Case study: As interest rates climb mortgage automation platform offers a solution

Company addresses set-up, processing and underwriting

Case study: As interest rates climb mortgage automation platform offers a solution

Indecomm is a mortgage automation software company that streamlines many of the behind-the-scenes processes customers never see. That focus is particularly timely and advantageous in light of climbing interest rates and inflation, according to CEO Rajan Nair (pictured).

The company has current market conditions in mind with the May launch of GeniusWorks, an automation-driven intelligent workflow platform that helps streamline set-up, processing and underwriting.

“There was never a time that was more opportune for something like this, simply because of everything that’s going on in the industry,” Nair said. “The pressure to reduce costs because the margins have dropped so much… has never been higher.”

The New Jersey-based company (known formally as Indecomm Global Services) debuted in 2002. It employs more than 400 in the US and 1,100 in India.

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Indecomm’s goal, Nair said, is to help mortgage companies secure loans more efficiently through their processes.

“There are a lot of steps and processes to get that loan from the application stage all the way till the loan is actually delivered and funded,” Nair said. “We work behind the scenes [and] actually handle all those processes.”

Typical clients include mortgage originators such as independent lenders, banks, financial institutions and credit unions. The company also has clients including mortgage servicers and mortgage insurance companies. Users are anyone involved in mortgage operations, and Indecomm also has an internal operations arm that uses the technology to deliver certain services.

To date, the company has more than 125 active customers. Indecomm has witnessed several market downturns, Nair noted, with technology investment crucial in helping it develop the resilience to come through each of those.

“Technology investment is what always paid off every single time we’ve gone through a downturn,” Nair added.

The tech breakdown

The GeniusWorks platform bundles three other Indecomm platforms – BotGenius, DecisionGenius and IncomeGenius.

BotGenius automates several repeatable mortgage tasks such as processing through robotic process automation. IncomeGenius automates income calculation and DecisionGenius automates the loan decision process.

Indecomm’s goal with the combined offering is to help lenders reduce loan origination costs by up to 40% and improve the borrower experience with increased and wide-ranging efficiency behind the scenes.

The platform is cloud based. Beyond robotic process automation, machine learning is another key technology GeniusWorks components rely on.

Integration starts with understanding

Indecomm’s first step in the integration process involves working with clients to see how they handle processing, income calculation and loan decisions. Ordinarily, the lenders have teams within their organizations that handle those functions, or they rely on vendors.

After that, Indecomm maps those processes and the loan origination system in use.

“We want to know how they’ve setup their [loan origination system] because our technology platforms have to interact and be closely integrated with their technology, technology plan and technology platform,” Nair said.

Next, Indecomm sets up the processes on its side, as well as integration for the specific lender client.

Nair said most of the integration processes are the same across lenders, but there are exceptions and so the company works carefully to weave its platform with clients successfully.

“At the end of the day we want to be able to take a loan right from the time an application comes in and deliver a fully decisioned loan,” Nair said. “We need to have all these things set up properly in the integration, so we test it.”

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The ramp up is gradual, where Indecomm starts the lenders processing a set number of loans per month, to run them through the technology and revised process. Indecomm works closely with the lenders at this stage.

“There’s a lot of engagement with the lender because at the end of the day, we’re taking over their loan production process, so they need to be comfortable,” Hair said.

As a result, this phase typically takes the longest, because it helps coax lender customers to give up control of the loan origination process.

“That relinquishment of control is not easy for anyone, so usually that’s the piece that we try and anticipate as many of those issues or questions that they may have upfront,” Nair said.

From start to finish the integration process typically takes four to six months on average, Nair said, depending on bringing a lender to a state of comfort with the technology and integration.

“Usually what happens is they want to take it slow,” Nair said. “They want to be sure that there is no fallout.”