A Personal Touch objective this year is to put more technology into member’s offices to give them more time to spend with clients. At the same time, we wanted to ensure they were using a sourcing system that gave the best customer results and could give real time access anywhere.
As a consequence we needed a mortgage sourcing solution that would be capable of integration into our own bespoke, back-office technology, ‘Toolbox’.
The due diligence process was detailed and extensive. During the second half of 2014 we ran all the enquiries into our member mortgage desk through the existing sourcing engines and a new option – Mortgage Source from Twenty 7 Tec. This enabled us to check the accuracy, relevance and number of matches for a wide range of cases over a number of months.
The Mortgage Source system uses detailed lender criteria and the skill in its effective use is learning to manage the numerous filters effectively. Once mastered, we consistently found that their live system delivered the most accurate results time after time. It was slightly unnerving at first to see shorter ‘league tables’, but vitally they were providing more relevant lists.
The next step for us was to work out an effective integration plan so our members could use the new sourcing service within Toolbox .
As Toolbox and Mortgage Source are both web applications we quickly realised we could deliver a fully integrated online solution to members. The benefits of this approach are numerous and include the following:
Members can move straight from a client record into sourcing – there is little additional client data input required – just the specific mortgage requirements. Once results have been obtained they are automatically stored on the client record, together with any research, stress test and KFI documentation produced.
Time-saving
The audit trail produced helps the adviser in future conversations and helps us fulfil our quality review responsibilities more effectively. As one of our members, Mark Thurman commented:
“I do like the system integration with Toolbox as it saves time! I like the way it also makes sure you have entered all the relevant information before allowing you to proceed with source.”
Wherever possible our approach is to give members a choice and so we made the early decision not to prescribe use of Mortgage Source but to allow them to choose which solution suited their business best. As integration creates potential future savings for us through processing efficiencies we made the decision to include Mortgage Source as a member-inclusive benefit with no additional cost.
The initial roll-out was on the standalone web system while integration was completed. This gave advisers the chance to play with the system and understand the sourcing logic better. Since Easter we have been steadily rolling out the integrated version and have been delighted with the response.
The biggest challenge for busy advisers is changing habits from tried and tested options, but once they do they have been delighted and really appreciate the time savings and slickness of a system fully integrated into Toolbox. As we experienced during our due diligence process, the results look different. The league tables are shorter, but that’s because unlike an online supermarket – throwing a couple of random items that their computer thinks are a match for your order – the system only presents relevant and available products.
Integration of MortgageSource into Toolbox has been a collaborative effort between our in-house development team, MortgageSource and of course our advisers. It has been a long journey but all parties are now starting to reap the benefits of the integration.
