May 14, 2004

It's been another busy week in the real estate industry, and those that border it. Case in point would be the GeoSpatial World 2004 conference that ended today. The event was sponsored by Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions, so I guess you'd call it more of a users' conference than a typical convention. Still, the company says people from all over the world showed up to see the newest GIS technology. We've been covering this more lately because data providers are beginning to add more spatial information to their databases. We wrote about Stewart's efforts most recently.

Closer to home was the National Association of Realtor's mid-year conference, which was also held this week. Jeff Gellman, senior vice president of marketing for Threewide Corp. , gave me this report from the floor:

"I've been to about 15 of these mid-year shows and this one is definitely different. Above all, there doesn't seem to be a dominant vendor, like in the past. For example, in recent years Homestore was big or some other particular vendor was big, or hardware vendors were recently big (selling handheld devices, digicams, etc.). This year seems somewhat 'themeless' and disjointed in that regard. The show is, however, sold out (in terms of vendors)."

Gellman said that there was plenty of activity at the Hewlett-Packard booth, which centered around the new tablet PCs for real estate agents. He also commented on a couple of other companies that seemed to be doing exceptionally well. I'll be following up on those leads and bringing you that information soon.

Thanks for the heads up, Jeff. If you find yourself on a trade show floor with a few minutes to kill, give me a call (330-356-0677).

Now it's time for Rick's Pick of the week, my chance to tell you which of the stories we ran on the site this week will have the most impact on real estate technology in the future, and why.

DocuSign launches online electronic signature tool for the real estate market is my pick for most critical story of the week and I'll tell you why. No, on second thought, I'll let them tell you why:

"The selection of DocuSign Express for integration within the ZipForm package not only underscores the emerging importance of electronic contracting within the real estate industry; it also validates the architecture's best-of-breed functionality and ability to fit smoothly within existing line-of-business software packages," said Court Lorenzini, DocuSign CEO. "Building on this fundamental flexibility, DocuSign will soon be announcing a series of other alliances with leading companies serving the mortgage, banking, leasing and other key industry segments."

If you've been reading RETI, you know that convergence is one of our key themes. We have been saying for a while now that the new technologies will be applicable to multiple industry verticals with very little customization. Technology vendors, and buyers, need to be factoring this into what they design and what they invest in. Here's one firm that isn't afraid to tell the lot of you that they're coming. You'd better be ready.

Have a great weekend.

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May 13, 2004

So, certain evidence to the contrary, it appears that it can pay off to work with a government sponsored entity. AppIntell, the company that brought you FRADAR (FRaud Desktop Appraisal Review) and one of the leading companies working to bring the battle against fraud to the point-of-sale, has rolled out its new Sherloq fraud detection tool. According to the firm, the new product is a customized version of its fraud detection suite customized for Freddie Mac's internal use. Of course, by the time the loan gets to Freddie it's pretty far from the point-of-sale. So how does a GSE use a fraud tool like this and is that going to apply to lenders in the field? I'll find out and get back to you.

I was pleased to touch base with Larry Walker, former top executive at BridgeSpan, via e-mail this morning. He's been kind enough to grant me an interview for next week. I'm very much looking forward to it.

While the mortgage industry has been making a lot of noise about its move toward the all-electronic mortgage, complete with digital signatures, companies in the real estate industry have been quietly moving toward a solution of their own. See the story on DocuSign's new offering on the site. The firm has plans to move beyond the real estate agent soon.

Is it Thursday already!? Hope your week is going well.

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May 12, 2004

Wasn't it just a couple of days ago that I was musing about the future of the eMortgage Alliance? Ty Jenkins and his distributed team have been busy, it appears. A new board of directors will lead the alliance, going forward. At the head of the effort will be newly promoted senior vice president of technology and strategic initiatives David Williamson. Pulling in an industry consultant will differentiate the Alliance from other partnerships designed to facilitate electronic mortgages. I'm looking forward to talking with Williamson about his plans. You can find links to the individual companies that make up the alliance on the eMortgage Alliance website.

Spoke with eLynx president Phil Huff yesterday. He had just returned from the APPRO users conference where he gave a presentation on data security. For those of you unfamiliar with that firm, it works in the consumer and auto credit industry, providing loan origination software. We spoke about the data requirements for firms working in his part of the business. Watch the RETI site for more information.

Huff says the eLynx Web Posting System and electronic signing tools could benefit this crowd, most of whom are smaller banks and consumer finance companies. If he's right, and I suspect he is, that will mean that so far this year, eLynx has expanded out of the mortgage space, into the title industry market and now is pushing up against consumer lending. We expect electronic docs, closing and recording will be big issues this year. We'll be watching all the firms in this space closely.

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May 11, 2004 : Have some wine with that LOS?

It has been said that mortgage bankers change their loan origination systems (LOSs) every five years or so, often spending a lot of money to do so. That would lead you to believe that there's a lot of whining going on in relation to these systems. But now, one LOS vendor wants to change all that. MindBox, Greenbrae, Calif., has embarked on a new marketing campaign. A recent mailer was sent out offering a complimentary bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. That's thinking outside of the box. The offer ends June 26, so we'll call them next month to see how it went over.

As you saw on our site yesterday, Decade Systems, Jacksonville, Fla., is also doing some out-of-the-box marketing. The company is using bags in their most recent effort to get lenders to pay attention. The bags are reportedly Mylar balloons, to hold the hot air that other vendors have been providing, the company says.

Now that lenders have the time to consider new technologies, the advertising strategies for technology vendors seem be moving back toward the mainstream, somewhat. What I mean by that is, instead of just going to trade shows and wringing their hands in the booths, vendors are starting to act a bit more like consumer technology providers. Soon, I guess we'll be seeing offers for free printers and scanners with the purchase of a back-office processing system.

This is not to say that the companies I have singled out here don't offer great technology. I've been impressed with what I've seen from both firms. But to use gimmicks to get lenders attention? Personally, I doubt these techniques are going to be very effective with lenders. Instead of a glass of wine or a handy hot air bag, I imagine that lenders will still need to see solid ROI calculations and references to back them up in order to make their technology buying decisions. I could be wrong. If I am, I certainly hope you e-mail me to let me know. But I doubt it.

In fact, I'm so sure that the numbers are the key to selling new technology that I'm willing to make you an offer. If you're a vendor and you have an online calculator that helps prospects figure out their potential return on investment for your technology, send me a link. I'll find a place on the RETI website to post it. This offer is open to any subscriber, so send me your information.

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May 10, 2004

Hope you all wished your mothers a happy Mother’s Day (warning: following this link can overwhelm anyone who doesn't love the color pink) yesterday—or had a great one yourself if you are a mom. Now, it’s back to work.

Craig Focardi, senior analyst with TowerGroup came out last week on BankTech.com with a prediction that Business Process Management would come into its own and become a category in mortgage technology in this decade. He's probably right. You can find a report on BPM on the Towergroup site. I've always considered Focardi a sharp guy. You've probably seen him speak at an industry conference. He's out there quite often. I visited with Craig on the phone recently about what it would take for mortgage companies to succeed in a down market. He sent me a copy of his recent report, also on the site, which is very interesting.

TowerGroup will be hosting its annual Financial Services Business Technology Conference in Boston later this month.

But back to BPM, TowerGroup talks about ILOG in their recent report. We've featured that company a number of times on our site, and I like what they're doing. But I also recently visited with the guys at Latham Software and they are heavy into this concept as well. But they call it Business Process Improvement and take a step further upstream before they start. These are the guys that used to work for Alltel before Fidelity bought the company and downsized it, centralizing a lot of the Alltel folks into sites in Little Rock, Ark. and Jacksonville, Fla. I was impressed with what the company told me. You’ll be seeing the information in stories that make it into upcoming issues. The company recently made news when it started a new advisory board and added some high profile executives.

I'll tell you somebody else who understands this BPM stuff is WellFound Technologies. This is the company that has stepped in to take over the lead role in the eMortgage Alliance started by DocuTech. Now that Tim Anderson has left the fold, these guys will serve as the new driving force, if all goes well. Ty Jenkins will still be in the driver's seat, but WellFound is expected to be the glue that holds the alliance together. We'll know this year if it will survive or fly apart.

WellFound is probably a pretty good choice. Their technology provides that business process layer between the data and the GUIs, allowing multiple parties to interact across any networks. Actually, it's more complicated than that (surprised?). If you're interested in finding out more about how its supposed to work, drop me an e-mail and I'll write something for the newsletter.

Which reminds me, I reward people who send me good story ideas. Come up with something that's really interested to RETI readers and I'll put a team together to do the research and write the story. If we choose to write the story you suggest, I'll give you the information first. Remember, knowledge is power.

Hope you are all ready to have a great week. Better get started.

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