These are reporting programs by QuestSoft that I've been approached about purchasing for our bank (hence the anonymous post). Has anyone out there used either of these products? Can anyone give me specific pros and cons versus the FFIEC software or another available program package? They ~look~ like a great deal but I'm a skeptical shopper...

Given that today is 5 days after you posted this very legitimate request, I am surprized to see no responses. We have 1,200 customers, comprise almost 30% of the records submitted now to HUD and 25-30% to the other agencies (of submitters of less than 1 million records) and have an excellent reputation.

Are BOL subscribers just users of PCi or Don's products? If so, there is a whole different world out there that we know of. We have customers like NetBank, Charter One Bank, CUNA Mutual and eLoan who use us in all of their operations and each is VERY SKEPTICAL before they make a move and rightfully so given the publicity and scrutiny each of them receives.

Don Narup, myself and PCi were the three vendors recognized at CRA roundtables recently to illustrate the outsourcing end, the reasonably priced mid level and the high end. We all perform well in what we do and each has a significant part of the market where we perform. With all due respect to Michael P and also to The Centrax Group (both of which also provide fine services), we are the three companies that represent the largest portion of market share in our relative markets.

For the original poster, we do offer an evaluation version so you can completely test your data and see it working with your data before you buy. It's free. We don't want anyone to put down money on our product until you feel completely comfortable. What you test is what you get.

So if you have experience, good or bad, please let this person know. I can't believe that all of the BOL community uses just PCi at this point. And don't post anonomously so people can see you aren't a competitor just trying to sell your own product. Please be a legitimate customer that has experienced our product first hand.

Sincerely,

Leonard Ryan
President
QuestSoft

Anon, I would suggest if you'd like honest answers that first, you consider regestering and posting this in the bankers private forum. We all love our vendors But sometimes we like to talk quietly about our experiences rather than in the public rooms. You'd get much more honest answers.

Secondly, if you're not interested in registering, consider posting this in the CRA threads instead of here. You will see more users who work with the programs hit that area than here quite often.

Thirdly (did I limit myself to two?) No, not everyone uses PCI. There are different programs that work at different levels of value to different size banks, or bank needs (is that different enough?) I am a $2 billion bank, with a closely managed CRA/HMDA reporting program. (I hate committees) I use a particular program that I feel meets my needs best, but this does not exclude other programs from being of great value to a different bank. You'll really get a better perspective by sharing some small details about yourself. Bank Size, Average Loans Booked Annually, Outsourcing of any of the reporting (ie geocoding), mapping needs, etc.

Give one of these three ideas a shot, or all of them heh heh I think you'll have a better chance of success in a response.

We are consultants to banks on CRA and HMDA. We don't sell compliance software. We have a number of clients who have used the QuestSoft HMDA Relief product and all of them have indicated they are very satisfied with the product and the service provided by QuestSoft.

"HMDA Relief" and Questsoft's geocoding process are well-developed and compete well against other products, especially the FFIEC version.

"CRA Relief" is newer in the market. It appears to be built on the same foundation and offers the same user-friendly style as other Questsoft products. I would not recommend it for very-large-asset national banks.

We currently use HMDA/CRA Relief. We have been very satisfied. The CRA Relief is newer and there are a few things that they are working to upgrade, but the service has been very good.

We use Centrax. I agree with anon. They're a wonderful group to work with....very knowledgeable with respect to the regulations...they're not just pedaling software.

We use HMDA relief and it is great. The software takes about an hour to learn very well, without a manual. Support is outstanding. During the final HMDA days last year, the company was opened almost 24/7, even the entire weekend to accommodate the customers. We had an issue, sent the file to them and within an hour Questsoft had everything figured out.

There are several canned reports which more than satisfied management.

The ease of use is the best part. Ours is integrated with a loan processing system, and we can geocode from the LPS or from the software.

We use absolutely nothing...how sad...except the wonderful Pivot table bjp gave me...

Our institution bought the HMDA relief portion of the Questsoft product almost a year ago. During the initial phone conversation with Questsoft we were told their product information reads LaserPro information -- we couldn't quite believe what we were hearing, so asked the question again, 'Questsoft does indeed read and work with the LaserPro program?' and was told YES. Based mainly on this information, and the fact we were told that this software would also check for the correct geo code with the address input into LaserPro, we ordered, and paid for, the HMDA relief portion of the Questsoft product. Here we are at the end of October and still have not been able to get the LaserPro information to be read by the Questsoft product as we were told in the very beginning. After numerous calls to Questsoft, we recently were told that this initial statement is not true -- at the time we purchased the software it was not, at that time, able to read LaserPro's information -- we were mislead (or so we feel). We have spent much more money than what we paid for to get the product in man hours trying to get the two to read each other. In my opinion, if you use LaserPro for any HMDA or CRA information in your intstitution, I would not purchase anything from Questsoft until they have figured out how to have the two read each other. I would not want any other institution to go through what we have -- it is not worth the money you will have paid for to get the product. We have used the FFIEC software in the past and will more than likely be using that again this year just to meet the reporting requirements and deadlines, as we do not have the time to figure out Questsofts answer to our problem. If there are any other institutions out there that use LaserPro and are using the Questsoft product with success, I would love to hear from you!

Dear Anonymous,

If you would be so kind as to email me personally at len@questsoft.com, I will make sure whatever problem is resolved. Thank you for your willingness to post.

Interfacing with LaserPro is certainly an interesting experience. Their agreements restrict companies from sending us their databases to test. In addition, they have been reducing staff so getting changes to interfaces to accommodate new 2004 HMDA and the fair lending extensions that are being recommended in the legal community are difficult to schedule.

To resolve this, we did hire their Senior Training Manager, Carey Aimone (carey@questsoft.com), who has 13 years experience with the product and has trained over 1/2 of all current LaserPro customers. We have been told by one of the two customers that have requested a more direct interface that we are very close to accomplishing our goal of importing not only the HMDA and CRA fields, but almost all Fair Lending fields directly into the software. However, before we can make this available to all customers, we need to get the approval of Harland and receive guidance on what they wish to charge you for the right to use the interface. Your assistance to help them determine a reasonable fee would be greatly appreciated and probably speed-up deployment.

In addition, if you send us your HMDA export and an export of your subject property addresses, we will be happy to do the work for you. Again, I look forward to your personal email.

Sincerely,

Leonard Ryan
President
QuestSoft

We have been using HMDA Relief for the last three years, and I find both the software and the customer support to be excellent. I was able to submit the 2003 HMDA report on January 13!

You can have HMDA Relief--when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.

Original poster here - I am a registered user but am posting anon to avoid "stepping on toes" so to speak. I am a one person department. I do all the HMDA and CRA from start to finish, and we are a just barely a large bank. What I am looking for is a program that will pull the HMDA and CRA (call report) info directly from our loan system so that I can spend my time proofing instead of loading. Right now I'm so bogged down in manually loading each and every single entry into the FFIEC software that I barely have time to check behind myself, much less go in search of those ever-elusive CRA credits that might fall outside the call report. I've looked at Centrax, but their promo material didn't give me enough detail to make a well-informed decision. I'm also looking at a couple of the higher-end programs but am pretty sure management is going to choke on the sticker price. The QuestSoft products appear to be functional and affordable, but I wanted to get some experienced opinions about their performance before I give my sales pitch to management.

We consult for banks and have a number of clients who have used HMDA Relief and are very happy with it. I've looked at the system and it does have some nice functionality and the pricing is very good.

I have HMDA Relief and I think it is great! I had no experience in HMDA reporting when I came to my current position and I was able to accomplish all of the reporting (12,000 loans) with no formal training on the system. It is very easy to use and you can file your report right from the software. The support staff there has also been very responsive. The HMDA Relief help desk is one of the few places that you can call and a human being answers the telephone, usually by the third ring!!

I have been using Questsoft to report HMDA data for several years now and I find it to be a very good product. The cost is reasonable and the staff is always very helpful and courteous. I had no formal training as far as HMDA data or Questsoft HMDA software and had no problems using it. It is a very user friendly product. If you have any questions or something you don't understand, just call them and they are more than happy to assist you in a prompt manner.