a la mode’s new XSites Network debuts as evolution of Mercury Network continues

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — From the floor of the 91st annual Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Conference & Expo, a la mode announced that its vision of interactive collaboration of lenders, appraisers, real estate agents and other participants in the mortgage process online is becoming reality with the deployment of the new XSites Network.

The XSites Network expands upon the company's former Mercury Network offering, which offered services exclusively to real estate appraisers. The new XSites Network ties together the company's very popular website offerings – Mortgage XSites, Agent XSites, Inspector XSites, and Appraiser XSites – with back-end workflow tools as well as front-end marketing and directory services.

All running on the same innovative, wizard-driven engine, a la mode's XSites have taken off in their respective markets, largely due to the public design sophistication and ease of use coupled with very affordable flat fee annual pricing. Many tens of thousands of agents, mortgage professionals, appraisers, and inspectors use their XSites now to collaborate with each other in an intertwined yet privately-branded fashion.

Each XSite retains its own domain name and look and feel, yet the web services-based transaction management tools operating behind the scenes provide the consistency and open-standards integration previously found only in monolithic, third party networks. As a result, the XSites Network allows a la mode clients to provide services feasible previously only for larger companies, without losing the hard-won public brand identity often associated with linking to third-party network solutions.

Appraiser XSites, the first XSites variant to be released last year, pioneered online statusing, order management, and delivery of appraisals in both PDF and XML formats. Shortly thereafter, Inspector XSites offered similar ordering and delivery coupled with sophisticated online appointment setting and schedule management. Agent XSites, released en masse at the beginning of 2004 and already adopted by thousands of agents, has taken the lead position in the crowded real estate agent field with high end Flash-based listings management and integration with MLS systems nationwide, and now transaction management features as well. Mortgage XSites, designed for loan officers and mortgage brokers and released this summer, are the "public face" of their LOS, with both consumer-facing public internet and vendor-facing private intranet features, as well as revolutionary DirectFax paper-to-digital features and electronic document signature capabilities.

The rapidly growing XSites Network will now allow all of those professionals to collaborate on the documents and processes throughout the listing-to-closing real estate cycle.

"The XSites Network will tighten the relationships lenders and their representatives have with their vendors," commented Brad Eaton, Mortgage Products Manager at a la mode. "Taking advantage of instant status updates, instant data retrieval and status messaging from the field, contact and schedule management and secure report delivery, small- to medium-size lenders will have the technology at their disposal that only their bigger competitors could afford until now."

In addition, other a la mode tools and services are being integrated into the new network.

Under the former Mercury moniker, a la mode also offered an XML-centric desktop workflow engine and status management tool for appraisers called the Mercury Desktop. With individual "plugins" customized for the specific requirements of leading appraisal management companies, lenders, and electronic partner networks, and the ability to work with any appraisal forms system, Mercury Desktop quickly became the most widely used system for managing and delivering PDF and XML-based appraisals.

With the new XSites Network branding effort, Mercury Desktop is now the XSites Order Manager, and has been upgraded to include a free limited Appraiser XSite. This enables every user of the former Mercury Desktop to also have a basic public web presence, ensuring their ability to be included in the XSites Network searchable directory. It also ensures that every appraiser on the network has a privately branded web location for status updates and completed appraisals to be viewed. More than 17,000 real estate appraisers, located in every county of every state in the U.S., use their XSites to manage orders, status, workflow and appraisal report delivery.

a la mode plans to expand the XSites network to also include access to credit, title, flood, and other settlement services, with announcements due shortly to that effect.

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About a la mode

Founded in 1985, a la mode develops desktop tools, mobile tools, web sites for real estate professionals, mortgage brokers, and appraisers. a la mode's flagship product, WinTOTAL form-filling software for appraisers leads the residential appraisal industry. a la mode's Mercury Network, a vendor management platform for lenders, provides the most experienced local appraisers in an HVCC-compliant, easy-to-use loan ordering and management application. a la mode's mission-critical products are used by hundreds of thousands of appraisers, agents, inspectors, and lending professionals to complete the nation's real estate transactions. The company's state-of-the-art offices are located in Salt Lake City, Oklahoma City, and Washington, DC. To learn more, visit www.alamode.com.