Fiserv’s Lenders Financial Services (LFS) boosts appraiser productivity and speeds turn times

Written by on August 4, 2004


OKLAHOMA CITY, OK — Agoura Hills, California-based Lenders Financial Services (LFS), a unit of Fiserv, Inc. and a national asset management and REO disposition service provider for banks, credit unions and mortgage lenders, recently completed a custom plugin for a la mode's Mercury Desktop product for its nationwide roster of real estate appraisers.

Members of LFS' appraiser panel are now equipped with Mercury Desktop, a workflow management application residing on the appraiser's PC. LFS appraisers prepare their reports with the formfilling software of their choice, then use Mercury Desktop to transmit the completed report to LFS. Prior to the completion of the report, Mercury Desktop provides assignment status updates and the LFS plugin conducts compliance and quality reviews on the appraiser's desktop, prior to report delivery, reducing phone tag and shortening turn times.

More than 12,000 copies of Mercury Desktop are currently in use by real estate appraisers and now every copy contains the custom LFS plugin.

Mercury Desktop, built on a la mode's flexible plugin architecture connects appraisers to their lender and vendor management clients directly, via third party networks, as well as through a la mode's own Mercury Network – a capability proprietary web portals cannot provide.

The Mercury Network is a la mode's server hub which provides loan officers, brokers and vendor management organizations a seamless connection to the single largest pool of electronically-enabled real estate appraisers in the US – a la mode's customers. In the last 12 months, more than 17.8 million appraisal reports were delivered by appraisers nationwide via Mercury Network servers.

"The exceptional workflow management capabilities of a la mode's Mercury Desktop software and Mercury Network servers enable us to serve our lender clients and work with our appraisers more efficiently," said Geoff DeCenzo, SVP of LFS. "Especially in the default management arena, turn time and accuracy are paramount. That's why we contract only the best, most professional appraisers, and why we now equip them with Mercury Desktop."

About LFS
Lenders Financial Services is a leading provider of appraisals and broker price opinions to the financial industry. While providing expert valuation services, LFS uses leading technologies to combine industry standards to customized client needs. This combination has allowed LFS to meet the toughest of client demands through the processes of loan origination, default servicing and REO disposition. To learn more visit http://www.golenders.com.

About Fiserv
Fiserv, Inc. (Nasdaq: FISV) is an independent, full-service provider of integrated data processing and information management systems to the financial industry. As a leading technology resource, Fiserv serves more than 13,000 financial service providers worldwide, including banks, broker-dealers, credit unions, financial planners/investment advisers, insurance companies and agents, mortgage banks and savings institutions. Headquartered in Brookfield, Wisconsin, Fiserv also can be found on the Internet at www.fiserv.com.

###

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.