todays news from Yahoo!:
Thursday November 11, 9:38 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
BCE Emergis Chosen by General American Corporation to Provide E-commerce Solution Expands Market Share for Electronic Appraisal Delivery in the U.S.
MONTREAL--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 11, 1999-- BCE Emergis (TSE:IFM. - news; ME: IFM. - news) announced today that it has been selected to implement a full suite of electronic appraisal delivery services for General American Corporation (GAC), a leading U.S. appraisal management company that currently provides coast-to-coast appraisal services to eight of the top 10 U.S. lenders through its four national processing centers. GAC will now be able to send appraisal orders and status reports and receive completed appraisals - all in electronic format - from their large national network of appraisers through an Internet site managed exclusively by BCE Emergis.
Under the terms of this agreement with GAC, BCE Emergis will ensure the security and handle the end-to-end flow of electronic documents between the parties. With the new system, GAC will be able to process appraisal information in a matter of minutes instead of days. In addition to eliminating overnight courier costs, appraisal data can be imported directly into GAC's back-office systems without the need for re-keying, thus saving time and eliminating the potential for costly errors. Once the new system is in place, GAC will have the ability to forward these electronic appraisals to their clients through an existing network.
''Our goal is to provide fast, high-quality, competitively priced appraisals to our clients,'' said Chris Behning, Vice President of MIS at GAC. ''By partnering with industry leader BCE Emergis, GAC can quickly implement a working electronic-commerce solution that enables us to offer our products and services on line in a highly secure and confidential environment. With this new contract, we are adding another essential component to the growing suite of electronic loan documents currently being offered to our clients.''
''Lenders and appraisal management companies are embracing electronic appraisal order and delivery services,'' said Robert Habert, Vice-President and General Manager, Mortgage Services, BCE Emergis. ''The GAC agreement is very significant in terms of BCE Emergis' penetration of this $3-billion U.S. market. Before long, we expect that the majority of the 15 million appraisals done each year in the U.S. will be processed electronically, a potentially huge market for Emergis. Because of our relationships with GAC and other major industry players, BCE Emergis has become a key player in the electronic delivery of business-to-business information to the U.S. mortgage industry.''
The new electronic appraisal delivery service will allow participating appraisers to transmit appraisals to GAC via the Internet using any software program that supports Lighthouse(, an industry-standard file format used by most major appraisal software programs. In addition to managing the entire electronic-appraisal delivery process, BCE Emergis will also provide a wide range of value-added features such as order alert, delivery certification, order acceptance and the continual monitoring of the communications infrastructure to guarantee uninterrupted customer service.
General American Corporation, based in Pittsburgh, PA, is one of the largest U.S. vendor management firms. The company specializes in title, appraisal, and closing management services, and offers a wide range of real-estate information products to financial institutions through a single national gateway.
BCE Emergis delivers network-centric e-commerce services that improve customer processes through the exchange of secure transactions. Combining e-commerce services, network connectivity, security and e-payments solutions through industry verticals, BCE Emergis offers a full suite of core technologies that are the essential building blocks for electronic commerce. BCE Emergis is among the top electronic-commerce providers in North America and is listed on the TSE 300 Composite Index. For more information, please refer to www.emergis.com.
This news release contains certain forward-looking statements that reflect the current views and/or expectations of BCE Emergis with respect to its performance, business and future events. Such statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Actual results and events may vary significantly.
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Contact:
Anne Belliveau
General Manager, Corporate Communications
BCE Emergis
514/868-2232
Email: abelliveau@emergis.com
-OR-
Chris Behning
Vice President of Information Technology
General American Corporation
800/648-8617 ext. 1040
Email: cbehning@gac.com |
