October 19, 2010

Oklahoma City, OK -- a la mode formally announced today that it has created two separate divisions inside the company to better serve the distinct needs of its varied customer base. Its Real Estate Solutions Division will serve the company's tens of thousands of clients working as real estate agents and brokers, appraisers, and inspectors, and the new Mortgage Solutions Division will focus on serving mortgage lenders, loan officers, compliance officers, mortgage brokers, servicers, AMCs, and REO/asset managers.

Serving as president of the real estate group will be Dustin Moore, promoted from his role as the senior executive in charge of the company's real estate agent products, and who previously held positions at Stewart Title. His counterpart leading the mortgage group will be Adam Calvery, formerly the executive in charge of product management for the appraisal product family and under whose direction the company's Mercury Network was relaunched as a post-HVCC vendor management platform.

a la mode has been known to date primarily for its domination of the appraisal software and services market, with more than half of all real estate appraisers in the nation using its TOTAL family of desktop appraisal software to develop form reports.

However, the company's Mortgage XSites and XSellerate product families are also the nation's most popular line of origination websites and marketing tools for mortgage brokers and loan officers, and its Mercury Network valuation vendor management platform is likewise the mortgage lending market leader with over 10,000 transactions a day utilizing Mercury. Those solutions and more, such as the company's SureDocs e-signing system, have been rolled into the company's mortgage division.

a la mode’s CEO, Scott Kinnaird, explained the move to the two structures. “After the HVCC came along and independent firewalls were required, we had to serve our appraisers by being their conduit to lenders instead of just their software provider. That necessitated a separate sales force and product team directed at lenders and AMCs, because unless Mercury Network solved the lender's problem first and foremost, it wasn't going to solve the appraiser's problems either. Coupled with our existing market leading products for mortgage origination, a new division was obviously in order. This is the net result, and it's worked beautifully."

a la mode's Mercury Network has since become the nation's premiere online Vendor Management Platform, or VMP, allowing lenders and AMCs to manage their entire appraisal workflow while being compliant with all appraisal independence standards and banking security regulations. Mercury combines a cloud-based SaaS core with a robust appraiser desktop plugin architecture that automates the appraiser's data flow to and from clients.

The company's real estate group meanwhile has taken the market by storm with its iPad, iPhone, and upcoming Android versions of its DaVinci field data gathering software for appraisers as well as TourNarrator for agents. All three applications have been prominently featured by Apple in marketing venues, and they've shown strong demand around the globe, with approximately 20% of all installations coming from international markets. DaVinci for iPad is the leading product of its kind, with more than 48,000 installs in the last six months.
 

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About a la mode 
Celebrating 25 years as a dominant leader in the real estate and mortgage industries, a la mode develops mission-critical desktop, mobile, and Web tools used by hundreds of thousands of appraisers, agents, inspectors, and lending professionals to power tens of millions of transactions each year. a la mode’s state-of-the-art offices are located in Salt Lake City, Oklahoma City, and Washington, DC. For more information, visit www.alamode.com.  

All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their registered owners.

Press inquiries, contact:
Molly Dowdy
EVP, Marketing
Mortgage Solutions Division
a la mode, inc.
(405) 359-6587 x 339

Sales inquiries, contact:
Chris Sullivan
VP, Sales
Mortgage Solutions Division
a la mode, inc.
(405) 359-6587 x 708