Capstone Realty Advisors, LLC
Servicing clients that develop, own and invest in commercial real estate, Capstone Realty Advisors (Cleveland) has vast resources to provide clients with a large range of products and services, yet maintains a small “boutique” mentality. In order to look at each client individually and find the best solution to service each of its 2,000 loans, and more than 500 new loans every year, Capstone needed a better way to access the thousands of pages included in each loan.
Because each customer file required separate files for various aspects, including a main closing file, environmental reports, the mortgage note, an asset management file, insurance papers, tax files, Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) forms and a reserve file, Capstone was facing what was becoming an insurmountable amount of paper.
“We knew where our company was and where we projected it would go, and we couldn’t get there without moving to automation,” says Marty Clancy, senior vice president and national servicing manager. “We could only meet our projected numbers by minimizing our paper.” When Capstone was formed in 1998, it consisted of just a handful of people, but it has continually and quickly grown to more than 100 employees and counting. With a servicing portfolio of $9 billion and an annual loan production of $2.5 billion, Capstone’s continuous growth could not be sustained with paper processing.
Not only was retrieving physical paper cumbersome for users, files were only available to one employee at a time. If one person had the file at their desk, no one else would know where the file was and wouldn’t be able to use it. Because Capstone has eight remote offices outside of the Cleveland headquarters, users across states would have to request documents, which had to be physically retrieved and then faxed out to the requesting party. This method was inconvenient and time-consuming, preventing work at both offices from getting done.
When Capstone decided enterprise content management (ECM) would conquer these challenges, a previous owner of Capstone required them to implement a particular ECM system. Dissatisfied with this selection, Capstone held off on getting a system right away. Once National City became its parent company and enabled them to choose more freely, Capstone called two of its biggest competitors for their recommendations. Since both named the OnBase ECM suite by Hyland Software, Capstone researched OnBase more closely.
Impressed with OnBase’s reputation, its experience with the employees at Hyland Software and its close proximity to Capstone’s headquarters, Capstone chose the OnBase system, which has core capabilities in document imaging, electronic document management, workflow, COLD/ERM and records management.
To make all of the 2,000 files available, Capstone first scanned its backfile of loans into the system before going live with its own imaging. At Capstone, staff dismantled files, added barcode separator sheets to identify documents within the file during scanning and sent the disassembled file out to Hyland for scanning. The backfile process consisted of destroying 270 boxes of paper (1.5 million sheets).
Now when a new loan closes, staff at Capstone immediately scan the entire file using Fujitsu Computer Products of America document scanners. The loans start at an average of 2,500 pages each, and about 500 more pages, such as letters and inspections, are added to the file over the life of the loan.
In order to get staff using the new system comfortably, Capstone put together training manuals with the help of Hyland and provided them to employees. They also provided some hands-on training to employees to get them jumpstarted. Now users access documents in OnBase constantly. “We use OnBase every day, every minute. We are constantly answering client calls for information, and we can provide it to them immediately,” says Kathy Skrbin, file management and quality control associate.
When a customer calls asking for a location, size, lease information or any other piece of the vast information contained in a loan file, a simple right-click in OnBase retrieves the necessary information. Employees at the Cleveland headquarters and at Capstone’s eight remote locations no longer need to search through thousands of sheets of paper in a file or call another location to find out information.
“We are creating efficiencies within a growing company,” says Clancy. In the future, Capstone plans to link the Production and Servicing departments by automating processes using workflow. Capstone also sees the OnBase folder interface, which mimics physical file folders and provides an additional navigation method to users, as a useful addition to the system.
With its OnBase solution, Capstone will have the ability to meet its rapid growth needs and avoid the pains that often accompany it, ensuring that customers will continue to receive individual service.
- Access to 2,000 very large loan files across eight locations
- Simultaneously view documents
- Increase customer service with immediate answers to inquiries
- Creates efficiencies to support rapid growth
- Able to destroy 270 boxes of paper, totaling 1.5 million sheets
- Fujitsu Computer Products of America fi-5900C production scanner
- Fujitsu Computer Products of America fi-4600 flatbed scanner