Demand for Electronic Documents Still Rising.(Special Report)

New York-As lenders look to cut costs, origination vendor Ellie Mae expects lenders to be buzzing about electronic document management at this year's show.

"We continue to see record growth around EDM," said Ellie Mae chief strategy officer Jonathan Corr. "It's about efficiency, and better customer service because you have to move quickly. There are also transparency and compliance implications. People are also more conscious of going green.

"Further, there's increased momentum around embracing the Software as a Service model. That's where the growth is coming from. People are looking at ways to be more efficient. There are a lot less fish in the sea and those surviving are not investing willy-nilly, but they are investing because they think they'll be survivors. If you look at the surveys, companies that invest in a down market reap a lot when the market turns."

To enable more opportunities for efficiency to happen from within the core LOS, Ellie Mae recently partnered with First American Title Insurance Co., a subsidiary of The First American Corp., to offer automated account set up and ordering of First American's title insurance and escrow services through Ellie Mae's Encompass Mortgage Management Solution.

With this enhanced functionality, Encompass users can now immediately receive account credentials online - a process that previously took up to two days - and expedite title and escrow service orders, the company said. Within a single order request, users may select their preferred title office, request a specific closing agent, pay-off information and verifications of homeowner's insurance and homeowner's association dues.

Similarly, Ellie Mae also recently partnered with First American CoreLogic to provide a solution that allows appraisers to retrieve the appraisal order and the property data required to begin the appraisal process. Ellie Mae's Encompass Appraisal Center is a free online service that enables appraisers to receive electronic appraisal orders from loan originators using the Encompass Mortgage Management Solution.

"We look at ourselves as a technology partner. We're not just a technology provider," said Mr. Corr. "Our partnerships are geared to take friction out of the process for all mortgage participants."