The key is that members of the support staff should know if the problem with your technology is really a problem or if a work-around or a modification to your internal procedures will mitigate the issue. A work-around is a way to address the issue without changing the structure of what you already have.

For example, to go from Island A to Island B, everyone takes a boat. If you do not have a boat, how will you get to the island? You can swim, fly, ride with someone else or even catapult.

The work-around has a distinct advantage because it allows you to be adaptable. A good technology-provider with an experienced support staff should be able to offer you work-arounds to accommodate most situations.

Reasonable cost

The technology-platform provider should allow you to be cost-effective in creating efficiencies to allocate resources as needed. You want to control your variable costs. So it becomes important that the platform can be flexible, allowing your business's processes to become as efficient as possible.

The right platform also should be flexible enough to meet your business terms. For example, it should work with your company whether it uses a single bank account for all investors' escrow accounts or maintains a separate account for each investor.

These efficiencies cut to the core of why you may not want to maintain a large technology department supporting proprietary applications. Dealing with the costs of changes because of industry fluctuations should fall to the vendor, not to you.

Data management

Given that your data sustain your business, your technology platform should let you control your data. Imagine if all of your computers suddenly did not work or if you lost all e-mail. How would your business operate? Can you access data efficiently from the database to create a simple report?

The best technology platforms allow you access to your data, real-time or on-demand, using common, standardized methods.

Along these lines is having a single repository of data. Many technology teams spend countless hours pulling information from different systems, creating headaches as they aggregate it from several databases to produce reports.

As the industry seeks standardization, and as companies merge or seek specialized niches, companies with adaptable technology platforms are thriving. They can keep up with the changes in the industry with the help of their software-providers.

If your current provider does not have a long-term presence in the marketplace and is prone to providing Band-Aids instead of forward-thinking solutions, your company may be headed in the wrong direction. The company whose platform you choose should demonstrate a track record of keeping up with the market, and it should have the financial backing to provide staying power.

Benjamin Dubbrin, account manager for REALSynergy Software, provides commercial mortgage-servicing technology solutions for Ocwen Loan Servicing LLC. He has worked in the technology field for the past 10 years and has identified trends that make companies successful. Dubbrin can be reached at benjamin.dubbrin@ocwen.com. Visit the company's Web site at www.ocwen.com.

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