Lending managers today need to be everywhere at once. They are accountable for helping to ramp up lending volume while ensuring that stringent risk oversight and review controls are in place. This dichotomy can be seemingly daunting for organizations that have yet to embrace the power of the automated tools discussed in this article series on valuation management platforms.
Management may hesitate to integrate the technology for fear it will distance them from the details in the valuation process. However, a best-in-class valuation management platform should provide users with total transparency throughout the entire valuation process. Each and every user, product order, product return, and all of the rules/data in between should be recorded and electronically documented. Recording this level of granularity allows for full retrieval, access and reporting at a later time, and in many cases, provides managers with tools and insights not available in a manual process.
To fully and effectively monitor the entire range of transactions in a valuation management platform, the reporting function needs to be comprehensive, yet flexible. Standard or “canned” reports, as well as ad hoc reporting functions, allows managers to view, monitor, track and even score the procedures, policies and partners that make up their valuation strategies. The following sections explore the necessary system components of each reporting type that should be available for use.
Standard reporting
A strong management platform should include a comprehensive selection of standard reports that are available to run quickly, are designed to provide a clear view of the most frequently accessed data points, and to meet compliance mandates. These are considered common reports that users will access frequently according to their access and needs. It is essential for standard reporting to be integrated into the everyday business process and procedures. It is up to the management at an organization to ensure the system provides an intuitive fit with its workflow.
These standard reports should also allow users to monitor the entire valuation lifecycle (as their access level permits), making each employee accountable for their successful role within the organization’s workflow. Advanced platforms allow reports to run in real-time or to be scheduled to run and electronically delivered at regular intervals. This consistent data reporting offers fresh perspectives and often provides direction in the valuation management chain.
Ad hoc reporting
While standard reports fill certain business demands, they will never be able cover every data request that may arise. The management in most organizations will agree that their company has unique needs, and waiting for custom reports to be programmed for this purpose is neither cost- nor time-efficient. This is often a secondary hurdle to the adoption of this helpful technology. As a result, there is a clear need for on-demand and robust “ad-hoc” reporting.
It is important to understand what “ad hoc” means. True ad hoc reporting provides the user the ability to create and customize reports on-demand by pulling from available data fields and generating a new view of the data. Ad hoc reporting is not having the technology provider build reports behind the scenes. That is report “customization,” which translates to lengthy timelines and additional costs.
Utilizing a strategic combination of standard and ad hoc reporting gives users of a valuation management platform a competitive edge in meeting business and compliance needs critical to success. Having the ability to control, manage and deploy strategies through well-tuned reporting modules provides the necessary efficiency, accountability and performance required in today’s mortgage environment
David Rasmussen is senior vice president of operations at Veros Real Estate Solutions. For more information, call (714) 415-6300 or visit Veros.com.
