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Story URL: http://www.silicon.com/financialservices/0,3800010322,39243431,00.htm

Building soc buys Experian mortgage engine
Apps streamlined for customer satisfaction

By Julian Goldsmith

Published: Tuesday 10 June 2008

Stroud and Swindon Building Society (SSBS) has signed a contract to implement a mortgage sales and originations system from an Experian company, N4 Solutions.

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The system will provide the building society with a single unified application for mortgage sales across a number of channels to market.

According to SSBS senior manager of business and information systems Keith Henley, the move has been driven by a need to improve customer services.

He told silicon.com: "This will make a big impact on our ability to offer a fully functional straight-through online mortgage application service. KFI's [Key Facts Illustration, which lists the key information relating to a mortgage and any charges inherent to the mortgage and the application process], agreements in principal, all of these things can happen without the need to submit a paper application."

Although the need to attract mortgage customers with good service has abated recently, Henley said SSBS was taking the long view.

He said: "It's true, it's a sellers' market at the moment, but our view is the market will turn around and we will need to be ready when it does."

In fact the current climate has hastened the rollout of the system to the customer website before the building society's mortgage brokers, illustrating current priorities for the company.

Henley expects the system to be available to customers by the end of the autumn and will roll it out to its 45-seat contact centre and 22 branches by the beginning of 2009.

The implementation has prompted the building society to upgrade its Summit back end systems, supplied by TietoEnator, to make sure integration is successful, indicating the level of investment for the project to be significant.