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1st enters into mortgage market

14 November, 2007

The system, Adviser Evolution: Mortgage Edition (AEME) is dedicated to the needs of mortgage professionals.

It brings together many of the user benefits currently delivered by 1st’s Adviser Office solution, together with seamless links to The Exchange’s Exweb Broker portal - providing online quotes, sourcing and e-business functionality for mortgages, protection and general insurance.

David Child, managing director of Vertex Life, Pensions & Distribution, explained: “The development of AEME has been made possible by bringing together two market leading adviser organisations and harnessing their joint expertise in terms of software design and core market experience.

"Additionally, by working closely with mortgage advisers and understanding their needs, we were really able to optimise the design of AEME - ensuring the efficient and effective delivery of mortgage advice and sales support.

“We already have over 8000 mortgage brokers using the Exweb broker portal and 1st have all the knowledge and understanding of what makes a winning system for mortgage advice firms, following more than 10 years development work with Adviser Office.”

AEME will give users freedom to access the solution wherever they are working from. It includes a fully integrated CRM and point of sale solution, based on Microsoft’s latest .NET technology platform, enabling online and offline working as well as synchronisation to a central database.

As a result, the mortgage intermediary experiences a seamless process which includes:

• Client data management
• Mortgage sourcing
• Mortgage applications
• Life insurance, quotes and applications
• General insurance quotes and applications
• Central compliance reporting
• Detailed new business register

Frank Eve, managing director of Frank Eve Consulting, commented: “AEME offers a fully integrated straight-through point of sale system which will help the mortgage intermediary increase cross sales, demonstrate a compliant advice procedure and reduce the need to re-key data.

"It will also provide mortgage networks with the tools to monitor the compliance performance of its Appointed Representatives as well as helping them increase their own profitability by selling more products. This will be essential in this new, more challenging environment.

“The solution can grow with the business as it continues to stay at the leading edge of technology advances. The end result remains simple and easy to use thanks to the user friendly interface. As a result, minimal training is required and courtesy of the integral quotes system, the interface remains the same throughout the sales process.”

Key functionalities of AEME include:

• Reduced need to re-key data – Full integration with the most widely used mortgage sourcing tools, delivering straight through processing (STP) to maximise pre-population
• Configurable mortgage sales process – Capability to configure case status tasks and activities to reflect a firms business and compliance process
• Fully integrated CRM and POS solution – data accessible from one single point meaning additional modules can be added to support the full range of financial products, including investment, GI and pensions
• Centrally held data files – ideal for advisers to meet the TCF management information deadline of March 2008
• Multiple applicants – Capability to deal with multiple applicants on mortgage cases