Ellie Mae (ELLI) officially completed its acquisition of substantially all assets tied to MortgageCEO, a provider of on-demand customer relationship management and marketing automation solutions for the mortgage industry.

Due to shrinking refinance volumes and a major shift to a purchase market, originators will need to fully leverage their referral sources and deepen relationships with existing customers, partners and prospects in order to succeed, said Jonathan Corr, president and chief operating officer of Ellie Mae.

"Employing a well-designed CRM and marketing automation system like MortgageCEO allows originators to efficiently ramp up their marketing and improve how they generate and nurture referral relationships. It also allows lenders to easily demonstrate that the proper institutional controls and safeguards are being applied when marketing to consumers," Corr added.