One of the bigger spenders in the market has traditionally been the networks; the demise of so many brands like Network Data and Mortgage Times has caused a resultant loss of licence fees for the technology vendors.
The licence revenue reduction has forced several vendors to move their focus away from the mortgage distribution market, while others such as Trigold and Crystal merged with further mergers and acquisitions activity in the pipeline.
The unintended consequence has been a restriction of choice for distributors and there will be many people pleased to see that the proposed acquisition of TrigoldCrystal by Mortgage Brain has fallen through since being referred to the Competition Committee.
Having a single dominant sourcing system could have stifled innovation and placed too much power in the hands of a single organisation, which is particularly of concern when that organisation would have been owned by some of the largest lenders in the market.
In such market conditions, innovation is often stifled, so AT8 has started to look at some of the newer offerings trying to break through into the market to understand where they fit and to see how these differentiate from the current market leaders.
The first solution worthy of mention is The WorksCRM.
It is a practice management system directly competing with The Key from Mortgage Brain or Momentum from TrigoldCrystal. The solution comes from BrokerCRM which dominates the Irish market for mortgage-based CRM solutions.
The WorksCRM operates a Software as a Service (SaaS) model. In other words, it is hosted by BrokerCRM and the only software needed by the adviser is an internet browser. As a result of the SaaS model, the end user doesn’t need to buy or manage a server to hold and manage the client data.
The WorksCRM focuses on the CRM aspect of the practice management system market. It helps brokers investigate the propensity to buy, to segment client banks and to identify opportunities to cross sell products. In the UK, software has all too often been focused on streamlining administration, whereas The WorksCRM is a solution that looks to increase sales effectiveness.
The software provides a single view of the client across mortgage, financial services and GI products.
Another differentiator for The WorksCRM is that it will have a tightly integrated property system that enables estate agents to run their property business from the same solution as they run their mortgage business.
Despite being relevant to the UK market, The WorksCRM still has some way to go before it is localised, but it is actively looking to do so.
It needs to ensure it has the relevant integrations in place to ensure a seamless sales and administration process. It has started this work and already has integration for protection quotes and new business with Assureweb and for mortgage sourcing with Orbiter, but to be a genuine contender in the UK market, it needs further integrations in place. We are told these are underway and the core integrations will be complete by July.
Orbiter itself is another area of innovation.
It is going head-to-head with TrigoldCrystal and Mortgage Brain looking to offer an alternative sourcing solution. The appeal of Orbiter is that it is independent of any lender and aims to cover the whole of market.
Whole of market, in Orbiter terms, includes deals available direct to the consumer as well as special offers via distributors. It also means covering secured loans as well as mortgages.
In addition, Orbiter has the ability to compare the effect of adding a secured loan to an existing mortgage versus re-broking the entire mortgage.
There are several regulatory drivers that make a whole of market solution such as Orbiter attractive. As we see a drive towards fee-based mortgage advice, mortgage brokers simply must start comparing the full market, including exploring the options around secured loans.
TCF also places the responsibility on the adviser to check consistently all available options.
Orbiter is a small organisation, with little legacy, so is quick and nimble to react, getting the latest deals on the system in a few hours. As the solution is online the product changes are then instantly available to all users.
Orbiter currently has 3,500 users registered, of which 500 are regularly using the system.
The final solution I want to explore for this article is CheckIT from a company called Omnii Solutions.
It is a tool that sources and aggregates information on a client’s financial position to help the adviser qualify the customer and to target the right product selection for their circumstance. CheckIT brings together ID checks, anti-money laundering checks, credit checks and property valuations (the adviser can include all or just some of these items), producing a report on the financial situation of the client and a suggested action plan.
Having this data on the client will enable advisers to steer away from clients that cannot get mortgages or preferably help them to steer the client to the right product before having to do an application in principle (which can further damage credit scores, especially if turned down).
It also provides a vital part of the mortgage advice process, helping brokers to collect data that they need to address the ‘Know Your Client’ regulations. Of course, the system also provides an audit trail to show that a compliant process has been followed.
The end result is that the business quality submitted by an Omnii user will be higher. With limited pre-qualification and speculative applications, we hear lenders quote rejection rates as high as 50%.
The cost benefits and time savings of improving the quality of business and reducing these rejections are tangible for lenders, networks, advisers and customers alike.
Omnii is relatively new to market, but now has the support of PMS, Solent and Ingard.
I have mentioned just three new solutions in the market and each week AT8 discovers more. We expect Mortgage Brain and TrigoldCrystal to rush out new announcements of product innovation to demonstrate that having the merger fall though has not hindered their respective market positions.
It is encouraging to see that despite the tough market conditions innovation has not been completely stifled and is instead continuing, albeit in small niche areas.
Mark Loosmore is from financial IT consultancy AT8
