Case Study: CloudOps Managed Services
Bestborn Loan Vision: A Managed Services Customer Story
WatServ enables Bestborn Loan Vision to deliver an industry-leading platform in a customizable, repeatable way.
Over the past five years, WatServ’s partnership with Bestborn Loan Vision has grown from serving one to enabling over 40 customers
Bestborn Business Solutions launched Loan Vision in 2013, and it quickly became the leading accounting solution in the American mortgage industry. Singularly focused on providing a comprehensive financial management solution with loan-level accounting, Bestborn Business Solutions serves 200 lenders.
Before 2016, Bestborn relied solely on one of WatServ’s competitors to bring its solution to the market. The price point was good; however, as Loan Vision began to build out its vertical offering and onboard new customers, the team became increasingly frustrated by the low level of service, glitches in billing, and, most worrisome, outages.
“We knew what we wanted. Our technical folks had specific requirements they wanted, and the other providers were unable to give us what we required,” says Carl Wooloff, Director of Sales and Marketing, Bestborn Business Solutions. This inflexibility, combined with other needs of a fast growing business, left Loan Vision wanting better.
The U.S. mortgage industry is one of the largest in the world, with $16.96 trillion in mortgage debt. 1
The Loan Vision team began asking around for alternative recommendations. A former account manager to Loan Vision at Microsoft had since moved to WatServ. He brought WatServ’s value proposition to the attention of the Bestborn team.
“We sat down and told the WatServ team exactly what we wanted – a platform as a service. We wanted them to have all the fun of patching and making sure the server doesn’t fall over while we retain full control of the application,” says Wooloff.
This ask was not within the umbrella of WatServ’s customary offerings. The request was for a right-sized model of its broader services. But, after a period of discussion and refinement, Bestborn and Watserv agreed on a tailored solution, and a partnership was born.
“We worked hard to build this relationship,” says Sandy Low, Service Delivery Manager, WatServ. “They didn’t know us at the start. We set out to earn their respect; to show Bestborn that we are responsive, attentive, proactive, and easy to work with. This approach isn’t unique to them; this is our approach to every customer. We prove ourselves, demonstrate that we can be trusted and that we’ll deliver on our promises.”
“What was cool was that the WatServ team was willing to listen and explore,” reflects Wooloff. “It was refreshing.” Now Bestborn has a customized, repeatable solution that is both efficient and effective.
67% of customer churn is preventable if firms resolve issues the first time they occur. 2
56% of people around the world have stopped doing business with a company because of a poor customer service experience. 3
99% of lenders believe that technology can help improve the mortgage application process, citing benefits that include simplifying the entire process (74%), reducing time to close (70%) and minimizing data entry (67%). 4
A partnership that pays off
That partnership has been highly successful and paid off for both companies. Bestborn is now one of WatServ’s biggest customers, and WatServ has proven itself a steadfast partner for Bestborn, limiting downtime and frustration.
“What we like with WatServ is that they take care of many of the headaches,” says Wooloff. “From day one, they got rid of the security headache for us. They got rid of the SOC headache for us. They got rid of the compliance headache for us. They allow us to focus on what we do as a business, which is our application and delivering exceptional service to our customers.”
“There have been a few – very few – problems that have sprung up over the years. On those rare occasions, the WatServ team has stepped up and fixed the problem quickly. With this level of response, even when things don’t go quite as planned, we still end up with pleased customers,” says Wooloff.
Trust and transparency
Five years of consistency and collaboration have built trust and mutual respect between the two companies. “We are very open about the relationship. We don’t hide the fact from our customers that there’s a third party involved. We are not nervous to get WatServ on the phone and work as a trusted partner. Together, we’re able to present a knowledgeable front that has our customers’ best interests at heart,” says Wooloff.
Not only does Bestborn not keep WatServ a secret, but they also invite the team to share their expertise with customers.
“Bestborn has invited us to do some marketing events to their end customers,” says Numrah Irfan, VP of Client Success, WatServ. “We’ve been present at their user conferences in the past and have webinars and a podcast episode planned for the future. They give us that level of exposure and access to their end customers, because they have full trust in us.”
WatServ – it just works
“It’s been a very positive experience,” says Wooloff. “I know it doesn’t sound very flattering, but it just works. You really can’t say more than that for what WatServ does for us because there’s not more you can do. You can’t deliver a server better than you can deliver a server.
You can’t put a bow on it. It could be the shiniest, most well-polished server in the world, but I don’t care. I just need it to work. When it doesn’t work, that interrupts my life, and worse, it angers our customers. WatServ doesn’t anger our customers, and happy customers are what we are going for.”
Bestborn has achieved its business goal to become cloud-ready, take advantage of Microsoft’s CSP offering and become entirely browser-based. As a result, many of Loan Vision’s services and products will be migrated to the Microsoft hosted platform. However, Loan Vision will continue to offer a public cloud offering hosted in Microsoft Azure or in WatServ’s private cloud.
“Migrating to Microsoft makes sense for Loan Vision. Our goal, as always, will be to continue to be a good partner through this strategic change. In whatever capacity we can help, we will,” says Irfan.
One thing is for certain, the deep partnership between these two companies only proves that when there is value to be had, a solution will be found.
To learn more about how WatServ’s solutions can be part of your company’s future, visit https://watserv.com/solutions/.
Select Business Outcomes
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