Riding Tech Wave

Internet consulting firm Allied Internet Solutions Inc. announced that it is selling 35 mortgage funding specific domain names for 35 states, in addition to several other mortgage and real estate industry domain names, to lenders wishing to increase their online presence. State-specific mortgage funding domains available include ArizonaMortgageFunding.com and HawaiiMortgageFunding.com, Allied said — noting that the Web is “playing an increasing role for mortgage companies seeking to find new prospect and funding opportunities.”

Byte Software recently unveiled its Software Development Kit, which allows its clients and third-party vendors to develop customized applications between the BytePro and BytePro Enterprise systems, according to an announcement. The kit enables Byte clients that have developed proprietary systems “to radically streamline their processes by automating tasks that were previously done manually.” Among the kit’s features, software engineers can create stand alone applications requiring minimal or no user interaction, data can be imported or exported in and out of BytePro using industry standards, and custom add-ins can be integrated directly into menu items, allowing users to access functionality without leaving the BytePro program.

In an effort to meet the demands and growing needs of its clients, PushMX Software said it enhanced its Professional Services offering and added online training classes via Webinar to supplement the initial training and deployment of the software. Under the new structure, PushMX will work more closely with each client to identify the goals and objectives for purchasing the software and will develop a statement of work to use as a blueprint for the project implementation and deployment. Based on their business models and processes, the clients will determine the training on PushMX’s software and whether it will occur through Webinar, on-site or at PushMX headquarters, a news release indicated.

Fiorano Software Inc. said it entered into an agreement with mainframe integration solutions provider GT Software in which GT’s technical support staff will facilitate enterprise integration of mainframe assets for customers of Fiorano SOA 2007. This software reportedly “enables companies to draw on existing business logic and processes residing anywhere within the enterprise to rapidly assemble solutions for particular problems, leading to unmatched flexibility, increased productivity, and improved responsiveness to changing business conditions.” The collaboration between GT and Fiorano intends to simplify Service Oriented Architecture–based integration in “extremely complex environments, enabling developers to establish services more easily and integrate mainframe data of all types into the Fiorano platform.”

An announcement by FileVision indicated that its office productivity product helps small and large businesses increase the speed of loan closing and increase their profitability by addressing “the pain points specific to the loan process as well as overall office operations.” Because FileVision’s technology uses digital images of documents that can be seamlessly integrated with proprietary mortgage software, such as loan origination systems, benefits to its technology reportedly include reduced physical storage of documents, reduced loan origination cycles, and universal access to branch, brokers and central operations. Among other things, the solution can also be used to improve general processes used in accounting, billing and human resources.

Fidelity National Information Services Inc. acquired Applied Financial Technology, which offers quantitative analytics that can be fully integrated into a variety of third-party systems and IS used by brokers, banks and investors to price, fund, trade and hedge mortgages and mortgage-backed securities. Applied expands Fidelity’s market presence with residential mortgage investors by providing “highly sophisticated tools that incorporate prepayment, default and valuation analytics,” plus enable Fidelity to provide loan scoring for relative default and prepayment propensities at the point of origination — an important differentiator in valuing the loans for subsequent securitization.

Visionet Systems announced that its VisiRelease electronic lien release solution went live at four of the top 10 residential loan servicers and has set the productivity benchmark for banks to process 10,000 releases, including paper lien releases, per month with 10 employees. The benchmark has resulted in in-sourcing of lien release functions at most of Visionet’s clients. VisiRelease reportedly processes approximately one-fifth of all residential mortgage releases in the nation and continues to respond to servicers’ cost pressures by automating county recordings and as many mortgage processes as possible.

Alt-A and nonprime wholesale lender Creative Mortgage Lending announced that its Web site now features access to a comprehensive online product and pricing engine. CML Express provides all brokers, not just those currently enrolled with Creative, with 24-hour access to loan programs and rates along with the capability to convert loan scenarios into loan submissions. The engine enables brokers to download applications and also gives them the ability to reissue credit in Creative’s name to eliminate having to pull a borrower’s credit twice.

In the area of loan origination systems, users of Credit Systems Design’s mortgage processing system are now able to add the Deal Maker Score credit analysis solution to its services, according to a news release. By making the solution available on a broad base, Credit System’s affiliated credit reporting agencies will be able to provide tools to the originators they serve to help borrowers raise their credit scores. Rather than a credit repair tool, the Web-based, patent-pending solution is an analysis tool and “the most accurate” on the market today that evaluates borrower’s credit report data and explains exactly what the borrower has to do to raise it to the identified target score.

Meanwhile, nonconforming wholesale lender EquiFirst Corp. awaits its $8.05 million acquisition of the technology assets of New Century Financial Corp., according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The purchase agreement follows EquiFirst submission of the best bid in the bankruptcy-related auction New Century conducted for its mortgage loan origination software and related assets and, on a non-exclusive basis, certain data related to its loan origination business. On Wednesday, the bankruptcy court approved the technology assets sale, which is expected to close in August.