Loan origination system provider Ellie Mae added another product to its arsenal of mortgage technology software as it seeks to root itself deeper into its clients’ lending operations.
Encompass Originator is a third permutation of Pleasanton, Calif.-based Ellie Mae’s flagship product. It combines the Encompass front-end point of sale platform with direct integration to DataTrac, the back-end LOS that Ellie Mae obtained when it acquired technology vendor Del Mar DataTrac in August.
Encompass Originator is being sold as an alternative to other competing point of sale platforms that DataTrac LOS users have implemented in their front office operations.
Ellie Mae had initially hoped to convert many of the DataTrac users to its Encompass360 Banker Edition, a move to both bolster its position with lenders and take market share from competitors. But while some lenders have converted, others have been more cautious about the move.
With Encompass Originator, Ellie Mae will attempt to sell the value of a direct integration with DataTrac to convert users off competitors’ POS without making the lenders give up DataTrac.
Prior to the Ellie Mae acquisition, Del Mar DataTrac was in the early stages of launching its own POS product, called DataTrac Originator, released in early 2011. Like the new Encompass Originator, DTO is fully integrated into the DataTrac back-end LOS. After the acquisition, Ellie Mae said it would continue to support, but deemphasize, DTO in favor of the standalone POS version of Encompass, called Broker Edition.
Without a direct integration between the POS and LOS, lenders must export a file from the POS and import it into the DataTrac LOS. Another version of Encompass360, called Banker Edition, is an end-to-end LOS that incorporates both a front-end POS and back-end LOS. Now, DataTrac users can have a similar all-in-one experience by combining the Encompass POS and DataTrac LOS.
Encompass Originator was developed by combining the core Encompass product with the same type of integration technology that’s found between DTO and DataTrac, allowing users to seamlessly move from POS to LOS platform without exporting data files.
Historically, Ellie Mae has specialized in POS technology, while DMD got its start with a back office LOS. Long-term, Ellie Mae plans to develop an end-to-end LOS that combines the best of Encompass and DataTrac—which means the Originator brand’s second life is only a temporary reprieve, as the product is only a stopgap to lure DataTrac users away from the Point and BytePro POS products and provide greater connectivity to the shared DataTrac/Encompass users.
Encompass Originator users will also have access to the Ellie Mae Network, opening up an additional revenue stream for Ellie Mae, which gets paid access fees by third-party software products that integrate into Encompass for tasks like flood, title, credit checks and other settlement services.
Encompass Originator was released along with a number of updates to the classic Encompass360 platform on Tuesday. Ellie Mae said Encompass Originator provides “single-click access between Encompass360 and DataTrac,” allowing users to process loans from POS to LOS without having to rekey data or import/export loan data files.
Other Encompass updates include new functionality for lenders to generate the Uniform Loan Delivery Dataset file and a direct connection to the Uniform Collateral Data Portal. Both are requirements of the government-sponsored enterprises' Uniform Mortgage Data Program.
Ellie Mae said it has also added new tools to improve secondary marketing functions, e-document recognition with bar coding, and the ability to process borrower credit cards in its appraisal ordering portal.
