I’m excited (and fortunate) to be attending the National Settlement Services Summit, NS3, next week along with1,000 other real estate industry leaders to include Executives, Title Agents, Underwriters, Attorneys, Real Estate Agents, Lenders, Technology Providers, and others.

Read on... 

In today's fast-paced business landscape, one area that often presents challenges is how clients and vendors share order information. As a Title Abstractor, you know that each client may have their own method, and it's up to you to pull together orders from various sources into a centralized system. Unfortunately, many abstractors still rely on manual methods for order entry. It's time to consider the impact this has on your efficiency and your attractiveness to clients.

Here’s an example: you receive an $80 order and it takes you 30 minutes to find the email, copy and paste the details, send a confirmation email, and track the ETA - that can take an hour of time.  By investing ~$20 worth of manual effort thus far, the order value is now $60, and no search work has even been done yet. That's 25% of your gross revenue consumed.

Now, wouldn't it be great to recoup all or most of that revenue with more automated processes ... and boost your margins? There are many way to handle incoming orders, and figuring out your options is a great starting point.

The industry is currently witnessing an 'experience exodus,' as seasoned professionals leave their roles. How can companies navigate these challenges and prepare for future success? When valuable experience walks out the door, it takes with it the knowledge gained from months of training, years of experience in company process/workflows, established connections, and a battle-proven work ethic.

However, the exodus isn't solely about retirees or those who have completed their careers. It also includes individuals who have been turned off by the industry's unpredictable nature.

 

What is role-based permission in software? How does this impact productivity?

Role-based permissions are a powerful method of managing User access control in software systems. This approach involves assigning Users to specific roles and granting them a set of permissions based on the responsibilities associated with that role.

By using role-based permissions, you can enable everyone to work synchronously in the system, without conflict, concern, or delay. This approach eliminates the need to wait for someone to complete their work, reduces reprocessing of information, and reduces rework. It is important to know your software’s role-based permission schema and evaluate if your users/roles are correctly set. If there are personnel changes, such as hiring or responsibility changes, it is important to review role-permissions.  
...read on...

Some swivel chairs are FUN…and some are not. Tech slang phrase, ‘Swivel chairing’, references switching between two or more computer programs for workflow and re-entering the same information in the same or multiple applications. 

Studies show back-office employees swivel chaired an average 1,100 switches daily. WOW! Employees using more applications, had up to 28% higher error rates. Swivel chairing wastes time by searching for documents on your PC, jumping in/out of programs, referencing the wrong version, and clogging up email.

Here are some examples of the insidious swivel chairing - do you ever think / hear this?... Where did I put that document?  Can you send me that again? Is this the latest version? Oh no, she’s on vacation, I cannot get into her email. Ugg, now I’ve got to manually update the status. Did you grant me access to the Google folder?

Learn more about the 6 Steps to avoid & reduce swivel chairing - read on...

APIs, or Application Programming Interfaces, are a set of tools that allow software systems to communicate with each other through standardized protocols. This enables automation and integration of different software systems, resulting in increased productivity and accuracy. In contrast, portals are web-based platforms that offer limited access to external systems and often require manual data entry, leading to potential errors and duplication of work. While portals may be a good preliminary step for some businesses, APIs offer a superior solution that is more efficient and less prone to errors. Setting up APIs requires some initial effort, but the long-term benefits make it a worthwhile investment, especially for businesses looking to stay up-to-date with the latest technology.