Stewart Title Cameron County
Cameron County's Use of Technology Improves Turn-Time, Decreases Cost Per File
It all started more than five years ago when Rick Wickett joined Stewart Title of Cameron County (STCC) in Brownsville, Texas.
"During my second week on the job, someone called with a question about a commitment," said Wickett, president of the Brownsville, Texas agency. "The person handling commitments was on vacation and no one else could help. Right then, we decided to cross-train employees in pursuit of better customer service and faster turn-time."
In 1996, the average turn-time for a title insurance commitment was more than two weeks. By implementing technology over the years and by thoroughly training all employees on that technology, the agency, with 30 employees in four offices, has decreased the turn-time to less than 24 hours for the majority of files.
"We implemented phase one of Single-SeatSM technology - order entry through commitment sent - throughout the office. Most employees have been cross-trained on all of their department functions and technology so they can complete all tasks from start to finish, with a minimum of hand-offs," Wickett said.
Today, 70 percent of the files are being completed in a Single-Seat environment and have a turn-time of 24 hours or less, many of them being completed in two to three hours.
To achieve this impressive turn-time, Stewart Title of Cameron County uses the following tools:
- AIM® for Windows® title and escrow information system
- halFILE™ document imaging system for its title plant
- Online access to appraisal district records
- Subscription to online county map service
Using these programs together, they have eliminated many of the manual processes, as well as much of the paper associated with their transactions, significantly improving turn-time and decreasing the cost per file.
Results of Single-Seat Implementation
"Faster turn-time and better customer service has resulted in increased repeat orders from our underwriters," Wickett said. "Though now a part of Stewart, we were originally an independent agency doing business with multiple underwriters. Even though we are owned by a competitor, some underwriters still choose to send us orders because of our quick turnaround time and great customer service."
Realizing what a difference technology can make, Stewart Title of Cameron County's other providers, including surveyors, have begun to e-mail or otherwise electronically deliver information for quicker turnaround.
"We currently receive 80 percent of our closing packages electronically, either as an e-mail attachment or downloaded from a secure web site," Wickett said. "We also have a small, high resolution scanner for scanning long legals if e-delivery is not an option."
The office regularly sends commitments via e-mail or LightningFax (a desktop faxing program), cutting down on both paper usage and processing time.
"We can also e-mail documents directly from our title plant software instead of printing and faxing them," said Sherrel Mattison, title production supervisor and office automation coordinator. "This improves the response time and results in us providing better customer service, which leads to greater profitability."
Title and Escrow Production System
Using AIM for Windows as its production system has allowed Stewart Title of Cameron County to improve turn-time because all of the information is stored and archived for future reference.
"On the commercial side, we have had re-sales of property that we worked previously," Mattison said. "Because they were processed through AIM for Windows, they required only a simple update. We can use the archived information, update it through halFILE and return the commitment via e-mail in less than 24 hours."
For those commercial transactions without prior information, the turn-time is also decreased because the examiner is able to focus more time on them instead of on the routine "lot and block" transactions that are completed quickly with Single-Seat technology.
Title Plant
"For title plant searches, we previously used hand-posted tract books," Mattison said. "We were able to hire an outside company, Texas Document Management Service and use halFILE to scan all 192 tract books, creating a complete online title plant. Examiners can do everything from their computers, without having to physically look through tract books."
Stewart Title of Cameron County has also been scanning and indexing closed guaranty files using an automated interface between AIM for Windows and halFILE, resulting in a significant improvement in response time. Like most title companies, Stewart Title of Cameron County previously shipped most closed files to off-site storage immediately due to lack of space. With the scanned, indexed files, Stewart Title of Cameron County is able to immediately answer many of the calls that come in, particularly on the majority of questions pertaining to files closed in the last 12 months.
"Before, the paper files had to be requested from off-site storage before any questions could be answered," Wickett said. "Now, if the information isn't immediately available in AIM for Windows, we can typically find it in the images and indexes of halFILE. In this situation, questions are often answered and copies are e-mailed or faxed from the desktop during the first telephone call."
After getting the title plant online, the office experienced an unusual situation with the primary abstractor for acreages. Mattison realized that the abstractor was always looking through the tract books, even though the majority of the records were online.
"When I asked why, she explained that when examining an acreage, she must see the entire page at one time, instead of in portions. The entire page wouldn't fit on her screen, so she had to consult the tract books," Mattison said.
Stewart Title of Cameron County devised an inventive use of technology to solve the problem. They experimented with a projector and found that the entire page would fit on a 22 inch flat-panel monitor. Investing $1,800 for the purchase of the monitor removed most of the time-consuming, manual steps for that abstractor.
Calendaring
Stewart Title of Cameron County uses Microsoft® Outlook as its calendaring tool. "It has made us better at follow-up and we're able to be proactive rather than reactive, particularly when shepherding pending-to-close files," Wickett said. "Proactivity means better customer service."
Evaluation of Technology Usage
"Our primary technology goal this year is ensuring that everyone is using the great technology we have in place," Wickett said.
To be sure the technology was being used to its fullest extent, they reviewed each piece of hardware and software, as well as applications and processes, to determine where improvements could be made.
"This led us to substantially revise our process flow in our closing offices, and to begin conducting re-training and new training classes in problem areas," Wickett said.
Earlier this year, they began conducting training classes to instruct employees on how to fully utilize Outlook's calendaring capabilities. They also introduced classes on telephone etiquette, AIM for Windows Order Entry and AIM for Windows Doc Prep.
Coming Soon: Transaction Management System and Voice Over IP
The next big implementation of technology for the office will be a transaction management system. "We're looking forward to using SureClose® integrated with AIM for Windows," Wickett said.
SureClose is Stewart's transaction management solution that unites all parties in the closing process: the buyer, seller, real estate agent and broker, lender, settlement service providers and Stewart Title agent. All parties can monitor the progress of the transaction at anytime on any computer with Internet access. They can send and receive messages by e-mail or fax, view, print, download, and forward documents, and be automatically notified when transaction milestones occur.
SureClose is particularly important to Stewart Title of Cameron County after their survey of closing offices found that up to 25 percent of every office's time is being spent on routine requests for status information on pending-to-close files.
"In an office with eight people, out of 320 labor hours each week, 80 hours are being spent on these tasks," Wickett said. "That equals two full-time people physically tracking information and answering questions. SureClose will cut this time down significantly."
Another big initiative that Wickett believes will increase customer service is to implement voice over IP with integrated voice mail.
"The voice over IP will allow us to integrate all offices into one unified telephone system," Wickett said. "Although this will allow us to better control costs, the primary goal is to increase the quality of our service."
Wickett plans to use this technology to consolidate voice and data into one line with increased bandwidth. He believes this will help offices provide better customer service because accessing imaged documents on the title plant system will be quicker.
Planning for the Future
"At Stewart Title of Cameron County, we consider technology expense to be a constant, similar to personnel expense," Wickett said. "The days are gone of spending money on a technology tool and thinking it will last for three years. If you aren't regularly renewing your technology investment, you will fall behind."
The office has devised a strategic technology plan - they use technology to increase volume capacity and to decrease the cost per file instead of pursuing pure, hard-dollar cost reductions.
"To us, this is the long-term path to increased profitability," Wickett said. "And that's our goal - to increase profitability long-term, and to have fun doing it!"
