The 65,000-member, $575 millionRivermark CreditUnion in Beaverton, Ore., found moving to a new, more automatedhousing finance system sharply increased its numbers of completedapplications.

Jeff Miller, manager of Rivermark's mortgage department,reported that, from the member's point of view, applying for ahousing finance loan has become faster and more interactive.

“The previous platform was just static,” Miller said. “It wasone size fits all, the same questions no matter how a memberanswered them. We would lose a significant number of applicationsjust because members wouldn't finish them.” As an example of theproblem, Miller noted that no matter how a memberanswered the previous application's marriage question, he orshe would continue to get questions which didn't apply to theircurrent situation.

A member that answered “married” to that question would continueto face questions which applied to their being single and viceversa. Whereas on the new application, if a member answered“married” or “single” on the marriage question, he or she would nolonger see any questions which a single applicant would see.

The result, Miller explained, was that members felt moreconnected and confident about the application, as well as findingit less time consuming and frustrating to fill out. And thosegood feelings have translated into an increase of 20% in completedapplications in the 45 days since the credit union made thechange.

“The Enterprise platform was a catalyst in removing the variousdisconnects that overshadowed Rivermark's operations. As the firstcredit union in its state to offer mobile deposits, Rivermarkremains technology-driven and committed to providing mobileaccessibility to its 65,000 members,” said Matt Cotter, senior vicepresident of marketing for D+H US, the Canadian parent firmof D+HMortgagebot that supplied the upgrade.