Metia CEP Property Insurer Saves A$86,000 Per Year with Online Order Processing

• Increased reliability
• Reduced operating costs
• Real-time processing and tracking
• Improved risk management

Situation

First American Title Insurance Company of Australia (First Title) offers property lenders and owners a range of products and services to de-risk and streamlinetheir real estate transactions, protecting against a wide range of property-related risks. It is the Australian subsidiary of the First American Family of Companies, a real estate and mortgage settlement conglomerate,the founding company of whichbegan trading in 1889.

After First Title established its business in Australia in 1996, the company developed an in-house enterprise system called NEO for its initial major customer. However, the company found it had to constantly modify this system to accommodate the needs of subsequent customers.

“Most of our customers during that timewere second tier lenders,” explains Tej Bedi, IT Manager, First Title. “Each had its own way of doing what was essentially the same process. We were constantly bending the system out of shape to fit each customer: adding functionality, changing workflow and massaging how data was entered.”

Ongoing changes made the system unstable, and it would frequently crash, making First Title services unavailable.

“From a business point of view, 24-hour availability is critical,” says David Taylor, Manager, Projects and Customer Service, First Title. “It was very important that our customers could access NEO whenever they needed to generate policies or settle on properties. Delays due to system downtimewere costly and created legal issues.”

In addition, the system could not provide First Title with the operational data it wanted.

“Ad-hoc reporting was a nightmare. The end users were having a tough time understanding the relationships in the data model,” says Bedi. “Even simple reports had to be developed internally by the IT teams.”

Other new and potential customers wanted up-to-date tracking of insurance policies and to be providedwith a real-time view of information.

Solution

Over the course of one year, First Title developed a web-based system from scratch, using a combination of Microsoft technologies and products. Included were Microsoft SQL Server 2008, the Microsoft .NET Framework version 3.5, Microsoft Visual C#, ASP.NET and Microsoft Visual SourceSafe, as well as Crystal Reports running on Windows Server 2003.

Called eTitle©, the system was designed to handle First Title’s core business functions, such as policy generation, workflow management, document generation, invoicing and accounting.

Since deploying the first version of eTitle© in 2006, the company has released quarterly iterations of the system, which have incorporated all Microsoft technology updates.

“We adopted a waterfall methodology where we implemented new business requirements four times a year,” explains Bedi. “If Microsoft releases an update, we incorporate that into our solution too.”

Significantly, the recent adoption of Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 and the Microsoft .NET Framework version 3.5 has enabled the company to make eTitle internationally accessible. First American offices in China, Hong Kong, Turkey and Mexico can connect to the Australia-based eTitle© system and order products configured to their country’s particular requirements.

“The updates to the .NET framework–including Windows Communications and Foundation and SQL Server in particular –have added a great deal of stability and enriched functionality,” says Bedi. “We’ve introduced localisation, multiple language and currency support, as well as interactive reporting. We are confident the system can handle the load placed on it by users from a range of different countries.”

Benefits

Microsoft platform-development technologies have enabled First Title to build an adaptable product management system. The eTitle©system has improved the way the company runs its business in Australia and is assisting other First American offices around the world in the same way.

High degree of stability

Most importantly, eTitle© provides First Title with a highly stable system.

“Previously the system would crash constantly because it couldn’t handle the load,” says Bedi. “Now we have 99.9 percent uptime.”

According to Taylor, the system’s reliability is a vital business tool, particularly when dealing with potential new customers.

“We don’t have availability problems anymore,” says Taylor. “We believe 100 per cent uptime will save us at least A$20,000 per year in emergency repair costs, not to mention the unquantifiable cost saving on our image and reputation within the marketplace.”

Better reporting services

First Title is using SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 for interactive reporting. Brokers, bank staff, head office staff, solicitors and conveyancers instantly receive a high-level view of progress reports – represented as a combination of pie and bar charts – on the status of an order (such as when a mortgage is registered orproperty is settled) and how it is moving through the system.

“Now, it doesn’t take three separate departments three days to produce reports and invoices for customers each month,” says Taylor. “Instead, we can do the same job instantly, which is a big cost saving,”

For example, the order status report allows users to click through onvarious segments of the charts, which means they can drill down to get further information. These features also enable staff to identify which orders are stalling – that is, not being pushed through to completion.

“This information helps management identify bottlenecks in the processes and push through additional potential revenue,” says Bedi.

Bespoke reports

The company has also made use of ad-hoc reporting facilities. The New Data Visualisation function provides a constantly updated representation of fast-changing data sets.

“We’ve recently implemented various gauges that indicate running totals for orders that are being entered into the system,” says Taylor.

In addition, the company’s Quality Assurance Team – which is responsible for management reporting – uses the Report Builder2.0 function for ad-hoc reporting.

“Once we have consolidated all reporting onto SQL Reporting Services, we will train our business users to use this tool as well,” says Bedi.

Operational cost savings

First Title wants to improve business efficiencies with each new release of its eTitle©system. In upgrading to the Microsoft .NET Framework version 3.5 and SQL Server 2008, First Title has made a number of important cost savings.

“Invoices are delivered directly to the customer, without involving our customer service area,” says Bedi.“Annually, we hope to save more than A$55,000 in administration costs. Then because of reduced data entry requirements, we expect to be able to save another A$86,000 per year.”

Real-time processing

The ability to track files in eTitle© also means the company can see what risks exist across its entire portfolio.

“On one of our core products, we carry the riskuntil a mortgage document is lodged and the mortgage registered,” says Jon Downes, Head of Legal, Risk and Compliance, First Title. “By tracking the process, we can better manage our risk, understand our business and control our real-time reporting.”

Finally, the new system has helped drive online business.

“Giving our local and foreign customers the ability to order online and receive policy documentation immediately has enhanced our product offering,” says Taylor. “It has also increased the number of customers who order our consumer based products by 15 percent and served as a key driver in bringing on new financial institutions over the last two to threeyears.”

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