SDK is going away for Encompass...Here's what matters
Hi everyone. Larry Bailey here with Mortgage Workflow Partners. Not too long ago, I did a webinar with Matt VanFossen, who is the CEO of a couple different companies.
The one that we wanted to really focus in on was Mortgage Automation Technologies. That produces the Big POS, because this idea of the SDK technology sunsetting from ICE Mortgage Technology stirred up a lot of conversation, which is great. Conversation is good as long as honestly, as long as it's constructive. We're going to have different opinions, different perspectives, different experiences, and that's okay.
And so what I wanted to do with this video was walk you through the Lender Readiness Guide step by step, so that you actually understand it. I know you can read, I get it, but I also know that a lot of folks, when they read, they're like, wait, what is that supposed to mean? And so that's why I do these walkthrough videos. And I thought doing the walkthrough video of the Lender Readiness Guide would be great. And we can talk about it. What it means for you, what you should do about it, what you should do next.
And at the end of the day, what is all of this really, really mean? Especially come October 2025. So let's go over and check out the actual Readiness Guide. So, there we are. That's me right there and over on the left. And Matt's over on the right. And and, we're we're, you know, he's obviously got better hair, right? So that's okay.
Legal disclaimer here, of course. Just as a reminder, neither Matt nor I, Mortgage Automation Technologies or Mortgage Workflow Partners or Absolute Home Mortgage Corp. We're not providing any legal advice. That's not what this is about.
We're also not acting on behalf of ICE Mortgage Technology. It's also not what this is about. This is really just sharing information. So, it should not be construed as legal advice or financial or technical advice either. There's no claims, there's no warranties either expressed or implied, that are made regarding the accuracy of anything I'm going to talk about here, the completeness or the suitability or the of the information, provided here, I want you to make sure you understand that you're using this guide at your own risk.
It is recommended that you, of course, consult with your legal your technical and your other professional advisors before you make any decisions as far as what you should do, especially if you think it's gonna be based on anything that I'm about to share with you. Okay, so there's a whole big table of contents, blah blah blah. Let's go through it.
So as a reminder, the introduction here, ICE Mortgage Technology back in 2019, released the slide deck, and it's actually the first API. I learned yesterday in a session with Amy Cross. The first API was created by ICE in 2017, but in 2019 it came out on a slide deck.
And it was really that's when the Encompass platform started to move to APIs. This isn't new, but a lot of people may be hearing about this for the first time, or they might just be connecting the dots for the first time. So the announcement went out to some clients not too long ago, expressing, all of the information from ICE Mortgage Technology about the SDK retiring in October of 2025. So the basic changes when you are working in Encompass right now, if you're having anything happen that's outside the native functionality is one of two ways that's happening. Software development kit or API interactions. And so the software development kit, pretty much anybody with generic skill sets can put together.
It's not that hard. I'm not a coder, and I even built one now I had help, I had guidance, but I still got it done. I did a little pop up tool that sits inside of Encompass, and that little pop up tool is not going to work come October 25th next year.
Now you might say, well, Larry, that really sucks because I rely upon that little pop up tool. And I'm not the only one that has it. Trust me, I'm not the inventor of that idea. But I did create one.
And so everybody asks what's going to happen to it next year? And the reality is, we have to start to imagine, why do we even need that? The reason why that little pop up tool is so great in certain circumstances is because when you're working on a summary custom input form, you can pop up other things. And what's interesting is, if you like that concept, when you look at Encompass Web, you have card based views that are effectively your ability to shortcut to other areas very, very quickly. Actually, more, efficient and more effective than pop ups. And so that's really the idea here.
SDK is going away, API integrations are there. They've been there. There's over 500 according to ICE Mortgage Technology. And that continues to grow. And then the other big thing that's really important to understand is every time you include additional software in any software, it slows it down. The performance of the base software suffers. Now, you might say if there's a chain, if there's a trade off, if there's an exchange.
In other words, if the slowdown is 5 or 10 seconds, but it saves 5 or 10 minutes, is it worth it? And you you can debate that on either side. My, my suggestion to you is you should do that analysis and we're going to talk about that more here. In this in this guide. So, first thing, first thing you've got to do right now is inventory all of your SDK software, all of it.
And so how do you do that? You do that through your input form builder. You can do that through your home page, in the lower right hand side in the Encompass home page there's tab down there. You can click on customizations. You can click on SDK and that will show you all the outbound SDK calls.
Now there's plenty of SDK code that might be within your Encompass and custom input forms too. And the word right now is that doesn't need to be worried about it doesn't need to be addressed. It's not being deprecated. That kind of a thing. In October 25th.
But you do need you do need to be aware of it. So number one, inventory number two, you need to make sure that you're working with partners, vendors that are moving to Encompass Partner Connect. Now it's September. It's nearly October 2024. I've been talking about this topic since October '23. At least a year, maybe even longer.
If I go back into the archives, you need to work with vendors that are working on Encompass Partner Connect, aka APIs. There are a ton of vendors who are already converted to EPC, Encompass Partner Connect, so make sure you check with your vendors. They might already have it, you just might not be aware of it. So check out who you're working with.
Make sure that you are aligning yourself with vendors that not only give you the service, that you need for your workflow and your and your company's operations, but also that they are fully engaged in either EPC or they've got a game plan to get on EPC well before October 2025 next year. So, let's see if there's anything else on here. And of course, we talked we just talked about all this. There's some FAQs on here. Let's talk about Encompass FAQs and resources. Now, there's some common questions on here.
So one of the common questions is, why should you transition. Right. What is the benefit? And the largest benefit is time savings and the ability to make sure that your Encompass works as fast as possible.
What's also interesting is, to understand, when you go through the native functionality of Encompass has a lot of functionality today that it didn't have even last year, and especially if you get into web settings. So one of the things that I show companies is, through Mortgage Workflow Partners, is what is possible with native settings. There's so many people that haven't even looked at what's involved with web settings, so they're not aware of workflow engine automation, they're not aware of workflow engine rules. What you can do with notifications, what you can do with schedulers, what you can do with service automations, not only for the initial, service order, but also for any updated service order. So this is really important for you to understand that technology, of course, always changes mortgage always changes. Since 1993 and before that, it's always been changing technology especially.
So keep your technology stack getting updated. This is an opportunity to make sure that you are reviewing your tech stack and maximizing what you should be doing, and getting rid of things that you no longer use or no longer need to use. It's going to save you money. It's going to make your Encompass run better.
All all that great stuff. So next question that comes up a lot is which SDK are included in the SDK sunset. So standalone SDK modules you'll know them as DLLs. If you go into Input Form Builder and you go to Manage Customizations and you click on plugins, you'll see all the .DLLs. That's what we're talking about here.
Some other things that are happening are loan plugins. So, these are things that are actually living within a loan file that call out via the SDK tech that needs to migrate to SSF framework, and the next gen, plug in framework, through APIs. And then, again, as a reminder here on screen, custom forms are currently not included in the SDK sunset.
So if you have any more questions on that, please ask. All right. Next one are custom forms with code base assemblies impacted. So custom forms with code custom code bases will continue to work post sunset. However, if functionality is required for web users, you should transition.
So here's what this is saying. Going back to the comment I made, this is not a play from ICE to force you to move to Encompass Web. How do I know that? First of all, it just doesn't make any sense when you say that out loud.
There's no plans for deprecation of Desktop number one. Number two, all the things that you love to do in Desktop are not an Encompass Web. All the things that you love to do in Encompass Web or not in Desktop. I've sat with the senior leadership. I'm on the partner advisory board, with ICE Mortgage Technology. And one of the things that we talk about with the highest of the highest leadership in ICE MT as well as Intercontinental Exchange, is this concept of we want to make sure that you have the right tools in your hands for your workflow.
ICE has never really been even as Ellie Mae, they've never been about telling you how to run your business. Now I'll tell you, because I've got the experience in the background. That's my specialty and that's and that's my ownership.
Right? That's what I believe. I know how workflows run. That's not ICE's position. ICE's position is, let me give you the best possible tools that you could possibly need for your industry, and then go do whatever it is that you want to do. So whether you're leveraging Web UI or Web Settings or putting Web into Desktop, and you're going to leverage that and you're going to do whatever it is, the magical stuff that you can do, especially with APIs, go for it.
But use our platform. That's what ICE wants. ICE wants everybody to use ICE Mortgage Technology's platform. Whether you're an originator or an aggregator or a vendor or servicer or a data analyst.
Right? I mean, that's no secret. That's why they're in business. And I thank them for that. To build a stable, scalable, future proof platform, that allows me to continue to help you make sure that you can build the best possible business. That's what I do. So let's get on to some more FAQs that are happening here in the, in the, guide here. Should what should lenders do about the apps or plug ins provided by partners.
So first of all, talk to your partner. Ask them what they're doing. Ask them what their game plan is. Now the idea here is UI hacks right? And so if you're using a partner solution, solution, when it comes to this context, is the software, right, that it's solving the software, solving for something. And if you're going through and you are using a partner solution that is SDK based, how do you know that? Because the deals are there. Talk to them.
So the again, this is not new. Hopefully they've been planning for this. Hopefully they can give you a straight answer without mumbling, stumbling, bumbling. That's my hope. And so you be the judge of who you work with and what their game plan is and what they've already developed and delivered, as well as what they're planning on developing and when that will be delivered. Plan accordingly.
Plan accordingly. I'll just leave it there. All right. Which popular operations do Encompass Developer Connect API support? And there's this whole list. Right. Again, I'm not going to bore you. You can read this part, but effectively what's not on here are UI hacks. So things like coloring pipeline rearranging input form lists based upon some other code, doing other like Loan Banner and the loan information at the top of your loan file in Desktop.
Like all this stuff seems helpful. And you might be saying, Larry, it's absolutely helpful. It's always helped me. I can tell you I've been helping companies actually maximize their Encompass interaction and their business running Encompass other companies since 2011 when I went to work for Ellie Mae first at the time, and since 2013 when I've been helping other companies around the country, from the smallest of small broker shops to the largest of enterprises, UI hacks are not your answer. Workflow is your answer.
Getting information to the right person at the right moment for the right reasons. That's value. And sometimes technology helps you with that and sometimes it doesn't. So you really want to think through what's possible with APIs and what the practical use cases are some of the most popular SDK ways and similar APIs. So you'll see a list, you know, table here a left side, right side.
You can check that out. Is there a cost to transition to APIs. No, no. And so you know, if you've if you've been seeing any conversations around, you know, well, this is just another money grab to convert to a new technology, yeah no.
No, it's not what this is about. This is about taking technology that is legit. 10, 15 years old and making it into 2024 and beyond. APIs are here to stay. They are everywhere.
And making sure that your platform is API interoperable is critical for the success of your business. One of the things that you need to understand is that from a business perspective, a single point of failure is your highest risk percentage item in every environment. And so if you have a platform that cannot communicate with any outside platform, that's a single point of failure risk and APIs help you avoid that. So, what happens if encompass client partners don't transition from SDK to API by October 31st. All right. So this is a real deal.
So there are going to be, I expect there's going to be a handful of companies maybe 10 maybe 20. But the largest of the largest lenders out there that have dedicated IT teams that work on these, customized environments, customized Encompass, and again, I'm sure there's a valuable reason for it. I just I'm a workflow guy, so I'm always fighting this fight against, you know, over technological, over technology based solutions, using workflow over technology. Right? Workflow for me, workflow always comes before technology.
Always, always, always. So what do you do if come October you start using SDK and you can show you can document both to your internal teams as well as the ICE Mortgage Technology that, hey, listen, I'd love to get the API dude, but this, this thing right here that you do the SDK, it's not supported in API and we need it to run our business. It's integral to our business. You're going to you know, you're going to communicate to ICE Mortgage Technology and you're going to have a conversation.
There may be a charge. Depends on how much that sucker is calling out through the ICE MT network, right. Because that's part of the deal. And so as you have these questions, obviously stay in touch with your ICE MT reps. Make sure that you're going through and talking with them all along. It's really what this is about.
All right. So let's get into we're on page 7 of 11 here. Legacy Service ordering FAQ. So do you have to move over to web version of Encompass? No no no no no no. That is not the case.
Matter of fact, right now, and again, this is September 24th, so we're on version 23. excuse me, 24.2. So with version 24.2, there's only three main departments that I'm actually actively promoting to use Encompass Web. One is the sales team, the second is secondary team, and the third is Post-Closing team. And there's very specific reasons for each one has to do with sales having mobility and flexibility and, and focus, for their workflow.
Number two is secondary teams to be able to hop in and out of files to get the secondary registration, super critically important for secondary teams, every second is money. So you got to maximize that time. Third is Post-Closing.
That's all about task based workflows, which is super duper on workflow tasks when you use Encompass Web for that UI. So, some legacy service orderings that you need to worry about here is, things that are running through the ICE Mortgage Technology Partner Network, TQL services and then ePass. These are all things that you need to be aware of. Like I said earlier, work with your vendors, they'll guide you. They'll tell you what to do.
Trust me, they have way more pressure on them to deliver the solution, then you have them telling them what they want. They know this. They've known this now for a while and they've been working on it, I'm sure. And they should be able to tell you a clear answer. So how do you find out if your service providers available on EPC go over to ICEMortgageTechnology.com.
Click on marketplace. You'll see a marketplace link there. And you can see if your vendor shows up. If you don't see it there, call your vendor.
If you do see it there, call your vendor and ask them, say, hey, listen, I'm seeing this on there because there's three different kinds of ways to interact with that service provider via EPC. One is manual. Manual just means you click a button to order service and or you click a spot and you order service and you have to enter your credentials. Easy order means that you do the click button, go to a place to click the order or whatever, and then the credentials are provided to you through, the settings, similar to what we've all been using services password management for. And then the third way, which is totally, totally cool, is lights out automation so that you can actually order a service automatically or update that service automatically, through workflow rules. So really cool stuff.
Some of the benefits of leveraging Partners Automated Service Ordering. I just talked about that. Enhanced user experience. It allows for so much more customization, so much more data to go back and forth between you and your vendor. It's it's gives me it just gave me the chills.
That was weird. But I'm really excited. Excited because you have to understand that getting data in and out of your loan file is everything. And so by making sure data can, transfer over to where it needs to go and data can transfer in where you need it again, is is everything is everything.
Will partners sunset their own, set their own sunset dates for legacy integrations? You can do whatever you want. You don't have to stay on SDK. Don't wait till the end unless you have to or want to, but you can transfer everything over to API as soon as you want.
Will sunset data impact services invoke through Encompass Developer Connect. Nope. Can partners using Developer Connect take advantage of Encompass Partner Connect features? No, for lenders to leverage the features of Encompass Partner Connect to partners must be utilizing Encompass Partner Connect Itself Are Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae services as part of this transition? No, they're not part of this transition. You'll continue to use password management via Encompass to order services from these entities. So just to be clear on this, the EPC function for Fannie and Freddie is there now. There are, with Freddie Mac in particular, sorry, with Fannie Mae in particular, with DO, what's happening is, there's a there's a manual option only there's no easy order. So if you're used to using services, password management for for Fannie Mae DO, just like any other service, check to make sure what's possible in EPC before you transition out of using Encompass Services Password Management.
Rounding out here, guys, reviewing your plug ins and custom tools. We talked about this earlier. Make sure you take inventory.
Make sure you take stock. Make sure you understand what you have. There's so many companies that have no idea what they have. And so this is a great chance for you to do that.
Number five, vendor assessment to ensure and compatibility. We've talked about this a lot already. Communicate with your vendors. Find out what their game plan is. Use this link in here if you have any questions at all about for flood.
Or you can do, different links on here. Go ahead and check that out. Building a transition plan. This is really all about you. Do not think you're just going to remember what to do. Do not think that your team is just going to figure it out on their own.
Please, please, please build a plan, even if it's a simple word, doc. Even if it's a simple video showing everybody what to do with an EPC order. The UI is different, the screen is different from ordering, and what people do is should be familiar, but it's still going to be different. And so communicate with all of your teams about what's happening, when it's happening, what is the change? How do you manage through the change? Please train.
I'm a big proponent of training, even if it's showing somebody how to do it on video. It helps. It helps consistency, and it helps make sure that this event is a nothing burger. It just helps move the company forward. All right. Run number seven best practices. So as I just said internal communications, vendor accountability, monitoring progress, I can't tell you enough just because you think something's working.
Don't take it for granted. Go into the file. Make sure things are happening. Make sure if it's a service order that the service order comes back into the eFolder and that you get what you expect you're going to get. Key actions. Conclusion.
Here we go. Wrapping everything up. October 25th last time, last dance for SDK. Hopefully it's again by that time you're like, whatever, I'm worrying about other stuff. But if you're not, make sure you communicate with ICE explaining why you still need to use SDK, documenting everything, but still having a plan for for, you know, what does it look like in the future? I'll make sure you look at your entire workflow, your entire technology stack. If you ever need a full workflow review, reach out to me and let me know.
You can use Larry@MortgageWorkflowPartners.com. Or direct message on Mortgage.Community or LinkedIn, whatever you feel like you're doing, like you want to do. And then the last thing is, of course, make sure that you document all your steps.
So need help? Again you'll see some information on here. We'll post this in, a link for this in the Mortgage.Community so you can grab a copy and make sure that if you reach out, if you want to find out from a vendor's perspective, you can always reach out to Matt VanFossen. If you want to see, a vendor
that built everything on API's, that would be the Big POS. That's a Big Point of Sale. They've done everything from the beginning on API's, which puts them, ironically, ahead of the curve, even though they started doing this two years ago. So thanks very much for watching this video.
If you liked it, please subscribe to our channel. Please like it. Please join the Mortgage.Community, and please let me know if I can ever be of any assistance.
You guys take care. Bye bye now.
2024-10-01 10:29
