Blogs

eDataTrace Platform Updates

This is our portal with a new look and feel. Data Trace is undergoing many other technology changes that will continue to improve the customer experience that you have come to expect from one of the leading title technology companies in the United States. eDataTrace.com incorporates all of the Data Trace title plant, tax, recorded document image, and customer service products into one convenient platform, while providing the benefits and accessibility of web-based technology.

We have gone to great lengths to ensure that the look and feel of the title and tax searching platform is exactly the same as our existing client products in order to facilitate a seamless customer migration. Over the next year, we are releasing many new and innovative title information products on this platform, as well as working with our customers to define the next generation of title search products.

Behind the Scenes - Legacy Modernization

For an IT department to truly be successful, it must not only adapt and keep up-to-date but be the leader of all the technological advances in the industry. In order to quickly adapt business processes, it is essential to provide a separation between the interface and process definition and the supporting application. Maintaining the existing Legacy Data Trace Title Plant system is costly; new features and functionality are very challenging and time consuming to implement; and access to Legacy programmers is increasingly limited.

In an effort to provide our clients with the most modern platform, we are replacing our Legacy environment with a state-of-the-art distributed Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) environment. This new environment will allow us to bring new products and services to market faster while reducing IT complexity and costs of maintenance.

Data Trace has created a standardized, highly available data load and update environment using Informatica Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) technology. This environment replaces our Legacy environment.

Our advanced, streamlined environment includes a new multi-dimensional, homogeneous SQL database that completely maintains the relationship between land, people, and documents providing increased database performance and cross-reference functionality. The new SOA environment will modularize resources creating loosely coupled business processes (services) that integrate across business systems and maximize business agility.

What do these changes mean to the end user?

Title searches will be performed much faster; tax to title cross reference will be greatly improved allowing access to the geographic plant using APN or address; new services will be implemented to aid the user to reduce claims and fraud; and, most importantly we will be able to bring new plants and solutions to market much faster than before.

Our project is well under way and we look forward to completing it in 2012. Look for updates and exciting and unique new products and services as we move to this state-of-the-art technical environment.

- Mark Werner, Vice President Division Information Officer, Data Trace

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What is a Geographic Title Plant?

I am often asked what I do for a living. As those of us working in the real-estate industry know, the answer can be cumbersome, confusing, and many times misunderstood when describing our jobs to the average person. As VP of Operations, I wear many hats. I believe the one that is possibly most important is that of managing the most fundamental of our assets and responsibilities – the Title plants Data Trace currently maintains across the country. Virtually all of Data Trace’s title plants are full title plants, also known as electronic geographic title plants.

An electronic geographic title plant is a database of information abstracted from documents recorded in the public records, affecting real property. These documents are usually filed at the County Recorder and/or County Clerk’s offices in their respective county seats, although multiple filing locations can exist for larger counties.

The database almost always has two main indexing components (although some plants have additional indexing). The first main indexing component is the Property Index or Property Plant. Documents containing a legal description for a parcel or multiple parcels of real property are usually indexed by legal description in this database. This protocol would be used for documents such as Deeds, Mortgages/Deeds of Trusts, Leases, etc. There can be several different property type indexes in a given title plant, including subdivisions, parcel maps, Assessor Parcel Number, survey maps, etc. When an Examiner is running title for a specific piece of property, the records pertaining to that property should be found in one of those indexes.

The second main indexing component is usually called the General Index. Documents that do not contain a legal description of real property or contain an incomplete or deficient legal description are usually posted in this index to the name(s) referenced by the document. This protocol would be used for Federal and State Tax Liens, Judgments, Divorces, Death Certificates, etc.

Generally, most counties index documents by the names of the grantor (seller, borrower, lessor, claimant, affiant, etc.) and of the grantee (buyer, lender, lessee, defendant, etc.). When utilizing a grantor/grantee indexing system, the Examiner would need to review every document that contains one of these party names and then determine which of the documents found applies to the property in question- usually by cross-referencing the known legal description with the legal description contained in the document. This is a very time intensive process, and can be exacerbated if you have a particularly active seller or buyer, or a common name such as Smith, Johnson, etc.

A geographic plant is therefore a huge advantage for the Examiner. The Examiner simply opens the title plant application on his/her desktop (as opposed to searching from the county files on-site), and enters parameters (including APN, Subdivision name, Tract book, etc) that match the property’s description. Only documents that have been posted to that property in the title plant are returned for the Examiner to review. The Examiner can also add additional parameters to search the General Index for non-property specific documents affecting their parties. All of this can be done remotely, easily, and very efficiently, by using the capabilities of an electronic geographic title plant.

-Adam Castillo, Vice President Operations, Data Trace

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Launch of the New eDataTrace.com!

Blogs, widgets, social media, Twitter, and similar terms seem to be commonplace in today’s world. As such, we at Data Trace feel it’s time to integrate this communication medium as we have always been at the forefront of technology advancement in the Title information world. At Data Trace, we continue to build on our fundamental vision - standardizing title, tax and image databases integrated into one new application - eDataTrace.com.

We are proud of our new technology launch as it will also create a new standard for title information across the country. We added many new and exciting products into our application that allow us to serve you, our customer, better than ever before. For the first time, we will have a true browser-based application that will not require installation. We are also integrating the complete Data Tree document image database so you will be able to get all your title information including document images- even in counties where you might not currently have title plant access- in one place. Additionally, within the next six months, we will enhance our application to add a new and improved “TIPS” profile product. This will allow you to get the customization you need without having to go to a 3rd party application.

In other words, you will be able to get all the title information you need in one place making this application the most complete data source in the title industry. Moreover, watch for a special product launch that will revolutionize the way you search and examine. This launch is the most important product update our industry has ever seen and we are proud to bring it to you.

We are on the move in ways you’ve never seen from us before! We are looking to double our geographic footprint within the next five years. Our goal is to reach 500 counties, representing 70% of the U.S. population. This will allow more companies and customers to take advantage of a true dynamic electronic title plant with the deepest and best data in the industry.

Finally, I would like to sincerely thank you for your support throughout the years. Our industry has gone through an evolutionary change but through it all, we have and will continue to be there, providing you the best information solutions that help minimize claims and improve efficiency. In the meantime if you have any questions, ideas or suggestions, please drop me a line; I look forward to hearing from you.

- Robert Karraa, President Data Trace Information Services

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