Black Knight takes data analytics to the next level

One of the mortgage industry’s data and analytics leaders has announced a new platform to make it simpler for mortgage professionals to use it.

Black Knight, Inc.’s LoanSphere Actionable Intelligence Platform (AIP) makes the value of analytics more accessible for all levels of professional for all stages of the loan cycle.

Speaking to Mortgage Professional America, Tyler Sherman, president of Black Knight’s Enterprise Business Intelligence division, said the new platform is the result of many years of work, acquisitions, and tens of millions of dollars of investment.

The AIP brings together Black Knight’s technology, analytics, and expansive data assets in a unified way that is “really a holistic approach to providing analytics to originators and servicers.”

Sherman says that the evolution of analytics has gone from reporting data across the entirety of the loan lifecycle, something in which the firm is a key leader in the industry; through to intelligence and predictive analytics.

‘Actionable’ is the next step
This new platform though, takes a further step to making the data and intelligence actionable.

“The exciting thing that we’re doing is delivering the analytics directly to an employee, manager, or executive, at the exact moment that they should act upon that data,” explains Sherman.

This unique approach is enhanced by its integration possibilities. Of course it works with the firm’s own products, but can also be used by most, if not all, third party alternatives.

Sherman says many companies struggle to make analytics work within their organization, but the AIP’s integration abilities aim to solve that, not least by avoiding the overload of data that can occur and only delivering what’s needed when it’s needed.

Multiple organization levels
The AIP product has been developed specifically with several key levels of an organization in mind:

• Strategic Analytics (Executive-Level) – Aligns with a client’s strategic objectives to offer executives a clearer view of company performance.
• Proactive Analytics (Manager-Level) – Helps front-line managers become more aware of exceptions, events and activities that require attention, so they can adopt a more proactive approach and recommend appropriate actions.
• Actionable Analytics (Employee-Level) – Communicates a specific action – or actions – to an employee at the time of need so it can be proactively addressed.
• Innovative Analytics (Data Scientist-Level) – Enables a client’s data scientists and market analysts to use Black Knight’s advanced data and technologies to develop specific analytics based on other data in their organization’s portfolios or other company strategies.

Is machine learning all about cutting jobs
With a focus on greater efficiencies, the cost to the mortgage industry’s workforce is always a concern.

One of the technologies that is transforming many industries is artificial intelligence or machine learning, a key part of the Black Knight offer.

Through the recent acquisition of Heavywater, an artificial intelligence and machine learning company, Black Knight will be integrating a technology called AIVA across all its products.

This integration can analyze live data in real time rather than looking back at a moment in time. The results are fed through to the mortgage professional at the required point.

The firm says that with the cost of origination and serving at near-record highs, technology will help drive efficiencies in the mortgage industry.

However, Sherman does not think humans will be eliminated from the origination or servicing processes, although the required skills and hiring behaviors may change.

“If volumes increase, and if there’s another refi boom, you want to be able to take advantage of that without having to add thousands of employees. It [technology] allows clients to be more nimble and react to market changes without having to hire and fire people all the time.”