When lenders look at new technology, improving the customer experience should be the highest priority.

Standard Pacific Mortgage inc. is a builder-owned mortgage corporation whose primary function is to provide mortgage products for borrowers interested in purchasing a Standard Pacific home.

There are several components that are unique to our business profile compared to a traditional lender, because Standard Pacific Mortgage is builder owned. First, a high percentage of our loans are purchase business. Second, there are several components during the lending process that remain identical from one loan to the next (such as the seller, closing agent, title company and typically a shared appraiser). Due to these commonalities we have established built-in economies of scale. Another key differentiator a builder-owned mortgage company encounters is the need for the widest variety of products on the market.

The goal is to support the home sale process by using the mortgage product as the vehicle for which that home can be closed. Therefore, we require technology that gives us the ability to collect, find and price a loan product quickly. If we can provide all the artifacts to a homebuyer with speed and accuracy, it will significantly improve the customer's experience which will ultimately help augment the home sale process. When we decided it was time to enhance our technology and move from our current LOS we selected a number of companies to perform our due diligence on. In our case, we finally selected Mortgage Cadence as our technology partner. Standard Pacific Mortgage had set forth a list of objectives upon which was the basis of our decision that included significantly improving speed, accuracy, timeliness, best practices and an overall gain in efficiencies. In the end, because the product we chose had embedded workflow, imaging and a superior rules engine, we felt that it provided the best solution to achieve all of these goals.

Part of the customer experience is giving the potential borrower a number of options. Whether it is the Web portal, phone, fax or in-person meetings, we have to provide a personalized service that the customer wants. Most customers today are very technologically savvy and utilize technology in their daily life. The vision was for a borrower to go online, retrieve their disclosures and review closing documents, HUD-1 statements, and status of loan files and provide the ability to chat with our customer service department regarding product selection. We understand that not all borrowers will embrace electronic mortgage technology. However, our solution is flexible enough to accommodate all types of borrowers whether they are technologically savvy or not. With the use of embedding workflow technology we can maximize efficiency, productivity and ultimately the profitability of the organization, with the keytechnology initiative being to provide great customer service. ... By leveraging automation and workflow technology the number of mistakes and errors can be greatly reduced, because certain tasks and system analysis are completed before the loan can be moved to the next stage of the loan process. We will streamline job functions, recognizing that with leading-edge workflow automation it is easier to incorporate various functions of the lending process into one job as opposed to departmentalizing the functions.

With imbedded workflow and rules serving as the foundation of our enterprise lending solution, it is almost as if the process is simply following a bouncing ball. Using technology to analyze and validate the data within the system helps eliminate mistakes and ensures that a refined and repeatable process is followed because of the consistent series of checks and balances a loan must go through.

Our enhanced enterprise lending solution will allow us to focus on what is the most important aspect of our business, the customer. At the end of the day, it's all about the customer experience.

James Palda is the chief operating officer and executive vice president at Standard Pacific Mortgage. Standard Pacific Mortgage is a full-service mortgage banker whose primary focus is to assist homebuyers with their financing needs by providing them with a wide variety of loan programs. The company operates offices in California, Colorado, Florida, Arizona, Nevada and Texas. Mr. Palda has over 35 years of experience in the homebuilding and mortgage industry, Prior to Standard Pacific, he grew startups, developed automated operations and with his hands on approach to operations and management, created innovative customer service programs that increased closing ratios from 25% to 75%.