TheMReport — News and strategies for the evolving mortgage marketplace.
Issue link: http://digital.themreport.com/i/1472906
18 | M R EP O RT COVER STORY Developers in the tech space must keep pace with the increas- ing demands of the consumer, and today, it's all about instant gratification and speed. The in- dustry must answer the call with the latest and greatest innovations to appease their audience. MReport gathered a panel of ex- perts to weigh in on several tech- related topics. Some are new to the game, and some are seasoned vets, but the common theme among them all is that tech is no longer a tool assisting the mortgage process, but a necessity in the process of achieving the American Dream of homeownership. Q: How did your company pivot to handle the challenges presented by the pandemic? Were certain processes and functions more relied on over others? Angela Hurst, EVP/CAO, RES. NET: The past two years have illustrated that being able to accept and embrace change is paramount. Scalability and the ability to pivot with little notice are critical credentials needed in today's rapidly changing climate. Agile technology will continue to play a significant role in that. Innovative solutions and tools that provide real-world relief and meet client expectations are paramount. In our case, because we continu- ously collaborate with our clients and create continually evolving solutions, it makes for a much better user experience. This collaboration lent an opportunity to pivot and develop user-specific workflows, transparency in transactions, and robust reporting tools that allowed our customers to have a depth of knowledge across their portfolios at a critical time in our industry. Asher Kahn, CEO, CondoTek: Obviously, the ability to work remotely became critical over the past couple of years. During the pandemic, everyone started using WebEx or Zoom, and these tools are now the norm for businesses across the nation. Ironically, CondoTek has been a remote workplace since our founding in 2014. We always relied on online meeting platforms, which really made us an oddity for many years. At the same time, nobody ever turned on their camera for meetings. Now, we use Microsoft Teams, and we finally see what everybody looks like! Phill McCall, President/COO, ACES Quality Management: Because our workforce was already largely remote, we were uniquely positioned to help our clients acclimate to conducting their process and working in ACES remotely. Early on, our focus was on driving additional efficiencies within the system to help our users manage the tremendous volume of loans coming through the QA/QC process. Given the importance of communication in a remote work environment, we also made significant enhancements to our ACES CONNECT TM portal to facilitate a smoother and easier business relationship between the auditing teams and the business units whose work was being audited. Dave Parker, EVP, Product, LoanLogics: As loan volumes went through the roof, we examined our own processes and introduced more automation so that we could maintain the service levels our clients were accustomed to. We also accelerated our ability to respond to our clients' rapidly evolving requirements. It wasn't just about enhancing the automa- tions we marketed and sold to clients, but how we went about doing that. We examined our own technology infrastructure and cloud technology architectures to improve our technical efficiency. Today, project management au- tomation is enabling us to better prioritize where our time and in- vestments are best focused. We're placing greater focus on origina- tion automation and rules-driven technology that create greater certainties, better manage risk, and improve investor confidence. Q: What processes and digital tools have you seen the industry embrace and gravitate toward? Vince Furey, Chief Revenue Officer, OpenClose: The pandemic accelerated lender implementations of eClose, eVault, and RON technologies. This helped transition the loan closing process from what traditionally was a manual in-person, wet signature process to a digital transaction that can be executed anywhere, anytime. These tools became a must-have virtually overnight when the pandemic hit, with social distancing being the primary driver. There is still legislative work that needs to be done to broaden adoption in all states, especially with RON, but the unexpected lift that the pandemic crisis cre- ated from an adoption perspective was significant with these digital closing technologies. Chad Jampedro, CEO, Bonzo Group: The rise of "Textosuraus!" Very quickly, SMS/MMS have become the preferred mode of communication for both mortgage professionals and their clients. The convenience and low barrier access has become the path of least resistance for everybody. Today, point of sale, processing, CRM, and relationship manage- ment systems are all prioritizing text messaging and ensuring that text communications are secure and visible for compliance reasons. Additionally, the increase in push notifications and in-app messaging is a growing focus in captive contact environments, and can even be preferable to the almighty text. Shelley Leonard, President, Xactus: We're increasingly seeing our lender customers use a combination of data sources to validate the accuracy of informa- tion they need to consider when assessing a consumer's creditwor- thiness. They are not only using the data they have, but they are also going to the direct source of the data to confirm it: i.e., income and assets are being confirmed by viewing bank accounts online that are updated in real-time, as opposed to reviewing paper statements. Automation is becoming more the norm, rather than the exception. Parker: The pandemic and recent refinance boom showed us that forces beyond our control can significantly impact loan vol- umes at any time. These forces drive digital technology, too. At the same time, many lenders weren't ready for this enormous market shift. As a result, many were forced to invest heavily on increasing staff. This has only made it harder to unwind that decision now that we're entering a period of inflation and rising mortgage rates. The pandemic did push lenders toward digital technology such as eClosings, but mostly out of necessity. Speed and borrower convenience through social distancing were paramount