“There is a lot of intelligent data out there,” said Judy Margrett, president of The Turning Point, Sedona, Ariz. “Data is just data unless it’s brought together to allow for intelligent decisioning. With available data, companies can designate factors such as licensing requirements in personalized communication without a salesperson’s interactions."

Margrett said  communicating and building relationships is critical. "It requires companies to consider who has the intelligence and ability internally to maximize potential," she said. "Lenders and brokers are forced to look into smarter technology solutions that integrate data in ways that are driven by decisions before you acquire a list and just write to everyone.”
 
“The mortgage industry is primitive in the way it approaches the marketing side of business,” said Stephen Margrett, CEO of The Turning Point. “Marketing has often been left to chance. Marketing technology has a long way to go and some of the efficiencies technology has can help deliver it.”

The Turning Point is currently working on systems that seek to provide efficiencies in marketing—considerably important in a tighter lending environment with lower volumes, especially in loan originations. “We are trying to provoke a reevaluation of how companies do their marketing because that is how they get their business,” Stephen Margrett said.

Mark Attaway, vice president and CIO of LSI, Santa Ana, Calif., emphasized the importance of transparency in data. “There are many service-oriented architectures out there,” he said. “There are also lots of services out there that allow transacting across web services, building strong data services that can be used for making better decisions.”

Attaway advocated better data exchange at point of sale, referring to technology’s ability to better evaluate when making decisions. “Lender data exchange is critical and this kind of information can better evaluate decisions,” he said. “Keeping creativity is good but make sure technology keeps in it in check. It takes information—good information—to determine whether transactions are bad or good.”

“People look at data differently now,” said Daniel Sogorka, president of Real EC Technologies, Santa Ana, Calif. “You need to get electronic and once you go electronic, you get data. What’s the use of data if it’s stored in a folder and someone has to go through it to look something up? The availability of data allows for access to historical transactions and transactions in real-time provide data exchange. It allows lenders to see what other lenders are doing too. None of that is possible if you don’t have that data electronically. Capturing more data at point of sale is critical to make decisions."

Judy Margrett stressed technology’s importance as it relates to speed-to-market factors and capitalizing on its ability to target customers in a timely fashion. “Technology is coming screaming to bear,” she said. “In marketing automation, with digital signatures, logos, photos and licenses in a complex database, you can get something out fast. You need to consider compliance and legal factors in marketing as well. Having everything and everyone on board allows to you produce something in two minutes and send it out on everyone’s behalf.”

She cited last month’s wave of refinances in the short period when interest rates were low. Volumes soared but lenders had to be on top of their marketing efforts to target borrowers. If they weren’t efficient, then they missed the tiny window of opportunity, Margrett said. “You couldn’t do what you wrote to them about in the first place if you were not efficient."

Randy Schmidt, president of Data-Vision Inc., Mishawaka, Ind., pushed for increased consumer education and information, talking about consumers and their ability to acquire information and do business online, rapidly. “Consumers won’t wait and they want peace of mind that they can get information when they want it. Education and communication is what will keep them going. It’s online everything today. Making contact points online is critical and providing customer satisfaction ties directly into that.”`

“The industry needs to consider the next generation of home buyers and help them deal with homeownership for the next 30 years,” said John Brunson, chief operating officer of Just Price, Pasadena, Calif. “To increase sales, technology has to serve the next generation.”

Brunson stressed the importance of the ability to implement technology at the point of sale. “Technology moved so fast and billions were invested while there was no calculation of what could be lost,” he said. “All the golden eggs were often put into the baskets of people waiting for their $5,000 profits. What was lost was a lot of money that was invested because there was no control at point of sale.”

Schmidt said technology can help people make good decisions or even bad decisions—merely expediting the process. “Technology helps anyone get to wherever they are trying to go, but faster,” he said. “Regulators and even lenders themselves have to look at their own practices.”

“You can’t cut corners anymore,” Sogorka said. “Lenders still want to be efficient but it requires finding the right places. From a vendor perspective, it’s about the risk stuff right now. What technology can do is identify processes that can be sped up, allowing better and necessary focus on due diligence areas. Data allows benefits on the operation, risk and marketing side. It originally allowed lenders to leverage all these areas quickly. Now we are saying to not look and process everything so quickly. It’s more about looking at data for many more reasons."
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