DSNews delivers stories, ideas, links, companies, people, events, and videos impacting the mortgage default servicing industry.
Issue link: http://digital.dsnews.com/i/1009247
60 Since the beginning of this year, I've had the opportunity to attend several industry conferences—something that has allowed me to discover the latest news and industry de- velopments, as well as attend networking events and meet other industry experts. Typically, these events are great opportunities to connect with other financial service professionals and discuss the challenges they are facing and potential solutions. rough a number of discussions with industry professionals, one of my biggest takeaways was that while many financial organizations are discussing technology modernization plans and digitization strategies, not many have yet taken steps to implement those strategies. Additionally, there seems to be some confusion around what digital transformation actually means. In my discussions, I found that transforming through technology means very different things for different individuals. Early on, it meant incorporating digital touchpoints for customers and the outside world. Today, servicing experts have realized that you can't be fully digital to the outside world until you embrace digital processes internally within your organization. Many financial institutions are determined to replace legacy technology systems to remain competitive and keep up with consumer expectations. ey realize the potential threat that new entrants pose but before they can be fully digital in their processes and interactions with customers, they need to embrace digitization within their own four walls. To achieve this—and the ultimate goal of digital transformation—I believe the lenders are going to need to invest in and embrace technologies that do the following. CAPTURE AND EXTRACT DATA As the cost of loan production and acquisition continues to rise, one of the biggest potential cost savings lies in the reduction of human touchpoints in the lending process. Capture technology has continued to advance by leaps and bounds, and it should be considered one of the foundational elements in transforming the lending process. Borrowers' expectations have changed dramatically in recent years, and more and more often, they expect faster response times and an overall end-to-end digital loan experience. With this higher demand to interact digitally, more lenders are seeking ways to reduce manual processes and implement solutions that improve accuracy, efficiency, and security. With intelligent-capture solutions, lending processes are digital from the very start, because these applications accurately extract data and classify documents for them to be used downstream. is promotes a more-efficient way to process all incoming information—regardless of the format it comes in. Intelligent capture and optical character recognition (OCR) tools drastically reduce the need to manually classify documents and hand-key data from even the most complex, diverse document types, including bank statements, tax returns, closing disclosure forms, HUD-1 documents, and more. is template-free extraction solution accurately captures borrower data from both structured and unstructured documents. With greater accuracy, lenders have more confidence that the information being captured is consistent throughout the process. Organizations also gain greater transparency and accountability in their processes to ensure tasks are completed on time. Exceptions and missing information are addressed almost immediately because the solution catches those errors and notifies the right people to address the issue before it moves into the next step of the process. AUTOMATE PROCESSES Once information is accurately captured, lenders want better ways to move documents, data, and information to the appropriate people and keep the process moving. Workflow- management/business-process automation technology automates processes and allows employees to share work more efficiently. By matching work tasks with the appropriate employees, organizations can ensure work goes to the right person, thus minimizing the reliance on paper shift throughout the lending cycle. ese solutions can be set up to route work based on business rules, workload, specialization, or a number of other factors to keep processes moving consistently. Additionally, any supporting documents needed to make a decision are linked and quickly accessible, eliminating the need to search for information and take time away from the task at hand. Some of the benefits servicers are seeing with an automated workflow toolset include higher efficiency, faster speed to resolution, greater consistency in processes, and cost reduction. is is extremely relevant for the industry because the cost to produce a single loan is higher than ever before due to increases in regulations and I N D U S T R Y I N S I G H T / S T E V E C O M E R