Profile of Ellie Mae's SVP of Products

By Jonathan Cosie
Editor
MortgageTrends—July 2004

July 20, 2004

MortgageTrends - Jonathan, let's start out by hearing about your professional background, education and how you wound up at Ellie Mae.

Jonathan Corr - I joined Ellie Mae in November, 2002 in Product Management after significant experience delivering Enterprise Software and web-based software solutions, At Peoplesoft, I was the VP of Product strategy, and also worked with several Enterprise Customer Relationship Management companies as VP of Product Management. Prior to that, I took on Microsoft as the Product Manager for Netscape's Navigator web browser product.

As far as my education is concerned, I have a Stanford MBA and an undergraduate degree in Engineering from Columbia University . I chose Ellie Mae after working with a number of startups, and went on the roller coaster ride with the "dot coms". I ended up at Peoplesoft; however I found that organization too big, so I wanted to find a startup again with a fast paced environment. I was looking for a company that was cutting edge, but not "bleeding edge". That's when I found Ellie Mae, an organization that is positive, profitable, and has helped to change an industry significantly. It was really a "grand slam" find, and after meeting Sig Anderman , I was quite impressed with his vision, making Ellie Mae a great fit with my experience and background.

MortgageTrends - Please tell us about the new features in Encompass version 1.5.

Jonathan Corr - Encompass 1.5 is an amazing breakthrough product. Our CEO gave us a mandate to grab significant market , and we did! Prior to Encompass 1.0, we looked at the marketplace and spoke to hundreds of customers in the field who told us that there was no one solution that could solve their current needs, nothing that had collaboration or enterprise functionality. Encompass was a significant breakthrough, a clear value proposition, and with our continued success in version 1.5 we've spent time in the field with customers finding out what else they wanted. We surveyed over 1000 users and they told us what we were missing. Then we went back to the drawing board and implemented those features. We have significant performance gains with version 1.5, especially with printing. Encompass 1.5 features faster loading and printing of pipelines, reports, and dashboards. It allows users to print documents without previewing them and to edit custom forms on a loan-by-loan basis.

We also delivered major improvements in usability and flexibility including navigation, sorting, and data entry. We are committed to partnering with our customers to make them the pre-eminent brokers in the Industry.

MortgageTrends - Can you clearly differentiate Encompass from existing los systems, for example, Point?

Jonathan Corr - Encompass is the first mortgage processing and management system that automates the actual loan origination process used by mortgage professionals today.

Traditional LOS programs, built to pre-Internet standards, implicitly assume that one person creates a mortgage through every step of the process. Encompass integrates loan origination software with tools and solutions customized to meet the separate needs of the loan officer, processor, and mortgage broker.

Encompass assumes that multiple professionals collaborate with each other and an array of lenders and suppliers to create optimal loans for clients with unique requirements. Encompass enables you to do everything inside one program, making loan origination easier and faster than ever before - and strengthening the key market advantage for third-party originators, superior customer service.

MortgageTrends - Is Ellie Mae planning a web-based version of Encompass in the near future?

Jonathan Corr - I am not sure the industry is ready for that yet, although we have architected into Encompass the ability to support both a future web-based client and wireless client. The benefits are obvious for both, but its important to note that our current solution has most, if not all, of the same benefits as a web-based solution, it can even be hosted as an out-sourced application in an ASP model. Processors focus on productivity, and a total web-based solution may have performance issues that could limit productivity, making its usefulness limited. I think we will see a web-based client for the loan officer, however most customers are saying they're not ready for that yet. A future wireless client may be used first for the loan officers, even before a web-based client. The needs and interests of our customers will drive our decisions.

MortgageTrends - Can you give us an overview of the future developments the team at Ellie Mae is working on?

Jonathan Corr - We are working on many performance improvements and productivity enhancements, to meet the needs of both small and large shops at the same time. Version 1.5 provides both smaller and larger companies the ability to give remote users access to Encompass easily and securely through their own servers using HTTPS, industry-standard secure networking. Also, larger companies with existing legacy systems and third-party business-system providers can now integrate with Encompass easily. We are delivering a robust SDK for partner software integration. Encrypted files are better than the open file system, which lacks basic security.

We have built an API for accessing the data of these encrypted files, which enables data to be manipulated safely and seamlessly for other applications, such as marketing applications, accounting applications, and others. This capability has not yet been seen in this Industry! Our partners will deliver solutions very soon using this new enhancement to Encompass.

MortgageTrends - Jonathan, why is release 1.5 of Encompass so important?

Jonathan - One word...Profits For Mortgage Companies! Encompass 1.5 helps to build volume, and helps them to build relationships. It helps you to get in touch with your clients, pick the right product, get the loan application over to a processor quickly, and stay on top of the process to get the job done. Most existing solutions don't have the capability of Encompass 1.5, the ability to keep in touch with clients, to keep the communications flowing, it's impossible if you don't have the right solution! The brokers are a diverse group of folks, and regulatory compliance issues are difficult to keep up with, and that's where Encompass 1.5 comes in. With its secure file transfer and other great features, you know your files are safe. Also, you always know where your business stands and how the pipeline looks! Encompass 1.5 gives you total "inside control".

MortgageTrends - Thanks for your time today, Jonathan. Do you have any parting words for our readers?

Jonathan Corr - Our goal at Ellie Mae is to deliver a complete set of business solutions, that takes your through all the steps of the mortgage process. An overall business process, not just one or two pieces of it. We want to maintain an information flow between the borrower and broker and collectively provide benefits to everyone involved in the transactions. We are committed to this goal and work hard at it relentlessly. Thank you for this opportunity to talk about Encompass 1.5 and Ellie Mae with your readers.

MortgageTrends - Thank you very much for your time today. Best of luck to you and the team at Ellie Mae!

Copyright © 2004 MCG Titan Group. All rights reserved.