A new cloud based platform has launched which combines the criteria and application questions of 128 lenders, creating what the firm behind it calls the “ultimate generic application form”.

To build the technology, APAC Systems analysed every lender and product in the market to come up with 816 application questions, which have been filtered down to a number of essential questions that can be completed (if necessary) at any point through the sales lifecycle.

Live results are available after answering a few basic questions showcasing the lender, product, monthly pay back, fees and total repayment. On a page similar to that found on a comparison site, the user can choose the preferred product, click apply and it will ask for any missing lender specific questions.

Wayne Smethurst, director at APAC Systems, said: “The APAC SmartForms technology allows all the application forms to be in one system and it links everything together.”

The system combines all three stages of the sales process – data collection, research and application – in the one place. APAC Systems says the software also eliminates the need to use different sourcing tools for different products as it covers everything from mortgages to bridging finance to secured loans.

Smethurst said: “I find it bizarre that market leading sourcing tools do not contain bridging or secured loans products. This is the equivalent of SatNav containing only 75% of the roads.”

“Our system helps intermediaries find what’s best for the customer by checking their information against the whole of the industry as they go along. As a tool it provides everything they need a single application process with a compliant audit trail.”
Each company who wishes to sign up to use the software will have their own copy of it, branded to look like part of their IT, but it’s all the same system powered by APAC SmartForms technology. White labelled versions of the platform are currently being made available to packagers Capital Advances, Solent Mortgage Services and TFC Homeloans, who will be using and testing it over the next three months. It will then be rolled out to other packagers, networks and large companies, followed by a full-scale launch later in the year.

Smethurst added: “We have had people asking about this for months. It’s had a great response. For something that is housed in a nuclear bunker in the middle of the desert in Arizona, it’s going to be very popular.”