October 2009

President's Letter

Greetings clients, partners, future clients, and friends!

I hope you all had a great summer season.  Between the family adventures, chaperoning scout summer camp, weekly activities with my kids, and so on… I’m happy to be getting back into my regular routines again.

Many of you have heard me refer to Jim Collin’s book “Good to Great” – a must read for anyone interested in business.  This book explores why some companies are GREAT while others are just GOOD (or worse). 

One of the tenets that Mr. Collins presents is that you always want to be sure you have the right person sitting in the right seat on your bus.  I’ve taken that analogy to heart from the day I took over as president (nearly 20 months ago), and I believe it has really served DMD well.

With this concept in mind, over the past couple of months, we have brought on some new talent that I’m really excited about.  Several of the new team members are on our development team, so other than working with their output you won’t be directly interacting with them.

On the other hand, a couple of folks are “outward facing” and I thought I’d take a moment to introduce them.

Barbara Seaman | product support specialist
Barbara joins DMD after spending 20 years on the lending side of the business.   Throughout her career she has been responsible for a variety of roles including serving as the head of secondary for a lender.  Four of the companies she worked at previously were DataTrac users, so she is ideally suited to help you and your team when you have questions.

Lyndell Werling | account executive
OK… I’m kind of cheating by including Lyndell in this list.  Lyndell originally joined DMD nearly 6 years ago, and served in several roles for us until she ultimately took ownership of the south-eastern region for sales (commuting to her territory from San Diego!).  She decided to part ways with DMD during the Fiserv years, and rejoined us recently to again assist on the sales team.  Earlier this month, we decided that with her hands-on lending experience and years of product knowledge with DMD she would be ideally suited to take over as the western region account executive.

Kathy Zou | finance manager
Kathy has an incredible story of success – starting off life in a small village in China, graduating top of her class from Beijing University, earning an MBA, a CPA, and a Master’s of Science in Accountancy (I didn’t even know that was possible) here in the US. She has years of experience working with both accounting firms and businesses, and we are thrilled to have her on our team. 

I share these details with you for a couple of reasons:

1. Introductions
There is a high likelihood that you will talk to Barbara, Lyndell, and/or Kathy in the future, and I thought it would be nice for you to know who they are.

2. Plug “Good to Great”
I’ve read a lot of business books over the years, and “Good to Great” stands out as one of the best.  I really encourage you to get your hands on it (check it out from the library), read it, and then see if you can apply the principals of great companies to your own.

I’ll wrap things up with a quote from Mr. Collins:

“Whether you prevail or fail depends more on what you do to yourself than on what the world does to you.”

Ain’t that the truth!

Good luck this month!

Rob

MBA Speaker Panel

Join us for two amazing panel discussions at the upcoming MBA Annual Convention & Expo on October 12, 2009 at the San Diego Convention Center.

11:00 am- 12:15 pm
Room 8, Upper Level

" Doing More With Less Warehouse Funding "

More lenders are fighting for a share of the shrinking warehouse lending market. What was once a $250 billion market is now less than one tenth that amount. This panel of mortgage innovators and mortgage bankers will discuss how lenders can continue to originate loans, despite the availability of warehouse funding.

3:45 pm - 5:00 pm
Room 8, Upper Level

" Preventing Buybacks with Compliance "

Compliance has traditionally been associated with loan origination, but the current state of the market has investors putting pressure on lenders to ensure that loans comply with all predatory lending regulations. This session explores compliance strategies for both lenders and investors. Learn more about how the proper use of compliance tools reduces buybacks — increasing business and maximizing profits; while making it easier for investors to sell loans and validate quality control.

9.1 release - Compliance Focus

DMD is pleased to announce the release of our 9.1 suite of products.  The 9.1 release encompasses the core products within the suite, including new versions of DataTrac, WebTrac, DocumentTrac, InTrac, TracTools, AutoPrice and the Vendor Services Platform (VSP). This release addresses 170 product requests and defects.

• Support for the Mortgage Disclosure Improvement Act (MDIA).
• Support for the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act (SAFE).
• Further support for Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC).
• Fields to track Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System (NMLS) numbers for your originators.
• Updates to Rate Spread & HMDA screens and their related interfaces & reports.
• New VA Forms in InTrac (26-1820-VA Certificate of Disbursement, 26-1880-Request for Certificate of Eligibility, VA Rate Reduction Certification form)
• DMD Suite :  Technical Updates:  Support for Windows 2008, Windows 7, SQL Server 2008 & SQL Express.  Also now support 64 bit machines.

We conducted an information webinar as well as a 9.1 training session that discussed all the new features and benefits of the release. Please visit the events section of our website to view these webinars on line.

Product tips

As the regulatory changes continue to surface, it is really important to reassess your workflow.  With DataTrac and InTrac, it is important to stay on top of the new releases, so the software can continue to support your efforts to meet your obligations.  When new fields and functions are added to DataTrac do the following steps:

1. Define who is responsible for the new data fields in the software
2. Define the timing of when the data fields should be completed
3. Assess if the data fields should be protected at a certain stage of the process
4. Ensure the right individuals using DataTrac have access to the data fields they must complete.
5. Ensure the protection on those data fields are setup using disable stage field security.
6. In InTrac, make sure the defaults are set up appropriate to support the new functions when applicable.

If appropriate determine if:

1. The new business rules provided should be turned on in DataTrac to support your process flow.
2. If you need a business rules to support or ensure data fields are completed, feel free to email support with your request.

If you are using AutoPrice, when you upgrade to 9.1, remember to enter in your URL in Company Defaults under the new field labeled AutoPrice to ensure your email notification continues to work.

Virtual Trade Show

Join us October 7-8th for the mortgage industrys first-ever ONLINE VIRTUAL TRADE SHOW. With over 1,000+ registered attendees, this must-attend online event is geared toward all mortgage professionals, and will offer keynote webcasts from top mortgage industry leaders, virtual exhibit halls, a networking lounge and much more.

The best part is that admission is free to DMD's clients! Just click here to register.

Reaching Support

You know when interest rates drop and your phone starts ringing off the hook?

At DMD, our call volume spikes for about a two month period after we release a software update – we are assisting clients as they get familiar with the changes we introduced.

What this means to you is that when you call into our support desk following one of our software releases, you may experience a slightly increased on-hold time before getting through to a live person.

Instead of calling, more and more of our clients are learning that contacting us by email ( support@dmdinc.com ) can be a more effective method for getting your questions answered.

If you have a topic that is less time sensitive or an issue in which screenshots and detailed information are necessary, sending an email is the way to go. If you email us your mortgage question (I don’t understand how this calculation works), product roadmap question (when is this feature coming out), or technical question (how do I move DataTrac to a new server), we can escalate your inquiry directly to the appropriate person and get you the answer quickly.

Of course, if your issue is urgent – call us! We will do our best to answer your question immediately and get you back on track.