August 20, 2004

It's hard to believe that the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) has been holding GIS (geographic information system) & CAMA (computer assisted mass appraisal) conferences for 9 years. These technologies can fit together very well, but I'm impressed that some people realized that nine years ago. The organization just announced its next conference to be held in February of next year.

Also in the news, Hart InterCivic has signed up another county government for its public records management software. St. Joseph County will be the first jurisdiction in Michigan to use the company's solution. It's interesting to note that the company released pricing information along with the announcement.

Both Cendant and Countrywide, two firms that a lot of folks thought were going to be doing a big deal together until recently, are both in the news touting their internal technologies. Cendant has upgraded its Workstream payroll technology (to help manage the "sophisticated variable pay programs" for its gazillion employees), while Countrywide wins an award for its employee suggestion technology (from a national organization that promotes the use of employee suggestion technology). I would have thought that the news earlier this week that Countywide would not be buying Cendant's mortgage operation would have been more of a letdown for the firms, but a glance at their stock prices over the past week doesn't indicate any major trauma. Both firms are languishing a bit, probably on fears that the low interest rates are soon going to be history (soon, any time now…really) and the lending industry will slow even more. Meanwhile, Freddie reports the eighth week in a row with falling rates in its weekly survey.

Back to technology (the fun stuff). Spoke to Jeff Gellman over at Threewide Corp. yesterday. He read the first part of our MLS technology story in the last issue and wanted to offer up Ira Luntz, the firm's top executive, as a source for the second part. I agree, that's a great idea. Some of the stuff the company is working on goes right along with some of the things MRIS CEO David Charron spoke about in our story. In fact, MRIS is a Threewide client. Look for some concrete examples of what firms like Threewide are offering MLS companies and their subscribers in an upcoming issue of RETI.

We're almost finished with our first CTO/CIO Special Issue. Layout will be complete on Monday and then it's off to the printer. I can't wait for you to see it.

Have a great weekend.

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August 18, 2004

I had a great conversation with Trevor Rubel of Intelligent Results yesterday afternoon. I'm looking forward to telling you more about this company and its plans. Using the technology based on designs originally developed for the federal government and deployed by Amazon.com, the company is appending the massive amount of unstructured data into mortgage servicing databases to allow its clients to make better decisions.

If you look at your operation, you'll see that a lot of the information you maintain about the deals you're currently working on is stored in comment records and audit trails. While this information helps human supervisors make decisions (when they get around to reading it), it has been difficult to integrate this data into automated systems. That could be changing. I'll tell you more about it in RETI soon.

In the news today, Franklin Mortgage hires West Pole to do some much needed integration work. This was the company that was responsible for some of the work done on ABN AMRO's successful MOAI wholesale lending network.

And Stewart gives us another reason to pat it on the back for buying the company that developed its SureClose system.

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August 16, 2004

Many of you who have now read the latest issue of RETI probably remember nodding your heads in agreement when you read the comments by real estate industry consultant Ken Jenny in our cover story. Trancen's Jenny, like many in the industry, says that the Internet is not a safe place for brokers to put their data. In a telephone conversation we had after the article was published, Jenny, who consults with some of the largest brokerages in the business, asked me to clarify that he wasn't talking about the security of the technology currently in use. "They're building a lot of security into the software," he said. Rather, he was concerned with controlling the use of the data once it hit the Web.

As you'll see in today's news, Jenny isn't the only one concerned with this. The NAR's Center for Realtor Technology has rolled out a new product it says will prevent the online scraping of listing data. We haven't spoken to anyone who is using it yet, but we're looking forward to it. Finding users probably won't be a problem, since the organization is giving it away free.

Even so, it should be pointed out that the software is designed to benefit the larger brokers who list their data on the Internet, but the organization exists to serve its million-plus real estate agent membership. Some have argued that leveling the playing field for its members runs counter to the goals of the major brokers, who have spent millions to build up their unique brands. Can anyone serve two masters?

GAC continues to roll out its GatorNet transaction management platform. The company, provider of the technology behind a fair amount of loanprospector.com's functionality, is rolling out the functionality across all of its customer bases.

And Stewart continues to spend resources on the SureClose system it bought earlier this year. This time, it's an alliance with Lone Wolf Software, makers of real estate broker back-office software.

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