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DS News July 2021

DSNews delivers stories, ideas, links, companies, people, events, and videos impacting the mortgage default servicing industry.

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74 On the other hand, when they can look at business processes from an enterprise level standpoint, orchestration becomes a much more sensible approach. Another obstacle is how servicers approach the business from a cost-controlling perspective. A servicer's costs are often tied to helping borrowers solve problems that could be more easily addressed with technology. For this reason, the adoption of customer-centric tools provides a clear example of the typical ways a servicer can orchestrate business processes. Often, for example, a borrower needs help with resetting their password on the servicer's website. Or perhaps they have a simple question that really shouldn't involve having to speak to someone on the floor. With automated self- service technology, borrowers can get what they need without expending staff resources. Let's expand that out a bit. What about when a borrower does need staff help? In this case, an orchestration strategy might involve technology that guides human staff when helping a customer. ere are call center technologies available, for instance, that can analyze the speech and tone a customer uses on the phone and advise the agent on what questions, comments, or responses to make. It's like having someone standing over your shoulder, showing you how to provide better service and enhance the customer's experience. ese technologies often blend AI and data analytics with information from prior calls and borrower activities—including self-service interactions—and the servicer's own policies and procedures to give a borrower the appropriate response, every single time. It's almost like giving customer service representatives an extra brain, so they aren't stressed about having to get it right every single time. In fact, it gives them confidence and makes their job much easier. at's powerful, considering call centers typically represent a servicer's biggest expense and frequently experience high attrition and turnover. At this point, it's not too difficult to see how business process orchestration drives down costs. When you have a tool guiding an agent's next steps, they spend less time figuring out how to solve a customer's problems on their own or involving management. Because they are happier at their jobs, servicers spend less time and effort constantly recruiting and training new employees. Let's not forget to mention that the borrower gets what they need as well, which reduces the chances they'll file a complaint with the CFPB or rant about what bad service they received online. We just looked at one aspect of business process orchestration, however. Within the outsourcing industry, the speed and breadth of technological innovation has been incredible— and it's only continuing to accelerate. Across the mortgage spectrum, there are countless opportunities to structure and integrate automation through a business's operations, and many more technologies available than mentioned here. For onboarding loans, for example, the right outsourcer can take artificial AI and OCR technology and classify 500 document types and more than 5,000 data elements within minutes. is capability has applications on the front and back-end sides of the lending business. Addressed from a business process orchestration standpoint, the potential to create a customized blend of automation designed to lift any organization is unlimited. ORCHESTRATING YOUR OWN SUCCESS While business process orchestration is relatively new in our industry, the people I talk to are definitely warming up to the concept. COVID-19 taught us that you don't have to have physical offices to be successful. Unless you're handling physical documents that require you to be in an office, there's nothing that really prohibits servicers from working in a remote environment. Leaders are now seeing this as an opportunity to drive down costs and embrace automation in broader, more compelling ways. ese capabilities are also important considering the group that comprises the largest segment of today's homebuyers. As more millennials become homeowners, they won't want to talk to anyone—they'll want to do things on their cell phone, which is even more reason to integrate automated technologies through an orchestrated strategy. ere is no good time or bad time to embrace business process orchestration, but any company that considers itself to be forward- thinking shouldn't be putting it off. It's important to realize that our industry is quickly moving past the notion that any one technology will solve their problems. Technology must be an ongoing exercise, because the pace of innovation will continue to accelerate. If you take a gap in between rolling out new products and initiatives, it will place you back several years. Servicers won't be in business too long with this approach. Identifying, adopting, and refining technology needs to be a continuous process. at's why business process orchestration is so powerful. Not too far into the future, the ability to extract data from any mortgage document is going to be standard. is is going to play a key role in the contact center business and the ability of servicers to drive costs down. It will also fuel the standardization of loan documents across the industry, whereas now there is great disparity between documents based on differing state level requirements. Business process orchestration gives servicers the ability to incorporate automated data extraction throughout their organization instead of limiting them to specific processes. To achieve the type of business process orchestration I've been explaining, most servicers will need a trusted partner. at partner must be committed to thoroughly understanding the servicer's business and their goals and equipping them with the right blend of technologies and resources. Within today's outsourcing world, many outsourcing executives and senior leaders spend much of their time on things that are internally related. ey're constantly looking at revenue, and they're very hesitant to administer the same level of attention to every client. Smart servicers will want to find partners that place their needs above their own. e bottom line is that challenges of running a servicing business are only going to grow, and the more challenges a servicer faces, the more expensive the business becomes. Taking a more holistic approach to automation and adopting business process orchestration is really the only way to fight back against these costs. Even better—it makes servicing more efficient, improves retention, and generates happier borrowers. Like a symphony orchestra, where timing, rhythm and discipline create a unified and powerful performance, business process orchestration generates results that everyone will enjoy. Roshan Sethi is SVP, Head of Mortgage Servicing Operations at Sourcepoint. Feature By: Roshan Sethi

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