Metropolitan State University

ATLANTIS MORTGAGE

POST IMPLEMENTATION ANALYSIS

Management Information Systems - 310

Metropolitan State University

Instructor Downey

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Atlantis Mortgage evolved from a single owner working out of his basement to a multiple employee corporation which required a professional business office setting. This change necessitated new phone and data systems, application access to the LAN, Internet connectivity and PC hardware. The CEO, George, acquired investors named Tony and Martha, who provided technology, human resource, and treasurer functions for Atlantis.

Tony recommended a service provider named Onvoy which supplied the hardware, software, network and other technologies, as well as complete support for a monthly fee. Hardware and maintenance were acquired through a capital lease from Cisco Systems.

The entire installation went very smoothly, and as the company brought on new loan officers they were trained and integrated into the system with little problem. Support and project management from the service provider, Onvoy, was excellent. Security, backup and recovery issues were identified and recommendations were implemented. The system was well tested before the office went live, and there was only one outage that did not cause any loss of business. Unfortunately, the subprime mortgage debacle of 2007 dried up the client base, and Atlantis Mortgage went out of business.

INTRODUCTION

Organizational Environment

George was the sole employee of a mortgage loan origination company named Atlantis Mortgage in honor of his Greek heritage. He had worked alone for much of his 30 year career; but as he aged, he saw that he required more extensive retirement funds. His strategy was to hire a number of inexperienced loan officers, train them in the mortgage business, and receive a percentage of their commission. He planned to start with one office in the northern Twin Cities metro area and expand as business conditions allowed.

George approached Tony and Martha as potential investors and they agreed to partner with George after seeing his business plan. The plan called for several months to ramp up, hire and train the loan officers and install the supporting information systems. Initial calculations estimated that the investment funds would last approximately six months, at which time the mortgage loan commissions would need to provide ongoing revenues to sustain the business. Tony's role would be Chief Technology Officer, Martha would be Treasurer and handle some human resource duties. George would manage the day to day business functions, hire and terminate loan officers and pursue large loan opportunities. The plan was to grow the business from a single location to five or seven metro area offices with sustainable revenues of $5 to 8 million per loan officer, and five to ten officers per location. George's hope was to be able to retire on a beach in Florida in ten to fifteen years, with the company sustaining him in a comfortable but not ostentatious style of living. These three officers comprised the Board of Directors for Atlantis Mortgage, an S-Corp LLC.

Business Requirements

George's office had been in his home, and now he needed to have a business location with computer hardware and software, phone, data, and internet connectivity for the projected staff. At his home, he had used Qwest for land line voice and long distance, fax, as well as dial up internet connectivity. George had an old PC with Windows 2000 operating system, WORD and EXCEL applications and a wireless capable laptop. His email service was a personal Yahoo account. He also had a cell phone for personal and business usage.

A mortgage industry-standard application called CALYX would be used to originate the loan applications. All PCs would need to run the CALYX application. Tony and George discussed networking requirements and decided that broadband high speed internet, direct inward dial phone numbers and voicemail for each staff person, integrated fax, a secure LAN, and company email addresses would fulfill their requirements. These components would also present the image they wanted to project to investors, loan companies and potential customers. Martha agreed, with the caveat that it must be affordable.

Martha and George investigated potential office sites while Tony studied PC requirements and network connectivity options. After examining and rejecting several office suites, they found a building in Fridley with sufficient room and a reasonable rent that was conveniently located to their respective homes and the metro highway system. Tony selected Onvoy's Converged Network system as the optimal resource. It would deliver more functionality than necessary for one office, but make it much easier to connect multiple locations with a private network as the company grew.

DESCRIPTION

CONVERGED IP NETWORK

Tony was an Onvoy employee, and his role at the service provider was to design Hosted VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) systems, train the administrators on the system's functionality, train the end users on the usage of the phone and voicemail, and oftentimes assist in the installation and implementation of the system. Having seen how well the Onvoy Converged IP Network and Broadsoft Hosted VoIP system worked with hundreds of other small to medium customers, Tony was very inclined to recommend the Onvoy product over other vendor options (as long as it was affordable.) After finding a location with a rent that was $300 less than other options, the board of directors decided that the Onvoy solution was within their budget. A single location would not use many of the system's features, but the anticipated growth would require a redesign and significant rework.

A Hosted VoIP system meant that Onvoy, not Atlantis, was in charge of software maintenance, server performance and upgrades for the Broadsoft system. George did not have the knowledge, experience or desire to become the daily support person, he had enough on his agenda driving business, training and motivating loan officers.

Design

After receiving approval from the board to acquire the Onvoy system, Tony worked with Cheryl, a Marketing Representative and Mike a Sales Engineer. Onvoy's Converged IP Network included a T-1 circuit and voice,