Filogix Inc. has consolidated its three main mortgage processing suites into one and Monday said it will host this system from Q9 Networks‘ data centre.
Toronto-based
Filogix provides mortgage origination and real estate software for the industry that supports potential homeowners.
The system, called Filogix Expert, “”has been tailored specifically for the Canadian market,”” said Ed Karthaus, executive vice-president of sales and marketing. “”It connects brokers, lenders, creditor insurance companies, credit bureaus and a host of other trading partners together on our hosting network.””
The company, which serves about 7,500 mortgage brokers and 77 lenders, including all major banks, decided to move the system off-site. The previous incarnations of the software came in versions to support Windows or Macintosh, but Expert is a Java tool based on Sun Microsystems and Oracle technology that will run cross-platform. The latest version will be phased in for Filogix’s customer base over the course of a year.
Karthaus said Filogix selected Q9 to host the solution for its reputation with financial services customers and specific uptime and security guarantees.
“”They have designed their environment so that there is full redundancy in terms of power systems. They can offer us 24×7 uptime,”” said Karthaus. “”They’ve been able to assure us and we’ve been able to validate that we don’t have any single point of failure in their centres, which gives us a tremendous amount of confidence in their ability to work with us.””
Q9 has worked with Filogix in the past, said Osama Arafat, CEO of the Toronto hosting firm, but not to this extent.
“”It’s a process where we did the whole design with Filogix on how everything looks — as far as network architecture and the security (goes),”” said Arafat. “”Once we had finalized the design, they brought in their equipment and moved from in-house to Q9.””
Q9 is also providing Filogix with Internet connectivity and is hosting the company’s Web site. Q9 has built up a clientele of financial services companies in recent years, including TD Securities and Moneris Solutions.
“”We’re not trying deliberately. We just seem to be attracting more of the financial type of clients than others,”” said Arafat, who added that Q9’s other clients include Fairmont Hotels and the Ontario Dairy Farmers Association.
A Q9 feature that appealed to Filogix is the ability to get their own people in and out of the data centre. The Expert software can be controlled remotely, but Filogix personnel can access the hardware directly if needed.
Customer access to Q9’s data centre is controlled through physical and biometric security to make sure the right people are getting access to the right equipment, said Arafat.
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