The Return of the Nightmare Implementation

Not so many years ago, the mortgage lending industry was awash with tales of botched integrations and endless (and ultimately fruitless) implementation. It seemed like everyone had their horror stories. When open architectures, Web services and industry-wide data standards started to make it easier for companies to integrate their offerings, we started to see few lending executives running away from new technology solutions.

In the refi boom years, we started to see a number of firms develop good implementation track records, attract strong client bases and serve them fairly well. Those firms that could not earn that reputation lost business or left the business, or both.

But memories in our industry tend to be short and lately we’ve seen a number of institutions fall prey to technology vendors that over promise and then have trouble delivering. Implementations are getting long again and we’re starting to hear more horror stories.

It’s not that mortgage lenders and servicers don’t know how to do due diligence. I think the problem is that institutions are under such pressure to implement solutions that they are falling prey to promises when they should be looking for proven software offered by a company with a solid record of successful implementations. That’s the key to success in our industry--and it always has been.

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