Norcom Mortgage, Avon, Connecticut, is a growing lender that has served US home loan borrowers in the Northeastern United States for more than 25 years. The company operates 34 retail mortgage branch offices servicing the entire East Coast, as well as a growing wholesale mortgage business. With more than 260 employees, the company is a Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac seller and servicer and a Ginnie Mae issuer that offers an impressive selection of conventional and government programs designed to meet the individual needs of its clients.
In early 2015, the company found itself struggling to pull information about its business out of its accounting software. Using a non-industry specific business accounting program, the limitations and time wasting workarounds were beginning to take a toll on the company’s growing business.
“Our previous accounting system was really inefficient,” said Dan Humphrey, Chief Financial Officer at Norcom. “It lacked key functionality and reporting critical for accounting and financial management in mortgage banking.”
Norcom needed a better solution and went in search of one.
When Norcom invested in an in-house loan servicing platform, it came with a General Ledger module that was originally designed for use in a bank. It forced the company to do what Humphrey calls, “extensive exercises outside of the accounting system” in order to make sense of its financial information.
“That was why we started looking in the first place,” Humphrey said. “Then, we came across Bestborn and Loan Vision.”
But Bestborn wasn’t the only prospective solution the company investigated.
“We looked at a number of options, but some companies were pitching, ‘You’ll fit nicely into our box.’ Whereas, the team from Loan Vision wanted to really understand how we did things,” Humphrey recalls. “They were interested in learning about our processes and ensuring their solutions accommodated our unique needs.”
Dan and other Norcom executives were impressed with the Bestborn team and the functionality Loan Vision offered for Branch reporting.
“They were confident in their ability to adapt the system so it would work for us. We have a retail branch network and we really like their built in branch portal.”
With the help of Bestborn & Teraverde, a PA-based mortgage and technology consulting firm, Norcom implemented the Loan Vision accounting system in 2015.
“The relationship [between Bestborn & Teraverde] was a great example of two companies working together for the benefit of a mutual customer. That made the integration of the loan origination system and accounting system go more smoothly,” said Humphrey.
Teraverde also supplied a Connector between Ellie Mae’s Encompass and Loan Vision to completely automate the interface between Loan Vision and Encompass. The Connector lets Loan Vision and Encompass pass data seamlessly.
Loan Vision has now been running inside Norcom for 12 months. Since implementation, Norcom has been running its business based on insights the software provides. According to Humphrey, it was the right solution for Norcom’s growing business.
Norcom can now close its books for an accounting period in roughly 25% of the time it took before Loan Vision. In addition, the software gives the company’s financial managers a very good idea of how the company will come out at the end of the period long before they get there.
“With Loan Vision, we’re able to monitor our results real time and perform extensive analysis, rather than just trying to get the books done,” Humphrey said. “Loan Vision completely changed how we’re able to use financial information in our company. Everything Bestborn promised about Loan Vision has been delivered. We’re very happy with it.”
