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TH E M R EP O RT | 5 MTECH with full USPAP and FIRREA compliance. Dart Appraisal is an independently owned, nationwide Appraisal Management Company founded in 1993. Launched in September, Agile Appraisal™ connects users to a network of licensed, geographi- cally competent appraisers who are available on demand. According to HouseCanary, this partnership will allow users to receive their ap- praisal in as little as five days, and provides a more affordable alterna- tive to the traditional appraisal. "We are extremely excited to be partnering with Dart Appraisal to bring efficiency, consistency, and in- novation to the appraisal fulfillment process," said Alex Villacorta, Ph.D., HouseCanary's EVP of Analytics. "At HouseCanary, we've built a carefully curated platform of the industry's most comprehensive set of data and analytics, and now we are pleased to equip Dart's appraiser panel with our data and analytics platform so appraisers can focus on the areas of the assignment that are most important to the valuation analysis," he explained. "The valuation industry is con- stantly evolving, and it's important that we offer unique, efficient, and accurate products that meet our clients' needs," said Dart Appraisal President Michael Dresden. "The Agile Appraisal™ combines HouseCanary's extensive set of data and analytics with the expertise and local knowledge of credentialed appraisers, which makes this prod- uct truly innovative," concluded Dresden. First American Streamlines the Appraisal Process THE VALUATION TOOL INTEGRATES BIG DATA AND MOBILE TECHNOLOGY. I n a recent press release, First American Mortgage Solutions LLC reported its first field results on what it calls a "smart" valuation offering. After months of testing, early metrics demonstrate a 16 to 20 percent reduction in appraisal turn times. The quality and ongoing turn time reduction is expected to continue according to First American. The valuation offering is intended to integrate big data, mobile technology, and re- configure an appraisal process that is historically known to be manual and labor-intensive. "Moving from loan application to close faster is a long-awaited evolution being fueled by access to better data and technology, which allows us to rethink tradi - tional workflows and processes," said Kevin Wall, President of First American Mortgage Solutions. "This has been a major aspira - tion for us, along with the entire mortgage industry, and we're excited to be at the forefront of game-changing progress." First American has developed a collaborative process thanks to data and analytics connecting a mobile workforce with cloud- based technology. According to investor comments made to Wall previously, speeding up the ap - praisal process can help improve efficiencies and possibly reduce some fixed costs, mainly in large housing markets where appraiser turnaround time can be months. First American uses its propri - etary software and nationwide reference data to help appraiser selection and optimization. Using it's ACI Sky technology, First American intends to move the back-end control process to in-line quality assurance. "Smarter valuations are achiev- able because of the incredible assets amassed by First American, specifically data, technology, and industry expertise. We are continuing to invest in every area of the mortgage continuum where we see an opportunity to lever our assets to improve quality and consumer experience. We have the ability to transform weeks into days, while empowering ap - praisers to best utilize their talents and skills," added Wall. Blind Test for Mortgage Files Revolutionizing Tech THE MORTGAGE OCR LIBRARY IDENTIFIES NEARLY 500 DOCUMENT TYPES TYPICALLY FOUND IN A MORTGAGE FILE. P aradatec, a company specializing in advanced Optical Character Rec- ognition (OCR) solutions for mortgage-file processing has announced its One-Day Blind Test Challenge recently. The mortgage OCR library identifies nearly 500 document types typi - cally found in a mortgage file, as well as extracting over 6,000 data fields from said documents. This works in tandem with Paradatec's sub-second OCR processing engine. "Many of our prospects have been disappointed in the results of past OCR initiatives, so they're understandably cautious. Our One-Day Blind Test Challenge lets them run samples of their loans through our solution to validate our out-of-the-box performance claims. The Challenge will be conducted on-site rather than at our facilities, due in part to the confidential nature of the content, but to also minimize concerns about our skewing any results behind the scenes," said Neil Fraser, Paradatec's Director of U.S. Operations. The Blind Test Challenge takes the provided loan files and index - es them by document type. One hundred data fields are extracted from various key documents, including the Note, Deed of Trust, Closing Disclosure, Appraisal, and W-2, and a bookmarked PDF is created from the produced loan. According to Fraser, other compa- nies make great claims about their "out-of-the-box" mortgage specific functionality, but those interested in OCR automation are disap- pointed when they find out the functionality is limited. "The typical experience found with other products is something less impressive. We believe ours is the most expansive OCR offering available, such that we'll gladly test it on a blind set of loans to show a prospect what makes Paradatec different." Ellie Mae Helps Originators Lower Costs THE CLOUD-BASED PLATFORM PROVIDER INTENDS TO HELP LENDERS OF ALL SIZES ORIGINATE MORE LOANS AT LOWER COSTS AND SHORTEN CLOSE TIMES. E llie Mae recently an- nounced its new update of its mortgage management solution, Encompass. In a piece from Business Wire, the cloud- based platform provider for the mortgage finance industry in- tends to help lenders of all sizes originate more loans at lower "Moving from loan application to close faster is a long- awaited evolution being fueled by access to better data and technology, which allows us to rethink traditional workflows and processes." — Kevin Wall, President, First American Mortgage Solutions