The 2023 Innovations Award Winners Are …

Prominent mortgage executives gathered digitally to see who the Executive Team of PROGRESS in Lending named the top industry innovations of the past year at the 13th Annual Innovations Awards Event. This honor is the Gold Seal when it comes to recognizing true industry innovation. All applications were scored on a weighted scale. We looked for the innovation’s overall industry significance, the originality of the innovation, the positive change the innovation made possible, the intangible efficiencies gained as a result of the innovation, and the hard cost and time savings that the innovation enables industry participants to achieve. The innovations award winners in alphabetical order are:

The Executive Team of PROGRESS in Lending is proud to give 3i Infotech our Innovations Award this year. 3i Infotech launched the first ever Zero Trust Sovereign Cloud (ZTSC) based on the Oracle database. The cloud was deployed in Malaysia, where it was the first of its kind in a geography where 50% of the world’s internet users currently live. The offering, NuRe 3i+ ZTSC ensures data and operational sovereignty and unlocks the potential of a data-driven sovereign economy, promoting innovation through ever-evolving digital technologies and providing compliance and data residency. The solution enhances operational efficiencies, enabling lenders to manage work and employees from anywhere in the world, with improved collaboration and communication keeping all the lender’s IT infrastructure available round the clock. This pace of increased responsiveness reduces downtimes and in turn, increases employee productivity.

The Executive Team of PROGRESS in Lending is proud to give Anomaly Squared our Innovations Award this year. Anomaly Squared’s innovative Live Transfer & Lead Qualification solution combines leading-edge call center technology, mortgage expertise, with highly responsive calling agents so that lenders can spend more time closing loans, not tracking down leads. From making initial contact, to building brand loyalty, Anomaly Squared has the technology and expertise in its Live Transfer & Lead Generation Solution to complement a lender’s staff and help them do their jobs better. How much faster? The ROI is clear. The odds of qualifying a lead if called in 5 minutes are 21x higher versus waiting 30 minutes. This solution addresses the speed to lead concerns of leads while driving proven results.

The Executive Team of PROGRESS in Lending is proud to give Areal.ai our Innovations Award this year. Areal.ai’s innovative solution was to back away from attempting to create an entirely new transaction management system (TPS) and instead use AI to find the friction in the existing process and then create incremental technology agencies can employ to increase efficiency. Areal.ai is a turnkey solution with industry-specific document understanding, data extraction and workflow features that enables businesses in the lending verticals to eliminate the need for manual document processing, accelerate their response times and exponentially scale their business capacity. Areal.ai’s Rapid Order solution makes it easy to reliably extract data from more than 1,300 complex documents, often processing documents in less than 5 seconds, and integrate that information directly into existing tools and workflows.

The Executive Team of PROGRESS in Lending is proud to give Visionet AtClose our Innovations Award this year. Visionet AtClose has a successful history of successfully enhancing the internal processes for title companies to enable faster closings and improved partner communications. This extends the title company’s platform beyond the enterprise to benefit the consumer and goes where no one else has yet successfully gone — directly to the borrower. The result is seamless communication between all parties involved and the ability for the title company to keep everyone updated on the status of applications and other documents so that closings can be executed faster, and borrowers have an enhanced experience. One of the key differentiators is that while it serves the nation’s largest title organizations, it is not closely affiliated with or controlled by any of the industry’s large underwriters.

The Executive Team of PROGRESS in Lending is proud to give Awesome Technologies (ATI) our Innovations Award this year. ATI launched its LOS Administration Services Solution, which combines leading-edge technology, industry best practices, and deep industry expertise to help lenders reduce the cost to originate loans. The ATI LOS Administration Services Solution provides lenders with more than just the much-needed resource; it delivers leading-edge technology, brings an outside perspective and a wealth of experience from other companies. With these unique insights and powerful technology, lenders can create innovative ways to increase efficiency while still accomplishing important tasks – even in cases where replacements are needed for daily work. The result for mortgage lenders is lower origination costs, improved processes, and increased productivity.

The Executive Team of PROGRESS in Lending is proud to give BlackFin Group our Innovations Award this year. Historically, lenders and servicers only had one of two options for working through software selection. Option 1: Do it themselves. Option 2: Pay an expensive consulting firm to use an outdated, 25-year-old, excel RFP template. That all ended last year when BlackFin Group launched Tech Stack Navigator. Tech Stack Navigator offers lenders a choice in how they would like to hire a consulting firm to help them with their software selection. This solution will save lenders a significant amount of time, money, resources, and risk with their software investment decisions. This innovation will forever change how technology selection occurs.

The Executive Team of PROGRESS in Lending is proud to give Candor Technology our Innovations Award this year. Candor’s Expert System AI has powered more than 2 million flawless, hands-off underwrites, and the impact is sizable. Clients report that its use has increased underwriter productivity fivefold, decreased turn-times by at least 10 days, and increased pull-through by 15%. With this data, Candor estimates that its technology results in the reduction in repurchase exposure from 12bps to 1bps. Moreover, Candor’s technology is critical in a down market when lenders are challenged with maintaining operations in the face of slacking profits. Candor’s underwriting technology enables lenders to build an infrastructure that is immune to staffing, margin, and capacity challenges. It allows lenders to stay resilient despite a down market cycle, which is exactly what smart technology should do.

The Executive Team of PROGRESS in Lending is proud to give Constellation Mortgage Solutions our Innovations Award this year. In September 2022, Constellation Mortgage Solutions (CMS) introduced the future of loan origination with a new cloud-hosted, browser-based, enterprise LOS platform experience for lenders – NOVA. Through NOVA’s exclusive tech partnerships, CMS offers a consistently better customer service model eliminating the need for clients to focus on multiple vendors with barely bolted-on integrations that are commonly seen across the industry. NOVA is a complete end-to-end loan origination solution with a modern UI/UX and an interactive unlimited dynamic workspace. Features include POS through origination and post-closing, multi-channel, multi-product, integrated with best-in-class mortgage tech, including PPE and EDM.

The Executive Team of PROGRESS in Lending is proud to give Earn Up our Innovations Award this year. EarnUp provides an automated, flexible payment hub complete with real time analytics to benefit Lenders, Servicers, and Consumers. Consumers reduce monthly payment shock and build equity more quickly by scheduling their payments around their pay dates. Lenders create a smooth onboarding experience and avoid EPDs by automating interim servicing and communication. Servicers gain payment certainty and get real-time payment insight to proactively initiate necessary loss mitigation outreach efforts Lenders create new loan programs to accommodate a wider variety of borrowers and differentiate themselves from their competition, with a flexible “set it and forget it” platform. EarnUp XLerate automates post-close borrower payments and communications, seamlessly facilitating the loan transfer process from lender to servicer.

The Executive Team of PROGRESS in Lending is proud to give FinLocker our Innovations Award this year. FinLocker redesigned its user experience to make it easier for homebuyers who are six to eighteen months out from purchasing a home to clearly understand how close they are to being qualified to buy a home and guide them to use the interactive tools to improve their eligibility and track their progress. Further, the interactive My Homeownership Snapshot quickly shows consumers if they meet basic mortgage guidelines by asking a few simple questions: the sales price of the home they want to buy, the money they have set aside for their costs to close, their income, credit score, and monthly debt payments. This innovation will improve the borrower experience.

The Executive Team of PROGRESS in Lending is proud to give FundMore our Innovations Award this year. FundMore was developed to provide alternative lenders with a better solution to the challenges they face. Now, they can confidently lend at the speed clients demand, while staying compliant and managing risk. With FundMore, lenders can grow without growing their team or accepting more risk. Specifically, FundMore AI is an automated underwriting platform leveraging Machine Learning to completely adjudicate mortgages in minutes. This allows lenders to be more efficient and profitable through the entire loan origination process. FundMore modernizes the mortgage underwriting process, offering enhanced risk management, instant approvals, and a better borrower experience through algorithmic driven analysis, digital document collection, and direct bank integration.

The Executive Team of PROGRESS in Lending is proud to give Global DMS our Innovations Award this year. Global DMS’s EVO’s Bias Alert+ can eliminate the presence of bias in appraisals, whether conscious or unconscious, before an appraisal gets processed by the lender and delivered to the borrower. This eliminates bias issues between the lender and the borrower and ultimately the possibility of a biased lawsuit. Specifically, this solution gives lenders the ability to manage, work with/educate, and improve appraisers’ performance prior to a prevalent biased situation to affect the lenders – or the appraisers – reputation for fair lending practices. This solution will literally revolutionizes how Appraisals are done in the mortgage space.

The Executive Team of PROGRESS in Lending is proud to give Insellerate our Innovations Award this year. Powered with AgentConnect, Insellerate empowers loan officers to engage more effectively with real estate agents and borrowers, resulting in higher lead conversion rates, lower origination costs, and more closed loans. AgentConnect takes co-branded marketing to a new level by automatically delivering dynamic open house flyers, property websites, and landing pages instantly through MLS data in real-time, which is auto generated and compliantly displayed, including loan officer’s specific loan and pricing options. AgentConnect fosters dynamic relationships with partners through innovative campaigns that drive results while delivering full transparency through the buyer/borrower journey. Work with partners like never before by taking the guesswork out of manually creating flyers, struggling to find content and images, and worrying about including compliance requirements.

The Executive Team of PROGRESS in Lending is proud to give LenderLogix our Innovations Award this year. Last year, LenderLogix introduced a lite point-of-sale into the marketplace to rave reviews. It’s a unique solution, as it’s not just a digital 1003, but it’s not quite the bulky POS most lenders are familiar with – and it comes at a fraction of the cost. As a result of this solution, lenders see increased lead capture, increased applications, consistent brand identity across branches & teams, and more granular insight into marketing and sales performance. While most POS solutions operate on a per-loan cost that rivals the LOS pricing, LenderLogix’s solution can be implemented for about 90% less. In addition, it can be implemented within a week, includes unlimited customized training, and is backed by a 24×7 dedicated account manager and support team.

The Executive Team of PROGRESS in Lending is proud to give LoanNEX our Innovations Award this year. LoanNEX connects a network of 6,000 originators with qualified Non-QM, Prime Jumbo, and Agency products. With a combined 31 Correspondent and Wholesale lenders on platform, LoanNEX prices just under 19k loan scenarios a month. Those loan scenarios account for $10.5 Billion in Non-QM loan volume priced. LoanNEX Broker Marketplace is a robust eligibility, pricing, and decisioning engine with direct access to Lenders. Brokers can easily view previously searched loans, saved loans, and active loan scenarios. They can then share loan scenarios directly with assigned AEs to get the information need. Gone are the days of back-and-forth emails, notifications, PDFs, prospective loans, trailing documents, and questions are sent directly to Lenders, AEs, and scenario desks.

The Executive Team of PROGRESS in Lending is proud to give MortgageFlex our Innovations Award this year. The new MortgageFlex servicing platform is unique because it is closely integrated with the MortgageFlexONE LOS, creating a single platform for credit unions, community banks and other lenders that originate and service their own loans. MortgageFlex built an entire platform and mobile device to meet the needs of borrowers who speak English as a Second Language (ESL) or not at all. The company’s mission is to provide retail, wholesale, correspondent, chattel and consumer channels with the most cost-effective LOS and servicing software. To that end, the updated system offers all the functionality the modern mortgage servicer needs without holding their data hostage, charging them additional fees for important functionality, or locking the servicer into a long, unescapable contract.

The Executive Team of PROGRESS in Lending is proud to give My Home our Innovations Award this year. WFG’s technology subsidiary MyHome, a Williston Financial Group Company, rebranded in September 2022 to align with the company’s flagship technology offering. MyHome is responsible for developing and implementing innovative technology solutions to facilitate a better real estate experience. The company expanded the MyHome suite to facilitate refinance transactions with the addition of the standalone MyHome Exchange platform in 2021 and, in May 2022, they released a completely revamped version of the award-winning MyHome collaboration platform, with a fresh, new user interface and greatly expanded functionality. The new MyHome platform brings purchase and refinance transactions together into a single, integrated platform that seamlessly links all transaction participants, creating a better, highly personalized experience for all.

The Executive Team of PROGRESS in Lending is proud to give Openn our Innovations Award this year. The Openn platform provides a digital process that allows all parties to be kept in the transaction loop all the time. Every day, in the palm of the consumers’ hand, they can experience the process and never be left in the dark waiting for information. The platform features streamlined digital contracting and automated communication tools to enhance the property transaction. With the Openn platform, buyers and sellers work with their professional real estate agent to see the details of each contract and how the offers stack up against each other. Simply put, the Openn platform facilitates the real estate negotiation process with greater transparency for the buyer and seller.

The Executive Team of PROGRESS in Lending is proud to give OptiFunder our Innovations Award this year. Enter OptiFunder Warehouse Management System is a patented optimization engines that analyzes loan pipelines in the LOS to determine the optimal warehouse placement for each and every funded loan while significantly reducing the mortgage banker’s borrowing costs. Once the funding decision has been made, OptiFunder provides the bridge between the primary origination market into the disparate third parties in the secondary market by automating touchpoints between warehouse lenders, document custodians, GSE’s, and end servicing investors. OptiFunder’s new marketplace connects originators to their warehouse banks, document custodians, mortgage title companies, final mortgage servicers and government agencies in a single platform. Mortgage Bankers can complete an entire day’s worth of work in seconds.

The Executive Team of PROGRESS in Lending is proud to give Paradatec our Innovations Award this year. In 2022, Paradatec achieved a new breakthrough by solving an industry challenge requested by its clients – delivering fully automated document classification results that rival the accuracy of an experienced mortgage professional manually indexing documents. Paradatec took on the clients’ request as part of its ongoing customer commitment to continuously incorporate the latest in AI-based approaches to its market-leading solution. After a multi-year effort, Paradatec released Version 8.0 in Spring 2022 and established a new industry baseline for automated document analysis. The new release has been rapidly adopted by clients, who use it as “lights out” document classification. Paradatec’s impact on the industry has been significant. Its solution is used by 3 of the top 10 mortgage lenders in the U.S., 4 of the 10 largest servicers, due diligence firms, settlement service providers, and BPO companies.

The Executive Team of PROGRESS in Lending is proud to give RES.NET our Innovations Award this year. RES.NET has navigated amidst uncertainty in today’s environment because in its 20-year history, it has successfully supported several significant down cycles. Since its inception, RES.NET has been the premier workflow solution providing workflow and transaction management tools that focus on transparency within non-performing loans (NPL) and real estate owned (REO) portfolios. The REO portal enables users as well as clients to manage the entire REO liquidation process, within a single eco-system, optimizing communication, automating workflow to centralize data. The platform was updated to provide a more intuitive user experience. In 2022, the adaptation of the enhancements increased efficiencies and lowered servicing costs.

The Executive Team of PROGRESS in Lending is proud to give Silverwork Solutions our Innovations Award this year. Silverwork’s innovative Digital Workforce Solution combines deep industry knowledge and cutting-edge intelligent automation to reduce operating costs. This unique solution delivers operational cost reductions through the execution of advanced BOTs leveraging RPA and machine learning. The BOTs take on human mortgage persona’s that are intuitive and immediately fit in with current staff. The Digital Workforce can quickly be made available and is an important way for lenders to adjust and balance their human capital and ensure that production operations continue. With these advanced BOTs, lenders are seeing improvements in quality validation, audit checks, compliance checks and tolerance cures and by cost stability delivered in a more controlled environment.

The Executive Team of PROGRESS in Lending is proud to give Tavant our Innovations Award this year. Tavant’s Touchless Lending features two key components that force lenders to reimagine the time and cost needed to manufacture a mortgage: Straight-through Processing and Automated Underwriting. Touchless Lending guides an application through the mortgage manufacturing processes by first converting the loan documents using OCR to extract and convert key information from loan documents into data. This Document Analysis engine seamlessly manages the loan creation process and routes loans to each key step as sufficient data arrives. The Decisioning Analysis service applies underwriting skills to the loan data and validates applications with third-party data providers to enable a lending decision. This revolutionary technology uses straight-through processing and automation to optimize the underwriting and processing experience.

The Executive Team of PROGRESS in Lending is proud to give Usherpa our Innovations Award this year. Usherpa SmartScore finds borrowers in LO portfolios that have a 360% greater likelihood of refinancing and a 297% greater chance of applying for a new purchase mortgage. In other words, LOs are 3 times more likely to get a loan application from these prospects. As of 12/12/2022, the innovative new system generated alerts that added $162.7 million to Usherpa lender pipelines, resulting in over $67.8 million in funded loans. This data was collected by just a subset of the company’s user base (26%). Actual numbers are higher. A study conducted by an independent third-party firm showed Usherpa members doubling their production, converting 46% more prospects than those that don’t use Usherpa’s SmartCRM and increasing their repeat business by 57%, year-over-year. This innovation gets results.

The Executive Team of PROGRESS in Lending is proud to give WebMax our Innovations Award this year. When it comes to technology, the mortgage industry has been taking small steps towards the future of maximized experiences for clients. It’s important to adapt to the internet-centric playing field we’ve found ourselves on in this new age. That being said, there has been some great strides recently to making said future the here and now. One of those strides is WebMax’s digital Real Estate and Mortgage solution, RELAX. Short for Real Estate and Lending Automated eXperience, RELAX provides clearance to the whole path for client’s looking to buy a house. This product has made it possible to create a completely different structure for how the applicant travels from their home search experience through the mortgage process and everything is more efficient because of it.