Loan-Score's Mortgage Technology Blog

SaaS

loanscore — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:11:14 +0000

Software-as-a-Service Poised to Offer Lenders Operational Efficiencies at a Lower Cost

Market conditions in the mortgage industry are clearly forcing lenders to find better ways to conduct business in an effort to sustain themselves. The jarring effects of the credit crunch and liquidity crisis is still putting lenders out of business, and for most that remain, their staffing resources in nearly all functional areas have been cut dramatically. Technology, of course, is but one of many important areas that has been affected and is quickly changing amid volatile conditions.

Throughout the re-fi boom it was common for lenders of all sizes to purchase expensive software solutions that reside onsite, which they maintain and manage. The upside was complete control over rules, roles and policies while the downside was the effort it took to bring solutions live and subsequently support them. However, in today’s market the cost to purchase, implement and support an expensive, older technology platform no longer makes sense. Consequently, lenders of all sizes are quickly turning to lower cost software alternatives to support their businesses.

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) has emerged as a viable means to utilize leading technology on a highly cost effective basis. As lenders’ IT departments have been forced to scale back their resources, supporting older technologies has become cost prohibitive for even large lenders. Additionally, older technology platforms require constant changes to complex business rules and critical data elements, and these systems take a long time to implement. In a tough market, that can severely hamper a lenders’ ability to conduct business in an efficient manner.

Defining Software as a Service
SaaS is an entirely web-based, service-oriented approach to software delivery and usage that circumvents purchasing, implementing and maintaining complex software and hardware at your own location. Instead, SaaS-based vendors handle those headaches for you and also provide what is called “Managed Services,” whereby their staff worries about daily changes to data and software updates via a secure data center. Whereas traditional software runs inside a lender’s own firewall, SaaS applications run remotely and are thus available to all types of independent users and entities across the value chain. Lenders are attracted to the SaaS model because there isn’t any complex code that is installed alongside additional self-hosted applications, which means that there is not a lengthy traditional implementation.

Software as a Service in a Down Market
In the near term, SaaS prevents lenders from having to outlay large amounts of money in a down market. And, lenders do not have to support massive systems with a resource strapped IT staff. SaaS implementations are swift — usually 30 to 60 days and under. So, today’s resource constrained IT departments don’t have to worry about heavy platform support. What’s more, because SaaS is configurable (not custom-coded), lenders can go live in a fraction of the time. Ultimately, this becomes a win-win situation to swiftly realize business efficiencies at a tolerable price.

Software as a Service and its Future in the Mortgage Industry
Industry analysts across the board predict that SaaS will become the technology infrastructure of choice due to its low initial cost outlay, nominal maintenance fees, swift implementation, ease of integration with other SaaS vendors, and evolved change management model.

Newer Internet-based technologies such as Web 2.0 is further helping to facilitate the business revolution of seamless integration and fluid communication between disparate applications. — without the hassles of self-hosted software.

In the immediacy, lenders are increasingly looking to implement the two most important technology pieces to a lenders’ operations on a SaaS basis: point-of-sale (POS) platforms and loan origination systems (LOS). Vendors that have developed SaaS models to automate key areas such as product eligibility, pricing, automated underwriting and loan processing are busier than ever responding to this elevated demand.

Imagine going live with your POS and LOS in under 30 days. Imagine not having to outlay large licensing and implementation fees. Imagine that you can operate smoothly and efficiently with minimal IT support staff. Imagine not having to worry about keeping up-to-date with ever-changing investor guidelines, eligibility requirements, rate changes, etc.

Cash is king in this profit-pinched market, and the evolution of SaaS is helping lenders on the technology front to adjust and survive in a drastically different lending landscape than that of a year ago. The exorbitant software of yesteryear is quickly going away in favor of SaaS. It’s only a matter of time before SaaS gains critical mass and becomes the norm to execute most business functions.

Integrations

loanscore — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:52:25 +0000

The proliferation of Web Services, the advancement of SOA, and the increasing adoption of SaaS is driving the industry to gravitate toward more of an integrated, best-of-breed approach. We’ve all heard the adage: “no one vendor does it all.” There used to be a number of concerning limitations with a multiple vendor best-of-breed approach, which were largely due to poor or lacking integrations. This often resulted in system users being forced to log into multiple systems and re-key data. However, a more holistic view of Web Services and its rapid advancement is changing this perspective. Moving forward, we’re going to see that the back-end orchestration of transparent business services will become of far greater importance than a single system that purportedly “does it all.”

The industry is slated to benefit from improved efficiencies via transparency of communication, integration and the fluid exchange of secure data from disparate system- to-system. SaaS is gaining more momentum by the month and SOA is truly starting to gain widespread adoption, moving us closer to the Holy Grail. Organizations will then be able to operate with all of today’s SaaS efficiencies, but what’s more important, is the seamless passing and sharing of data in a secure manner. Imagine ease of integration, communication and sensitive information flow across disparate business units, channels and entire companies. The industry’s downturn is helping/forcing us to move down this more efficient, cost effective path and the lenders are now expecting it.

Loan-Score Decsioning Systems — Enterprise-class AU & Pricing

loanscore — Thu, 14 May 2009 20:27:12 +0000

Loan-Score offers a comprehensive, integrated Decision Management platform that is comprised of a true Automated Underwriting System (AUS) and a Product Eligibility & Pricing Engine (PPE), which renders an instant, trusted decision that carries the same weight as a human underwriter’s review. Our mantra is ease of doing business and, as such, we deliver seamless bi-directional integrations that bridge the gap between the point-of-sale and your back-end LOS, which our competition cannot come close to offering.

Our solution is available on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) and a self-hosted basis for all lending channels and product types. Our suite is in production with small, medium and large lending institutions.

We are proud to be named a Top 50 Mortgage Technology Vendor in 2009 and to received a commendation for the magazine’s annual “Fix It” award as a result of our new integration with FHA TOTAL Scorecard to decision and underwrite FHA loans.