"Migrating billions of lines of data from old systems is often harder than building from scratch and this means in our industry that many brokers are left struggling trying to use systems that are not fit for purpose."
Except, of course, when it doesn’t. The reality for many is that they are working longer hours than ever and technology is the cause – or significant aggravator – in the stress that is widespread throughout our society.
So how has it come to this? From a working perspective, I believe that a significant cause of this stress is due to legacy technology. It is a hindrance to progress, a cause of much frustration, and a cost in terms of money, time and resource.
Essentially, a legacy system (or legacy platform) is an outdated and difficult to manage software or hardware system. Because they are based on out-of-date and outmoded technology, it is often extremely difficult or even impossible to integrate with them newer platforms. The problem is that they are often so embedded within a platform that there is no way to avoid using it.
Established providers are struggling to keep up with the demands of today’s workplace as they have created systems that haven’t been significantly updated in a long time. Migrating billions of lines of data from old systems is often harder than building from scratch and this means in our industry that many brokers are left struggling trying to use systems that are not fit for purpose.
In addition, software applications which are based on legacy systems are often not just slow, inefficient and lacking in features, they often are unintuitive and unnecessarily complicated. For example, there are a number of mortgage software and CRM systems available that need days of long training sessions just to be able to operate the software properly, wasting important business time.
Of course, an added frustration then comes when you want to be able to integrate it with another piece of software that you use. Or maybe you want to be able to integrate the system with a cloud-based storage system? Considering that many mortgage software platforms were coded before the cloud meant anything beyond possible precipitation and a search for the umbrella, you just know it’s not going to be an easy task.
In addition, there is the issue of security. How can you be sure that your data is going to be safe when the code the software contains was written at a time before phishing, malware and trojans were the threats that they are today?
Of course, if established providers had been able to evolve properly and to fulfil their users’ needs, there would be no requirement for new providers like Mortgage Magic. I was frustrated with the software that was available to me as a mortgage broker and decided to develop our own. To me, a mortgage management and CRM system should be simple to learn, offer good value for money and be working from the moment you switch it on.
Consequently, we have developed our CRM platform built on a unique combination of mortgage expertise together with a tech DNA. The platform was developed by mortgage advisers for mortgage advisers, so it’s designed to make the process as seamless as possible. Meanwhile, our tech heritage gives us the ability to leverage the latest techniques and an appetite to continually enhance our offering.
New providers without thousands or even millions of legacy software code can provide intuitive, off-the-shelf solutions that can add value immediately. Software users shouldn’t have to put up with out-of-date systems that don’t do what they want and instead frustrate at every turn; as mortgage brokers, you’re no different, so what are you waiting for?
