What does it take to deliver a next generation LOS platform? You can’t just roll out the next iteration of the system; you have to deliver a truly new software platform.
That’s exactly what Mortgage Cadence has done with the new Mortgage Cadence Platform (MCP). After years of work, the team has completed work on the LOS of the future.
We know. Everyone wants you to believe they have accomplished this. But in this article we’ll give you three ways to tell whether the LOS you’re using today is next generation or not. We’ll also give you two goals your LOS must help you reach. When we’re done, we’ll tell you how you can put the new MCP to the test for your institution.
The most critical goals of the lender’s LOS
There was a time when the only goal of the LOS was to take a collection of consumer and property data, spread it out onto a number of executable documents, and bundle it all into a closed loan that could be sold into the secondary market.
Today, it’s not just about creating the mortgage asset. It’s about doing it faster and cheaper. With timelines expanding and cost-to-close still too high, if your LOS is not helping you manage your time and money, it’s not doing its job and it’s time to seek out a new solution.
In an increasingly competitive environment, driving down the cost-to-close and the time-to-close will set the winners apart from those that leave the business over the next 12-18 months.
Defining the Next Generation LOS
Just because an LOS can help the lender manage these critical metrics doesn’t make it a next generation software solution. To qualify for that, it must satisfy the following three criteria.
1. It’s looks and feels like something new
We’ve been told all of our lives not to judge a book by its cover. And yet, how software looks and feels to the user tells us a great deal about its capabilities.
How the software looks matters.
In the case of MCP, each screen is intuitive and easy to use on any device it is displayed upon. Responsive design makes the LOS as easy to use on a tablet as it is on a laptop or desktop. The integrated point of sale (POS) lets borrowers interact with the lender from any device they own, easily. This speaks to adoption and is a critical metric for lender success.
You don’t get adoption with outdated tools. Next Generation software is designed to be easy to use and offer the user everything they need to take the next step in the loan origination process. It’s more difficult to recruit younger workers if the lender is using older software.
MCP looks like something new because it is. What the new platform from Mortgage Cadence can do today simply wasn’t possible using those outdated software architectures. Which leads us to the second criteria of a next generation solution.
2. It’s built on an open architecture
Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)make connections between systems, and modules within the same system, easy to create, maintain and use.
This has changed everything about how lenders use modern LOS platforms, giving them the power to make connections on their own and extend the functionality of their loan origination software.
This is a next generation criteria because in the past the lender had to wait for someone else to create integrations before they could work with their partners or choice, at least electronically. And today, lenders don’t want to work any other way.
MCP’s open architecture allows Mortgage Cadence to offer lenders freedom of choice, and it has opened the door to a vibrant system of potential partners who can now compete for the lender’s business without requiring the lender to go to the time or expense of helping them connect to the database of record. The best partners will rise to the top with nothing standing between them and helping the lender meet its most important goals.
But there are other advantages to an open architecture that aren’t available to previous generation technologies. Perhaps chief among these is efficiency. Lenders have struggled with this for decades. The primary challenge is getting humans out of the way of automation. That’s not possible when the loan processor must swivel between two screens to check data flowing into the LOS from settlement services partners.
A big part of this story is our journey to the Azure cloud. Mortgage Cadence has enjoyed a long relationship with Microsoft. Working closely with this tech giant’s developers has offered us many advantages and resulted in our ability to deliver additional functionality that is helping more lenders reach their goals.
One significant example is the inclusion of Microsoft’s PowerBI . Powerful analytics are delivered to lender dashboards, providing business insights and metric tracking that puts control back into the hands of lender management.
Next generation software is built in and delivered from the cloud, giving it unbeatable uptime, cybersecurity and flexibility.
3. Making workflows dynamic
For mortgage lenders, efficiency is all about the workflow. In the very old days, paper loan folders would travel through the lender’s shop, from desk to desk. They wouldn’t always make it to the end of the process intact or complete. That’s not tolerated today when loan quality is a business imperative.
Today, workflows are set up and managed electronically. Last generation LOSs require human managers to move the file from desktop to desktop through the shop. That’s not efficient. Next generation software provides AI-powered automation that can learn with experience to keep deals moving through the system efficiently.
MCP was created to deliver dynamic workflows that are intelligent. It’s designed to put the loan transaction in front of the right staff member at precisely the right time. More than that, it guides users through the process, making them more efficient and reducing the possibility of errors.
Mortgage Cadence built the ACE Rules Engine years ago to finally make it possible for business managers working within the lender’s shop to make changes to LOS automation. ACE has been seamlessly integrated into MCP, keeping humans in the loop but out of the way of the automation.
But not every deal will make it all the way through. Good exception processing is the key to keeping the process moving, even when humans must get involved. If there’s a problem with a deal, a user needs to know immediately and have the information required to solve the problem. MCP provides that. With multi-user concurrency, managers can step into the same file to support staff in solving problems faster.
Sometimes, a more efficient workflow requires new screens, so MCP includes a new UI Designer that allows the lender to easily create specific workflow or proprietary products that require custom data collection, all without coding.
A flexible, extensible system configured to work out-of-the-box
With all of this power, many will assume that the new LOS from Mortgage Cadence must be hard to implement or configure. That’s last generation thinking!
MCP is pre-configured to work right out of the box and can be implemented quickly. The software is initially set to meet a set of lender needs that are prevalent in the market today, but making it your own is easier than you can imagine. Enterprise edition clients have more power than they’ve ever had before.
