Newton inching towards technological supremacy

Geoff Willis has one of the most unheralded jobs in the mortgage industry, but every broker, agent, lender, and even borrower, should be thankful he’s helming Newton Connectivity Systems.

Under the watchful eye of its president and CEO, Newton Connectivity has developed crucial, transformative technology for the mortgage industry, including Velocity, an automated data system that’s made compiling documentation for brokers—a typically arduous and mundane task—simple.

“In 2007, we started Origin Mortgages and started working on a market system for brokers, which eventually became Velocity,” said Willis. “It’s definitely a game changer because it’s a better solution available to brokers. We need to do more with technology than just submit applications. It does everything from document management, workflow management, CRM, commission management, it has connection to mobile app so you can carry your customer base in your pocket, built-in MSM technology, so it’s really more than a whole bunch of individual tools.

“It’s an integrated tool that allows you to run your whole mortgage business with one system, and that’s the focus. We’re trying to build a better mousetrap for brokers.”

Newton Connectivity Systems is named after the Sir Isaac Newton, and given the ways in which it’s helped digitize the mortgage industry, that isn’t surprising. Neither is the Willis’s decision to join the Dominion Lending Centres network—which was done to accelerate Newton’s growth trajectory.

It has also brought Newton one step closer to establishing Velocity as the mortgage industry’s premier technological platform. Willis expects to have the entire industry plugged in by next year.

“In December 2016, we were successful in acquiring Marlborough Stirling Canada,” said Willis. “Marlborough Stirling had been D+H here in Canada, and they struggled to get volume, but they had connection bridges already built to key lenders. So we bought them, changed the name to Newton, which we launched in February 2017, and our goal since that time has been focused on creating more connection bridges with more lenders, because all brokers just want one platform to go to every lender, and now we’re just focusing on getting everybody on Velocity, and when I say everybody I mean DLC, Mortgage Centre Canada or Mortgage Architects brokers.”