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Associated Software Consultants Celebrates 25th Anniversary

Developed UNI-FORM in 1978, still used today

MIDDLEBURG HEIGHTS, Ohio, April 28, 2003 Associated Software Consultants, Inc. (ASC), a provider of loan automation software to the mortgage industry, celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2003.

ASC was founded in 1978 by Mike Liston, who, with his brothers Tim and John, are still focused on their original mission of using the most modern technology to make the lending process easier and more cost effective for lenders.

Much has changed since the 1970s, when the most common examples of office technology were typewriters and copy machines. In the beginning, ASC focused on creating software that would save time for users during the date entry process, enable users to make loan program changes themselves and eliminate the hand typing of loan forms. The result was UNI-FORM, a loan processing system that enabled non-programmers to change the way the system requested borrower data, performed financial calculations, printed loan documents and reports and transmitted data.

While Mike Liston was developing UNI-FORM, his brother, John, wrote the systems user manual while on summer vacation during college, and his other brother, Tim, started installing and training users just days after college graduation. Although UNI-FORM was cutting-edge technology in its day, computing back then left much to be desired.

When UNI-FORM first came out, a typical computer had 32 kilobytes of RAM and ten megabytes of disk space, said Mike Liston, founder of ASC. Customers used pre-printed forms for document production and line printers for printing reports.It would be many years before bigger and better computers came out and UNI-FORM would be able to live up to its full potential.

By design, UNI-FORM kept programs, user customization and client data all separate. By doing this, clients could receive program upgrades that did not interfere with their business logic or customer records at all. Conversely, ASC needed to maintain a single set of programs for its entire customer base, greatly reducing development and most importantly, support costs. By putting the control of customization in the lenders hands, UNI-FORM allowed lenders to do business their way, and to quickly react to an ever-changing and increasingly competitive market.

Economically, the late 1970s and early 1980s were troubled times. The term stagflation was being used to describe the condition of high interest rates (up to 18 percent) and slow economic growth. Additionally, the mortgage lending industry was much less sophisticated than it is today, and there was less standardization. No computer systems dominated the industry and business people were much less tech-savvy. Lenders relied on proprietary systems and were at the mercy of the vendor for programming and support requirements.

Computer technology at that time was new enough that the average user was not able to do even basic things such as moving from screen to screen, said Tim Liston, president of ASC. Many people actually feared computers and felt the only people who should use them were computer scientists.

As the mortgage lending industry became more sophisticated in the 1990s, ASC began developing PowerSeller, a complete secondary marketing and pipeline risk management system. The system provided users with necessary tools for successful pricing, pipeline data management, builder and master commitment processing, pooling, trade processing, pipeline risk management, shipping and document tracking. PowerSeller went on to become the top-selling system of its kind in the industry.

In 2002, ASC re-engineered UNI-FORM and developed PowerLender, a Java-based loan origination and processing system. PowerLender had all the flexibility of UNI-FORM, and was designed specifically to exploit future developments in computing and technology.

During ASCs 25-year history, the company's software has been widely used by lenders to process an estimated 5 million loans on 10,000 workstations for approximately 250 lenders including Bank of America, New Century and Bank One.

ASC has always developed innovative computer systems that focused on making businesses more successful, said John Liston, senior programmer and analyst at ASC. Technology may have changed a great deal during the many years since we started, but ASCs commitment to serving our customers needs has always remained constant.
7251 Engle Road (Suite 300), Middleburg Heights, Ohio 44130  -  TEL: 440-826-1010  -  FAX: 440-826-1140  -  info@asconline.com