Winning Over Portland
We Sold Title Companies On a Vision -- and We Delivered
It is no small feat to persuade a group of title companies that they should switch from their current plant to a more modern one. The very integrity of title examination could be affected and business disrupted if plant conversions are not properly managed. Too, users are often set in their ways with respect to searching and documenting property title.
Modernizing the Portland Plant
Property Insight built its case for modernizing and updating the title plants in key counties in Portland, OR, the nation's 24th largest MSA. The conversion would also enable users to employ TitlePoint™, the industry-leading title search application, which automates and streamlines the very labor-intensive practice of title searching. With TitlePoint™, Portland title companies would enjoy a raft of new performance-enhancing features that would enable them to significantly improve efficiency.
A team of title plant operations and support representatives presented Property Insight’s case for plant modernization to a committee of 12 title companies, outlining its approach and demonstrating the capabilities and benefits of adopting TitlePoint™. The proposal was warmly received and Property Insight was selected ahead of its major competitor.
A Year-long Conversion Effort
The conversion effort required more than one year to complete and necessitated a complete database reconstruction. In the course of the project, Property Insight cross-referenced and linked records that historically required manual searching, significantly improving title plant integrity and accuracy. This was completed on a parcel-by-parcel basis.
Intensive Training Prepared Portland Clients for Change
Two months prior to completing the plant conversions, a Client Success Group led a coordinated effort to provide on-site and online training sessions for more than 600 title plant users representing 12 Portland companies. The Group developed both group and one-on-one sessions, to users that ranged from novice to experienced. In most cases, users required personalized training accommodate individual workflow processes.
The training explained that the new automated plant and TitlePoint™ search application enabled a new, more modern title search and order management process. It produced searches faster, requiring minimal cross-referencing, and saved the client time and keystrokes while yielding a more reliable title report.
The training period required three months to complete. As title companies were being trained to use TitlePoint™, they were amazed at the refinements engineered into the new plant architecture. Search procedures, once a labor-intensive process that required manual verification of documents and property records, were reduced to a single, automated search step.
Portland Is Now Ahead of the Curve
As a result of this initiative, Portland title companies now use the title insurance industry’s most advanced technology, producing highly reliable title searches backed by title insurance that protects lenders and home buyers.