Internet tools reshape East Idaho business

Technology allows company to create its own niche

IDAHO FALLS — If you´re looking for an example of how
information technology can change a business, Security
Connections Inc. is a good example.

The Idaho Statesman.com

President Carlene Maughan said that five years ago she could
not have imagined the tools the company is using today and the
business that has become possible.

Security Connections, which now employs 75 people, provides
banks and mortgage lenders with a place to keep their files
organized and easily accessible over the Internet.

The company has attracted the attention of the Eastern Idaho
Economic Development Council and its president, Jim Bowman,
who is courting other information security and data management
companies.

Bowman said Idaho Falls´ location is an asset when it comes to
attracting such businesses, which fit the goal of building a
technology corridor.

“Eastern Idaho is affordable and has good connections to the Internet,” he said.

There is no doubt the Internet has made Security Connections´ business boom, Maughan
said. Five years ago, it was using Kodak microfilm cameras to record up to 20,000 loans
for Flagstar Bank when it wanted to sell a portfolio to Union Planters. That was long and
tedious work.

Now, those microfiche images have been rescanned to go on the Internet.

The basis for the business is simple — banks make a great deal of money selling loans
on the secondary market. Before a portfolio can be sold, each mortgage file has to have
four essential documents in it — the note, the deed, the title policy and the assignments.

If a banking institution is trying to sell a portfolio, which can involve thousands of loans,
but does not have all the necessary documents, it can face significant fines and penalties.

“It´s a huge chore that has to be done in a very limited period of time,” Maughan said.

As papers move from one place to another, they get lost. Borrowers would be amazed,
and very likely outraged, at the amount of paper that disappears through the doughnut
hole and has to be recovered before loan portfolios can be certified.

“We provide a real niche service for large banks and lenders,” Maughan said.

Security Connections recently received certification from the government as a place that
can store documents for lending programs Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Sallie Mae.

At any given time, it may have a crew in places such as Louisville, Ky., or Pittsburgh,
scanning mortgage documents for entry into the company´s database. The company has
contacts in virtually every county, township and parish of the United States. These people
can search for a copy of a missing document at a courthouse or recorder´s office.

Once they find them, they scan or fax the images to Security Connections, which hosts
the documents on its computers.

Maughan has been involved in document processing for more than 20 years. The
company has been in Idaho Falls since 1994. She figured she could locate the company
anywhere, and her husband, Robert, worked for the Idaho National Engineering and
Environmental Laboratory.

Maughan has been determined to expand the company the old-fashioned way, by
reinvesting profit and not overreaching. It has neither sought nor received economic
development money as it has grown.

Robert Maughan, who has since retired from INEEL and is now involved in Security
Connections, said the company is looking for people who are computer-literate, motivated
and able to work in a team.

“Everybody has to do a lot of different things,” he said.

http://www.idahostatesman.com/Business/story.asp?ID=18836