Colorado Housing and Finance Authority Improves Lender Experience With Captaris Workflow
June 06 2007 - 10:00AM
PR Newswire (US)
Story Highlights - Affordable housing financing leader re-engineers
loan acquisition process - Provides enterprise platform for
business process automation and integration with Microsoft
enterprise applications - Loans are now reserved in minutes,
improving sales BELLEVUE, Wash., June 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/
Captaris, Inc. (NASDAQ:CAPA), a leading provider of software
products that automate document-centric processes, announced today
that the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA) chose
Captaris Workflow to update its loan acquisition process and to
provide an enterprise platform for business process automation. By
re-engineering its loan acquisition processes with Workflow, CHFA
enables lenders to reserve loans in minutes, which has increased
sales; has a platform for easy integration with CHFA's Microsoft
enterprise applications such as Microsoft BizTalk Server and Visual
Studio; and has its services aligned with industry best practices.
Read the full case study at http://www.captaris.com/case_studies.
Created by the Colorado state legislature in 1973, CHFA is a
self-funded organization with a state-appointed board that manages
close to $3 billion in assets. It was initially formed to address
the shortage of affordable housing in the state. Since then, CHFA
has established itself as the front-runner in the affordable
housing industry by financing single family mortgages for
qualifying home buyers. CHFA also provides loans to small and
medium sized businesses. By relying on systems that did not support
integration or flexibility for changing business processes, some
CHFA procedures were no longer consistent with industry standard
practices for selling loans. CHFA's clients-the lenders who secure
loans for borrowers-were often challenged by business practices
that occasionally caused lengthy turnarounds and delays for loan
completions. CHFA developed a plan for a whole new approach coined
the Home Finance STARSystem, driven by integrated and automated
workflow that would greatly enhance service to lenders. The IT team
set requirements for the workflow vendor with a proven installation
base and with software that could integrate with Microsoft server
products and development environment. After conducting intensive
evaluations, CHFA selected Captaris Workflow to automate its custom
loan acquisition system for the Home Finance Division. Lenders now
make loan reservations using the STARSystem Web interface and then
the workflow system takes it to completion. Electronic reservations
are held until they are matched with corresponding loan files
submitted for compliance underwriting. After underwriting
requirements are specifically defined, the workflow system
automatically notifies lenders of necessary information or tasks to
meet closing deadlines. By re-engineering loan acquisition
processes with Captaris Workflow, CHFA services are now aligned
with industry best practices and the organization is providing a
simplified experience to its single family lender base. Response to
CHFA's new online STARsystem has been overwhelming. Lenders are
quickly able to lock rates, manage their pipelines and reserve
loans. Workflow provides visibility into case loads and processes,
drives tasks and exposes bottlenecks. "When CHFA is able to
turnaround loans sooner, our lenders require a smaller line of
credit and get paid faster," said Karen Harkin, director of Home
Finance. Rule-based workflow allows acquisition only when all
documentation is perfected. The process to enter new products into
the system and comply with IRS and mortgage industry guidelines is
also streamlined. The key metrics of success are the cost savings
in time and the ease of doing business, according to Rod Hardin,
CHFA IT director. CHFA also plans to use Workflow to track response
times, cost per loan and other statistics related to staff
efficiency. CHFA maintains six lines of business and residential
mortgages comprise 65 percent of revenue. "We addressed the area
with the biggest impact on our mission, but we've also created a
framework to integrate effectively all line of business
applications across a common platform," Hardin added. As a .NET
solution that natively integrates with Microsoft technologies,
Captaris Workflow seamlessly integrates with CHFA's infrastructure,
including Microsoft BizTalk Server and Visual Studio. CHFA plans to
integrate Captaris Workflow with a Microsoft CRM application in the
near future. About Captaris, Inc. Captaris, Inc. is a leading
provider of software products that automate business processes,
manage documents electronically and provide efficient information
delivery. Our product suite of Captaris RightFax, Captaris Workflow
and Captaris Alchemy is distributed through a global network of
leading technology partners. We have customers in financial
services, healthcare, government and many other industries, and our
products are installed in all of the Fortune 100 and many Global
2000 companies. Headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, Captaris was
founded in 1982 and is publicly traded on the NASDAQ Global Market
under the symbol CAPA. For more information please visit
http://www.captaris.com/. The following are registered trademarks
and trademarks of Captaris: Captaris, Alchemy, RightFax and
Captaris Workflow. All other brand names and trademarks are the
property of their respective owners. DATASOURCE: Captaris, Inc.
CONTACT: Barrie Locke of Ripple Effect Communications,
+1-617-536-8887, , for Captaris, Inc.; or Dan Lucarini of Captaris,
Inc., +1-303-930-4405, Web site: http://www.captaris.com/
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