Everyone has a story about horrible service at a restaurant. Some are funnier or more extreme than others, but people who tell those stories often come to the same conclusion – they wouldn’t be caught dead setting foot in there again. What’s odd in a way is that no matter how good or critically acclaimed the food may be, terrible service ruins the entire experience.
In a similar light, support for loan origination software from a provider can be just as crucial to your lending programs’ success as functionality and other bells and whistles. Platforms constantly evolve, especially in today’s lending market. So institutions need providers to stand behind solutions and commit to a true partnership.
Things such as the frequency of updates or newer versions, the total number of versions supported and the lead time for new installations can make a world of difference if expectations are not being met by the loan origination system provider. So that’s why is so important to keep these things in mind when evaluating the support offered by various vendors.
Update/Version Frequency
New release frequency will give you an indication of the provider’s commitment to investing in the solution. Ask to see a copy of the loan origination system’s product release schedule. Look for details such as release dates for major, minor and point releases. A provider invested in maintaining the solution will deploy a major release at least every three or four months and minor releases throughout the year to resolve smaller items.
Number of Versions Supported
If you’ll be responsible for applying and testing software upgrades for the system, you’ll need to know how many versions or releases of the system the provider supports. In other words, if the provider just announced a release, does that mean it will no longer support previous versions? If your organization is not an early adopter of new releases, this information will be helpful in your planning process.
Lead Time for New Version Installation
Again, if you’ll be responsible for applying or testing upgrades to the platform, you’ll want plenty of lead time to plan for this effort and allocate resources. Ask the provider how far in advance it notifies its customers of new releases. If the loan software provider establishes regular sessions with its customers to obtain feedback on desired features and functions, chances are it will communicate the target release date as soon the project plan is completed.
Moving Forward
In today’s rapidly evolving lending and financial market, software support is as important as ever to help financial institutions address challenges and meet their goals. Topics such as compliance or even integrating the latest innovative functionality from a third-party partner go hand in hand with the strength of your vendor partner’s support team.
Our partners at Coastal Credit Union chose MeridianLink’s LoansPQ platform for greater indirect lending success. By implementing LoansPQ, Coastal Credit Union increased consumer loan volume by 78 percent, improved pre-approval functionality, and achieved seamless integration of loan origination and account opening by also implementing MeridianLink’s XpressAccounts solution, which runs on the same platform as LoansPQ to deliver even greater efficiencies.
Crystal Robinson, Service and Delivery Manager for Consumer Lending at Coastal Credit Union, added that the MeridianLink support team is available for everyday operations maintenance. Her team gets to work with subject matter experts, she said who are supportive when tackling technical difficulties and compliance projects.
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