During the late 2000s, a set of events, characterized by a rise in mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures, and the decline of securities backed by mortgages, led to the mortgage crisis. House sale prices displayed a steady decline, and as interest rates increased, mortgage delinquencies soared and securities backed with mortgages lost most of their value. The mortgage bubble had burst, and the ensuing crisis had long lasting effects on the U.S. and European economies.
Many technology companies which had focussed on this industry segment turned their attention elsewhere. However, long before the mortgage bubble burst, Tavant had already developed an intrinsic relationship with this industry and as a result had acquired deep expertise in providing solutions for achieving higher lead conversion rates, lowering processing costs per loan, optimizing key servicing indicators such as default rates and minimizing the cost of securitization. The company has accumulated more than 2500 person-years of application development experience across the entire mortgage lifecycle. This commitment was reflected in Tavant being recognized in the year 2007 by Mortgage Industry Magazine as one of the magazine’s Top 50 Mortgage Technology Providers. Special emphasis was placed on Tavant’s proven ability to provide a high degree of functional value to mortgage lenders.
When the bubble burst, our commitment did not waver. We morphed and accepted the fact that change is the only constant in life. Our commitment to this industry meant that this was not the time to move away but was a period of time for investment. We, therefore, continued to grow our team of techno-functional experts, developers, and architects.
When business was slow, and other companies were rerouting talent to other domains, we invested in domain training for our people. They were given domain specific training to understand the eco-system and the way the mortgage industry functioned.
Now, the industry is showing signs of recovery, and we are there. However, we have morphed. We are not students waiting to learn from industry experts but are knowledge sharers. Our depth of knowledge about this industry has resulted in a marriage of sorts between technology and functionality. We don’t wait for directions from our mortgage industry customers – we lead discussions.
Be the glue and not the hammer
- Some of the key lessons that we have learnt and which have helped us transform from our role as software service providers to techno-functional experts is, we replace pieces instead of the whole ship, thereby allowing the ship to keep moving.
- We get into shorter engagements till the end of a project. Where the rule of the game was to go after long engagements, we offer short deliverables that result in long term trust in our abilities to help them take strategic decisions.
- In the place of multiple systems that are consumer facing, with different benefits and features in each system and each LOB and solution works in isolation, we offer customers increased portal offerings and holistic one-stop-shop solutions
- We offer customers the ability to plug-in and plug-out components, depending on the business requirements.
Thus, to summarize, our investment in domain knowledge is our strength now and the precise reason why some of the biggest names in the industry are partnering with us for strategic solutions which are aligned to their business roadmap.
