Solution4 - The Financial Services Engine

CEO Message

Michelle Colbran is a former Mortgage Financial Adviser. SENRO was created for Michelle’s practice as a tool to improve client and business management. Today it has over 1,500 members and is recognised as a preferred software solution.

I ran a mortgage franchise in London for 5 years using manual systems before the cracks appeared as I started to struggle with the volume of information that needed to be handled. There was no question about whether I needed to embrace technology; the problem was trying to find the right one for me. My aim was to diversify the business from predominately selling mortgages, to maximising on other opportunities such as protection and general insurance. The industry already had a number of software solutions but I found they were either very expensive and not within my budget or primarily focused on mortgages. I was looking for an affordable product for all staff to use, which allowed me to track and manage all business types.

After much thought, I decided to build my own. I was not technically minded, knew little about technology and had no patience for user manuals, so I spent a lot of time with the programmer designing exactly what I wanted. The end result was an excellent, easy to use CRM that was comprehensive and delivered everything I needed and later, what other advisers wanted too. But I was certainly very naive as to the time and money I would need to invest to create the perfect system.

Since then I have learnt a lot about technology and my decision to sell the mortgage franchise to focus on developing the software was based on a single factor, SENRO is web-based and the web is the future. The internet continues to grow at a rapid rate and surrounds us every day in both our personal and business lives. The Australian mortgage industry is going through radical changes and one of those changes is the review of current I.T. systems. But it is not just brokers, as aggregators and lenders are doing the same and going on-line. Knowing why the traditional desktop systems are being confined to the dustbin of history is about understanding where the market is going and the benefits web-based technology delivers.

Imagine a world where your sourcing system always has accurate product data, your CRM system receives pipeline updates directly from providers, application lodgement is seamless and easy to use and once the mortgage has completed you receive prompt payment. These are just some of the benefits web-based technology delivers and this is why providers, aggregators and brokers all over the world are getting ready to change.

Global mortgage industries have been preparing for years, putting in place standards for different software solutions to safely exchange information using web-services. These standards, called ‘LIXI Standards’ in Australia, ensure that a common language is used that enables data to be delivered and received securely and accurately online between different systems. There are so many advantages that only web-based solutions can offer, evolving much quicker than traditional systems. A lot of research has been conducted on the future of technology and the general consensus is that future software needs to be web-based.

As the market changes and web-based technology opens up new opportunities, will you still be using traditional desktop or manual systems? If you do not move to the web-environment you can be certain of one thing; your competitors will.

We are one of the youngest software providers on the market but our growth in both user numbers and functionality makes us one of the fastest growing. Historically our development roadmap has always been a reflection of broker’s demands but as we enter this revolution and we can proudly say that we are a premier software company helping drive the mortgage and financial market forward via the use of industry standards and technology throughout the world.