SaaS, the Simplified Deployment Choice.

Software as a Service (SaaS)—meaning delivering software over the Internet—is an optional delivery choice available for customers that wish to simplify deployment and reduce initial acquisition costs by subscribing to our "pay as you go" licensing model.

Hosting a Solution, the Business Critical Considerations.

Purchasing and implementing a Loan Origination or Asset Management System for your organization is a business-critical activity. We understand you have many choices and adding to this dilemma is another level of decision making – whether to select a SaaS / Hosted / or a behind-the-firewall deployment.

At Commerce Velocity we perform a comprehensive assessment considering your strategic objectives and plans for business growth to best determine where the systems should reside. It is also important for you to begin considering these questions:

Are you allowed to use hosted services?
If your organization has a strict policy of not using hosted services for loan origination or asset management then you don’t have an option but to opt for a behind-the-firewall implementation. In case your organization’s policy is flexible, then of course SaaS / Hosted services are feasible options to start with.

What services will our systems need to integrate?
Does the LOS or Asset Management system need to talk to other business systems or service providers including due diligence analytics? Typically the answer is yes. If so, we have over 300 ready configurations to mortgage services including the top servicing platforms and data or analytic providers such as CoreLogic, Interthinx, DocuTech, and Credit Bureaus to name a few. The real question is whether or not you have any closed systems (not available through an internet connection) that will need to be integrated? If you do then deploying behind the firewall works well.

Cost of ownership – what are the recurring costs?
There are many cost factors involved in an implementation, and more so in the case of behind-the–firewall, where some costs are not anticipated and are not easily calculable but based on our wealth of experience with implementations we can help you with a realistic assessment of your options:

License cost – base and per-user

Implementation, configuration and deployment

Server hardware and software license costs – In a hosted services offering, these costs are non-existent as a separate cost item as they are apportioned in the per-user fee. However, for a behind-the-firewall implementation, this cost is tangible and depends on load requirements, fail-over requirements, data backup capabilities required, etc. In addition, there are also annual maintenance and upgrade costs and there may also be replacement costs in a few years’ time. Be aware and sure of these costs before going in for behind–the-firewall deployment.

IT management and IT support costs – These include the cost of the IT team, which manages the server hardware and overall IT support for the same (uptime, reliability, scalability, and fail-over are the critical factors to be controlled). Whether it’s a part of a bigger infrastructure or a standalone setup, in a behind-the-firewall setup, costs for IT management and support are incurred in addition to the costs above, and add to total cost of ownership. Most of these costs are recurring and increase as system usage increases. These costs, however, are not present in hosted services but are included (apportioned) within the per-user fee. A hosted model not only saves costs in this case but also a lot of headaches.

Time to go live – Though it depends on the level of customization, in a hosted solution the time to go live can be a matter of weeks, literally! However, we are an industry expert at rapid behind the firewall deployments. We can get you up and running hosted to start and then move you in behind the firewall.

Support and User Experience - Eventually the end user experience becomes critical. If you opt for a behind-the-firewall implementation, ensure that you have a well-trained support team (which is also an additional recurring cost).