March 1, 2004
For Immediate Release

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK   -- Rocky Hill, Ct.-based Integrated Loan Services (ILS), a national process and workflow management service provider for banks, credit unions and mortgage lenders, recently completed a custom plugin for a la mode’s Mercury Desktop product for its nationwide roster of real estate appraisers.

Mercury Desktop connects appraisers to a la mode’s Mercury Network which is a server hub drawing appraisers and their lender and vendor manager clients together. The new Mercury Network 3.0 provides loan officers, brokers and vendor management organizations with appraisal assignment status updates, QA and compliance review, and report delivery. In calendar year 2003, more than 16.5 million appraisal reports were delivered by appraisers nationwide via Mercury Network servers.

ILS’ fee panel of appraisers is equipped with a copy of Mercury Desktop, an EDI workflow management application residing on an appraiser’s PC. Every copy of Mercury Desktop in the US now contains a custom ILS plugin. Appraisers prepare their reports with the formfilling software of their choice, then transmit them back to ILS, which converts a report to its mortgage lending client’s format and transmits it to that client.

“ILS has had a long, extremely productive relationship with a la mode,” said Joe Kent, SVP of Technology for ILS. “Our appraisers take advantage of custom Mercury Desktop applications and the Mercury Network’s workflow management features to transmit professional, quality appraisals faster. Our lender clients appreciate the improved turnaround time on assignments, appraisals pre-checked to conform to their business rules, and reports in their preferred format.

“We forecasted an order volume increase of more than 25 percent this year, and along with upgrading our facilities, expanding our physical space and hiring 35 percent more staff, a key way we’re going to continue to deliver excellent service as we grow is through our strategic partnership with a la mode,” Kent said.

About ILS

ILS is a nationwide company with over 60 years of experience providing innovative lending solutions to banks, credit unions and mortgage lenders. Their products and services streamline mortgage processes; ease workflow; cut overhead and eliminate loan-processing hassles. The company is part of Fiserv’s Lending Systems and Services Group. ILS provides instant web access and delivery through ILS eServices to nationwide loan support products including QuickClose LPI, ACA ValueGuard, appraisals, collateral assessments, credit reports, title searches, flood determinations, loan processing, convenience closings, escrow/funding and post closing review. Their corporate offices are in Rocky Hill, Connecticut with additional locations in Fairfield Conn., Florida, California, New York, Maine and Massachusetts. For more information, check the ILS home page: www.ils.com. or call (800) 842-8423.

Fiserv, Inc. (Nasdaq: FISV) is an independent, full-service provider of integrated data processing and information management systems to the financial industry. As a leading technology resource, Fiserv serves more than 13,000 financial service providers worldwide, including banks, broker-dealers, credit unions, financial planners/investment advisers, insurance companies and agents, mortgage banks and savings institutions. Headquartered in Brookfield, Wisconsin, Fiserv also can be found on the Internet at www.fiserv.com.


About a la mode
a la mode, inc. is the leader in the design, development and support of real estate related software, e-commerce solutions and electronic document technologies, and with its Mercury Network, which delivered more than 16.5 million appraisal reports in 2003, the undisputed leader in paperless real estate transactions. Learn more on the web: http://www.alamode.com