Mortgage provider embraces proprietary system
Many companies are moving away from their own proprietary technology systems, choosing instead to pick “off the shelf” options. Cherry Creek Mortgage, on the other hand, continues to nurture its own proprietary loan origination system. Lorie Helms, its chief technology officer, embraces the strategy.
“We are able to be very agile… to take requests from our users and turn them around very quickly because it’s our own system, and we can prioritize that work ourselves,” said Helms (pictured), CTO since July.
Helms is a veteran executive who brings to the table more than 20 years of technology management experience. Before Cherry Creek, she was most recently chief information officer at Covius, a Colorado-based company that provides mortgage services for big financial institutions. She has experience leading multiple divisions and driving innovation in application development, IT operations, security and data management.
Read more: Cherry Creek leader promoted to VP of risk management
At Cherry Creek (also based in Colorado) she is the head technology executive for a residential mortgage company that is licensed in 41 states and employs approximately 1,200 people. The company provides mortgages through consumer direct and retail.
Cherry Creek may have its own proprietary loan origination system, but it also uses outside technology such as Salesforce for its loan officers. Helms’s responsibilities cover both elements and more. Her team creates features for and maintains the loan origination system.
IT operations is also under Helms’s jurisdiction, and it helps with database administration and business intelligence. In addition, a CRM technologies team handles Salesforce and other technology tools used by Cherry Creek’s loan officers.
Proprietary tech, and leveraging
Helms said the company’s proprietary loan origination system remains a technology standout, with weekly releases, and improvements driven by user feedback.
“Somebody using the system has a simple request… and we can turn those things around immediately,” Helms said.
Day to day, the company also leverages technology to boost efficiencies in multiple ways, such as Microsoft Teams for collaboration and communication.
Longer term, the company has talked about using robotic process automation (RPA) at some point. For now, Helms and her team focus, in part, on integrating with vendors, where other companies must manually input their orders or requests.
“Our loan system has 40-plus integrations with vendors so a lot of those processes can be automated,” Helms said.
In addition, Cherry Creek has a borrower portal consumers use that helps make its process transparent.
Read next: Cherry Creek’s president expects consolidation in the mortgage industry
“They can have complete visibility into the lifecycle of their loan throughout the process, so they’re seeing everything in real time,” Helms said. “A decision is made in underwriting and they’re seeing that at the same time. A new document is required and they’re able to see that. It's completely seamless.”
Tech philosophy and frustrations
Helms focuses on using technology to make processes more efficient and transparent for both consumers and employees.
On the employee side, the goal is reducing miscommunications or manual steps that could be automated. The same thing applies to consumers, Helms explained, with a focus on ease of use.
“Everybody’s used to having up-to-date information all of the time. You have apps on your phone that give you everything you need at the minute you need it,” Helms said. “We’re really trying to follow that trend from a mortgage perspective.”
Cherry Creek is meeting the challenge, she said, with a “willingness to invest in technology that is the jewel in this industry.”
Of course, technology improvements aren’t always universally embraced at first, something that Helms said can be a challenge.
“Sometimes there’s some resistance to change. People are used to having always done some things the same way,” Helms said. “I would say user adoption is one of my frustrations.”
At Cherry Creek, Helms said, there’s less resistance because employees have input into how the company evolves its loan origination system.
“That gives more buy into the product itself,” Helms said “People are more excited about it when they see that they requested a new feature and now it is in the system. That makes them more excited to use it and it makes the user adoption greater.”
Beyond user adoption, Helms worries in her capacity as CTO about security concerns and risks faced by every aspect of the mortgage industry.
“We always have to be conscious of that, spending money and time” to address those issues, Helms said. “That doesn’t feel like something that’s making the loan officer’s [or borrower’s] life easier, but it’s still an investment we have to make.
She focuses on making sure vendors are all following the right protocols in addition to what Cherry Creek does itself.
Happy
Helms said she is happiest about technology execution in two crucial ways.
“When people are able to do their jobs more efficiently and we’re able to scale with the market, that’s what makes me the happiest about my job,” she said. “People here really appreciate that we have a proprietary technology and that we can be more agile than we could if we were using a commercial tool.”
In the end, she wants people to love technology, and to love using it, rather than fear it.
“That’s a key focus for me,” Helms said. “It should be easy to use your technology. It should be easy to collaborate. That’s definitely one of my missions.”
