Feature Enhancements in Version 21.1 February Major Release

The Need Help? menu and splash screen (or "shout-out") messages displayed in the administration portal and website builder will no longer be supported after February 28, 2021.

Help topics are accessible and will continue to be accessible via the help button in the administration portal and the Help tab in the website builder. Messages and announcements will be provided solely by My Messages.

About My Messages

The My Messages system is the primary method of communication for service notifications and alerts from Ellie Mae. Each Encompass system administrator and named contacts have the ability to sign up to receive email messages or text notifications about specific products and services. They can also enable other users in their company to receive messages and notifications from My Messages. Watch this video to learn more.

The ICE Mortgage Technology Lending Platform is introducing a new Prospect Engagement feature this year that tightens the integration between Velocify Lead Manager, LO Connect, and Consumer Connect while providing an enhanced experience for prospects such as leads and opportunities. This feature enables Velocify and LO Connect users to send customized invitations and reminders to their prospects via email and SMS (Velocify). Prospects with new applications can be routed to a new Consumer Connect loan application pre-populated with their data. Prospects with existing incomplete applications can be sent a reminder which will route them to their corresponding Consumer Connect incomplete loan application.

New loan applications are pre-populated with data passed from Velocify and LO Connect. The set of fields that are currently supported to pre-populate a loan application are listed here: Encompass Consumer Connect, Velocify, and LO Connect Field Mapping.

Enabling this Feature

To support this feature, administration settings have been added to Velocify and LO Connect to configure the email and SMS (Velocify) templates that users can send to their prospects. In addition, new Invite/Remind to Apply buttons have been added to Velocify and LO Connect that users can click to send the invite or reminder emails/SMS messages to their prospects. When sending an Invite email, users select the template and choose an Encompass Consumer Connect loan application workflow to use for the prospect.

The Encompass Consumer Connect loan application workflow must be configured to use the URLA 2020 loan application.

To use this feature with Velocify, lender administrators need to configure the email and SMS templates in Velocify, as well as set the Velocify Client and Lead Source in the Consumer Connect loan application workflow. Prerequisites and configuration instructions for Velocify are available in the Velocify 21.1 release notes. To learn how to set the Velocify Client and Lead Source in the Consumer Connect loan application workflow, see Enable the Velocify Service.

To use this feature with LO Connect, lender administrators need to configure the email templates in LO Connect. Detailed instructions are available in the LO Connect 21.1 release notes.

Prospect-to-Borrower Experience for Invite to Apply

This section provides an overview of the borrower experience after a Velocify or LO Connect user initiates the invitation email.

1. The borrower receives the invitation email from the lender. The email contains a link to a new Encompass Consumer Connect loan application.

2. After clicking the link, the browser opens the Consumer Connect site and displays a one-time passcode authentication screen. The screen displays the last 4 digits of the borrower's phone number and provides options to receive the authentication code--either text or voice call.

3. The borrower clicks Text or Call.

   

4. After the borrower receives the code and authentication is successful, they are taken to their loan application which contains pre-populated data.

   Note that if the workflow requires the borrower to log in before accessing the loan application, the borrower will be prompted to log in, and then taken to the loan application.

   If the code is entered incorrectly 5 times, then the borrower will have to wait for 15 minutes before trying again. After that, if the code is entered incorrectly 5 more times, the borrower will have to wait for 24 hours.

5. The borrower completes and submits the loan application.

The fonts and colors used for the one-time passcode screen and loan application are configured with the Website Builder > Borrower Portal and Loan App design area settings.

The Velocify Client and Lead Source fields located in the Service Settings area of a Loan App Workflow have been enhanced to allow lender administrators to search by name or code. In addition, both fields now include a drop-down list that is populated by Velocify client database name(s) for the given Encompass instance.

Several UI enhancements have been made to the Email Notifications page and to each email template editors to refresh the look and feel of the pages and improve usability. These enhancements include:

• Updated fonts and colors
• New accordion menus
• Toggles replace buttons
• Improved text editor

Enhanced Email Notifications Page

Each template editor has been enhanced with the changes listed above. Here is an example of the Abandoned Application Email template editor, which shows the new On/Off toggle and text editor.

The Reset Password option on the Borrower Lookup page has been replaced with the Unlock Borrower option to allow borrowers to reset their own passwords in the case of a locked account, as well as enhance borrower account security. Borrowers can reset a forgotten password using the one-time passcode (OTP) authentication process available in the borrower portal. If a borrower is locked out of their account, lenders can unlock the account using the Unlock Borrower option.

To learn more the Unlock Borrower functionality, see the 20.2 release notes feature enhancement, Unlock Borrower Option added to Borrower Lookup..

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A new rich text editor has been added to the Login Settings area of the Borrower Loan Portal page. This new editor replaces the text field from previous releases and provides lender administrators with tools to format and customize the instructions that appear on the borrower login page.

Why we made this update: This enhancement was made to prevent account linking issues between borrowers and co-borrowers.

The loan application has been enhanced to automatically detect the borrower and co-borrower positions on the account. Starting with this release, new loan applications will check the user Profile to determine if the account belongs to a borrower or co-borrower. The Account Owner screen will automatically indicate the account owner if the position is detected.

The borrower can change the selection if necessary. If the account owner is not detected, then the selection will be made on the Account Owner page.

This enhancement does not apply to embedded SSO sites.

An enhancement has been made to the Password field on the Create Account screen to allow borrowers to paste a copied password into the field. Note that the Confirm Password and Confirm Email fields do not support copy and paste actions.

A change has been made to the URLA 2020 loan application workflow for Construction, Construction to Perm, and Purchase loans. If the Address Line 1 is left blank or the borrower indicates they have not yet found a property (Address Line 1, Unit Type, and Unit # are hidden) then the Address Line 1 for the Subject Property (URLA.X73) will now populate with "TBD" when the loan application is saved or submitted to Encompass.

For new URLA 2020 loan applications, when Housing (Encompass Field ID BR0115) is set to Own, all fields on the Current Monthly Housing Expenses page will display (e.g., First Mortgage P&I, Second Mortgage P&I, Hazard, Supplemental, RE Taxes, Mortgage Ins, HOA, and Other Housing Expenses). With this update, when Housing is set to Rent or No primary housing expense, then only the Other Housing Expenses fields will display.

The URLA 2020 Known Issues and Usage Notes page is now available. This new page contains a list of known issues, current limitations, and usage notes for new URLA and Encompass Consumer Connect.