Liliana Nigrelli, Senior Business Architect, Gallagher Solutions
In the last two years, the mortgage lending industry has undergone dramatic changes to meet new regulatory requirements and customer expectations. As with any major change in an industry, this wide-sweeping event has created opportunities for companies entering the lending arena, but slow-moving “business as usual” tactics will not help companies take advantage of the opportunities. As a result, mortgage lenders are changing the way they do business by incorporating enhancements focused on internal efficiency and integrating third-party services into their processes.
Using third-party services is like pulling into a full-service gas station. If you don’t live in New Jersey or Oregon, you may be asking yourself “full-service what?” It’s hard to imagine now, but once upon a time drivers pulled their cars into a service station instead of a gas station to refuel their tanks. One or more qualified station attendants would greet the driver of the car and then service the customer’s vehicle. That is, attendants would wash the car’s windshield and inspect the car’s tire pressure and top off fluid levels while filling the car’s tank. With a full tank and adjusted pressure and fluids, another satisfied customer would drive off, confident that those tasks were completed competently by the attendants.
In the full-service model, customers pay more to receive the additional services, but as inferred by the preceding example, the value of the service received by the customer is greater than the sum of the individual tasks performed. The value derived is more than just the ability to sit comfortably in the driver’s seat while other people perform routine maintenance checks. Assuming that the customer is a regular user of full-service stations, he is able to allocate himself completely to performing the task that he is best at: driving the car. Plus, because the car has been tended to by a professional, future, more expensive costs will be cut.
Unlike the fueling station example, however, full-service in the mortgage industry is new, and self-service is the way of the past. The full-service model lives at the heart of most mortgage technology offerings today. SaaS-based (Software as a Service) technology offerings bundled with an array of fulfillment services allows mortgage lenders to focus on their core competencies, reallocate the time and capital needed to invest in opportunities for future revenue generation, and lets the IT professionals work out the mechanical details.
To provide a better full-service experience to our customers, Wipro Gallagher Solutions (WGS) integrated DocuTech’s ConformX into our NetOxygen Cirrus loan origination system. This integration enables us to assure our customers that the documents accessible through NetOxygen Cirrus are current and compliant with the ever-changing government regulations. ConformX is supported by a professional compliance team that constantly monitor industry requirements and make updates to mortgage documents as government agencies announce them. Thus, the full-service benefit of ConformX is two-fold: lenders can focus all their efforts on creating leads and closing loans and WGS benefits by being able to focus on what we do best””delivering cutting edge Loan Origination Systems (LOS) bundled with quality fulfillment services.
To develop a clearer picture of the value derived from the full-service model, it helps to simply compare DocuTech’s full-service benefits to those offered by a traditional, self-service document vendor.
Traditional document vendors create and deliver the product, but their involvement and responsibility in the process ends at the point of delivery. Responsibility about how the document will be implemented into a lender’s LOS solution is beyond the scope of what they do. This means countless hours on the part of lenders and their vendor to install the documents, to map the data, and finally to integrate the documents into their workflow; basically, lenders must “pump their own gas.” Furthermore, lenders alone bear the burden of testing the documents to make sure they work as expected by regulatory agencies. This is costly in terms of labor and hardware, and it is a distraction from the real business of lenders.
Using a full-service document vendor system that is integrated into a fully hosted, fully managed SaaS system, like NetOxygen Cirrus, means lenders never have to look under the hood. As a full-service document provider, DocuTech staffs expert resources to make sure document updates are made and available in their document packaging interface. The technology service provider, such as WGS, works with the document vendor to make sure all new and updated fields get mapped correctly and function in the lending workflow. With little or no involvement from the lender, the documents are implemented and ready for use when the lender accesses the system.
The lender doesn’t need to be involved in document implementation any more than the document vendor or technology provider needs to originate mortgage loans””it’s a hassle that most lenders needlessly experience. In addition, lenders can avoid the pitfalls of costly mobilizations to meet the requirements of today’s regulatory obstacles as they are mitigated by the expertise of vendors like DocuTech and WGS. Using a full-service solution emancipates the lender from the fear of whether or not compliant documents are being issued to borrowers. Ultimately, lenders stay firmly in the driver seat, and the road is open and smooth.
Liliana Nigrelli
Sr. Business Architect
810 Crescent Centre Dr., Ste 400
Franklin, TN 37067
liliana.nigrelli@wipro.com
About Liliana Nigrelli
Liliana Nigrelli has worked in various positions in the legal profession as intern, paralegal, law clerk, and closing officer since 1986. All of her positions related directly to real estate law and compliance. Liliana received her law degree and was admitted to practice law in the state of Tennessee in 1993. Liliana came to Wipro Gallagher Solutions in June of 1994 and spent three years serving as the compliance officer/forms department supervisor before working with the Product Services Department. Liliana is now a Sr. Business Architect and analyzes client requirements, facilitates the preparation of statements of work, and assists research and development in planning future projects.