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Sunday, May 22, 2011

masterQueue and Find John Doe

On May 10th, we launched our proprietary, web 3.0 software masterQueue at a conference we were selected to participate in for new Financial Services Software in SF called Finovate.


We started Find John Doe in January of 2007 with the purpose of building a software product that could address the needs of the Auto Finance industry as it relates to the process of gathering, organizing and tracking the massive amounts of public records data a company needs to process to run more efficiently.


Once we started gathering Public Records more efficiently, we then realized we needed to analyze this process to determine what data and what data providers got us the most right party contacts, helped us find the most people, and ultimately provided us with the best ROI.


When we started getting into ROI on data, we realized that employee and vendor performance metrics also needed to be factored into the equation to see the impact of this data on our goal of locating people who did not want to be found.


Once we gathered and factored in this information, we then realized the importance of the outside vendors, from data providers to repossession agents to the software we were using to manage the assignment and recovery process. With this in mind we built a full repossession assignment platform, and instead of also building a repossession agency management platform, we approached the two largest software providers who already had repossession agency management software built, and one liked what we were doing so we identified the need to build a strategic relationship with RePros to interface masterQueue with Repros to help the repossession agencies work more efficiently using public records data, and through our metrics platform that measures the entire repossession process, soup to nuts.


It still amazes me how lenders, and the parties they outsource the repossession assignment process to, do not fully grasp the importance of using the most qualified repo agencies. Many lenders just give all their deals to a forwarder or a skip company and they don't care, or they don't have the tools, to make sure their assignments are being forwarded to a qualified, properly insured, experienced professional. If lenders could see who some of the unlicensed, unprofessional clowns who represent their companies in the field actually are doing, I guarantee they, and their shareholders, would cringe. Actually, for an idea of what likely may be happening on their assignments, they can turn in to Tru TV and watch a Repo Reality TV show.


With this in mind, we built the vendor management piece of masterQueue, so now lenders can easily see when a forwarder or a skip company, or their own internal staff when assigning direct, do not use a qualified, licensed and insured professional. For those using forwarders or skip companies to manage your assignment process, do you have a system in place to know when their vendors insurance doesnt meet your requirements, or is canceled, or they're using an agent prior to having a contract and insurance with them in place? Are they using licensed agents in states requiring licenses? Is their proof of this in the software you use to monitor them, or is it too difficult because you use five software platforms to monitor ten companies? Are the licensed agencies licensing all their repossessors, or are they having cars picked up by repossessors working off expired or questionable temporary licenses, as was the case in a recent death involving a woman whose car was repossessed a month or so ago. The civil suit on that situation will likely cost the lender a great deal of money, if the atty representing the woman digs deep enough into the practices of the lender and the repo agency and possibly into the state that allows this to happen without more stringent monitoring, and that precedence will likely open the door for more costly suits to follow.


We had also started realizing in 2008-09 that open source, web based public data that customers were providing on the internet on themselves was important in the skip process, so we began building ways to capture and analyze this data, which ranged from blogs people were posting, to the bar they were visiting that night as posted in public view on a social networking website.


Building algorithms around this data was the next step, and to make sure we had the best algorithms possible, we sought out an algorithm expert. In January of 2011 we brought on a strategic investment partner who was the creator of algorithms built around public records for a two billion dollar, ten thousand person company that successfully identified risk in the mortgage industry just before the bubble burst, something he accurately predicted well in advance of the dam bursting. Unfortunately, the wheels were already in motion and few listened to his predictions, but every top lender bought his data and had access to the information before the crash.


Auto lending is in a different environment. Lending to anyone with even a hint of risk is all but non-existent, but we all know that wont last for long. In the past few months I have visited a sampling of the largest and smallest lending institutions in the country. EVERY one of these companies has a need for a new software platform to help them better manage risk. Some of the more forward thinking one's realize this, and they are moving to masterQueue. Others are still hesitant to get off their old legacy, Dos-based systems, even though it will never be easier than now as delinquency is at twenty year lows and once the need to lend more aggressively becomes apparent, making that switch will become more costly and more difficult.


Find John Doe provides lenders an opportunity to see masterQueue operating in a test environment, with our team of talented skip tracers using the most current tools to identify and manage risk by gathering, organizing and tracking results on loans once they become delinquent, from one day late through charge off. By working your accounts in masterQueue, apples to apples to what your current vendor or internal staff is doing, we provide a benchmark for you and a view into what your company will look like if you start using masterQueue internally.


For a demo of how the combination of Find John Doe and masterQueue can take your company from Web 1.0 or Web 2.0 to a Web 3.0 environment, with little or no IT support needed, please give me a call at 916 730 3335, or email me at jlewis@findjohndoe.com and I'll set up a demo for you.


We can help you remove the fear of lending, and all you need is access to the web through a browser.