Out of the Box  n n n n n n n n n n n
A MindBox Newsletter Issue 8, November 2004

Letter from the President

In this edition of our newsletter, we will include technology updates, information on some of our new customers, and general MindBox news.

One of the more interesting activities over the last six months was a project to visit a number of customers to get a candid review of what they thought of MindBox. After a few of these discussions we decided that we would ask a number of customers if they would allow us to film their candid opinion of the company and its products. The result was extremely gratifying. We knew that we were providing value, but to hear directly from our customers the extent to which their businesses are benefiting from the use of MindBox products was very exciting. We appreciate the time, effort, and willingness to be recorded. The result is a very interesting video. If any of you are interested in viewing the video, or being filmed yourselves, please contact Paige Mazzoni at mazzoni@mindbox.com.

I hope you find this edition of Out of the Box informative. If you have any questions, please fell free to contact me. We are committed to your success. Feel free to call or write any time ( rich.barfus@mindbox.com)!

Thank you for your continued support.


- Rich Barfus, CEO and President

 

What's New at MindBox

Our new friends and customers include:

  • Option One - Option One has purchased the full MindBox ARTOptimize™ Suite to implement an end to end lending platform including deal structuring, product selection and pricing. The work is just beginning, but promises to be a very exciting implementation.
  • Gateway Funding - MindBox is building an Automated Underwriting System for Gateway. The plan is to extend this system in the future into a full online deal structuring system.
  • Ownit - Ownit Mortgage Solutions is using the MindBox ARTOptimize™ Suite to create a complete lending platform. The platform includes deal structuring, product selection, pricing and underwriting. It also includes investor portfolio optimization and other sophisticated decisioning capabilities. The Ownit technology set up will be a complete, internet based solution that can be applied to other customer sites in the future.

Recent implementations include:

  • Taylor Bean Whittaker - This loan product eligibility and underwriting platform, implemented with ARTQualify™ and the MindBox Power Editor, is in final stages of testing.
  • ACT Mortgage - ACT is a small but growing lender located in Sunrise Florida. MindBox has just completed development of a comprehensive system supporting ACT's Subprime and Alt-A products. The system, called ACTsys, has recently been deployed in pilot mode. It includes portals for brokers as well as for internal ACT users. It also includes a loan database, a credit pull facility, and engines that provide quick quote, prequalification, pricing, and best fit. Future plans include deal structuring, loan pooling, and enhanced price lock processing.

Technology Update with Brian Sauk

In September, for the second time this year, MindBox™ announced a suite of technology enhancements to its ARTEnterprise™ 10.0 Product Family. The previous set of enhancements was shipped in February of this year.

The ARTEnterprise™ technology enhancements announced include extensions to MindBox's ground breaking Power Editor, a new credit analysis module, and key updates to ARTEnterprise™ and the MindBox Mortgage component family. Together, these enhancements and upgrades benefit MindBox customers by allowing more flexible use of ARTEnterprise™ for loan origination, underwriting, pricing and product selection, and easier maintenance by non-technical users.

Power Editor

The MindBox Power Editor, a ground-breaking business rules editor that allows ordinary line-of-business users to maintain and extend software application rules and policies, has been fortified with several new features:

  1. ARTAnimate, a module that is part of the ARTOptimize™, ARTPrice™ and ARTQualify™ and the Power Editor, now includes phase activation capabilities. The capability allows a user to manage the sequencing of the rules by setting up grid-like phases in the Power Editor.
  2. The Power Editor itself now includes template editing capabilities, making the management of the actual set up of the Power Editor organization simple for business users to manage. The Power Editor now supports multiple domain files, making it possible for the editor to have access to inputs from multiple domain models (for example a credit report and a LOS application). Conditional messages, which make it possible to avoid posting a message for a given set of exceptions, are also now included.
  3. And also the context capabilities of the Power Editor have been expanded, making it possible to flexibly manage guidelines applying to up to four entities in the editor.

Credit Analysis Module

A new Credit Analysis Module, now used by all members of the mortgage component family, allows complete digesting of a credit report -- including tradeline analysis, credit score and other information -- to complete credit grading based on the customer's guidelines. MindBox now offers a generator that automatically creates a domain model in the MindBox Power Editor from a given DTD. This generator speeds and simplifies the initial set up of the MindBox Power Editor according to the specific business's policy guidelines and environment.

Component Upgrades

In other technology areas, key enhancements have been made to both ARTEnterprise™ and MindBox's mortgage component family (ARTOptimize™, ARTPrice™, ARTQualify™). ARTEnterprise's load balancing function, ESP, is now available as a .NET object. The core inferencing engine has also been upgraded to allow ODBC database procedure calls to return multiple rows of information, or multiple values, instead of just a single value.

MindBox in the News

You may have seen some articles written by our CEO, Rich Barfus, in the press lately. One is entitled "Business Rules for Business People," and is focused on discussing how a tool like the MindBox Power Editor is helping companies improve their competitive edge by moving the maintenance of their systems from IT to the business side of the house. The other article, "Cross Sell Technologies Help Lenders Predict Customer Requirements and Preferences," discusses the technology available to help cross selling and improved customer service be a reality for many lenders. If you are interested in either of these articles, please let me know.

What's Ahead

Our next edition of the newsletter will be sent out in May, 2005. If you know of others who would like to receive the newsletter, please have them email Paige Mazzoni at mazzoni@mindbox.com to be added to the distribution list.

Here's a sneak peak of what's to come in the next edition:

  • MindBox Product Update
  • MindBox in the News
  • More on partnerships and customers

If you have any questions or comments, please e-mail them to Paige Mazzoni at mazzoni@mindbox.com.