Mercury Network 3.0 - November 19, 2020 Update

This update (the final update to Mercury Network in 2020) contains enhancements within Mercury Network. See the blog post here.

New Features

• Expanded order details in document templates
  We heard from many of you that it would be useful to include additional order information in the templates you use to automatically create engagement letters and RFPs. To enable this, you can now add more order fields to the template such as the borrower's name and one or both contact methods, the appointment contact type, name, and one or both contact methods, plus the Other Ref #.
• More options for automating your appraisal review
  A lot of lenders use the CU score from the Submission Summary Report (SSR) to help determine what level of review an appraisal should receive. For a long time, a popular option has been to route appraisals with a CU score equal to or higher than x to a more stringent review (when x = a configurable value). Now, you have the option to route appraisals with a CU score equal to or lower than x. This is based on feedback from some who want to route lower-risk appraisals to a faster or more cursory review.

Mercury Network Payments

• Appraiser onboarding is underway
  We have begun onboarding appraisers for Mercury Network Payments ahead of the full launch of this solution in 2021. With Mercury Network Payments, appraisers will receive payments from their clients for completed appraisal work directly in their bank account. Since this payment is triggered by an order's status, there's no need to wait for someone to manually "cut a check" or snail-mail delivery. Plus, appraisers will always have a digital record of payments received so account reconciliation is a snap. By enrolling now, appraisers will be ready to receive these payments when the full suite of features is launched early in 2021.
• Appraisers: Ready to enroll?
  For appraisers who want to enroll or learn more, here's more info:
  • FAQ
  • How to enroll
  • Quick walkthrough (get enrolled in less than 2 minutes)
• Lenders: Looking for more information about Mercury Network Payments?
  This feature won't roll out to lenders until early 2021, but there's more information about this upcoming feature here:
  • FAQ
  • Start automating borrower payments and your appraisal accounting workflow today

Retiring "XSites"

• Over the past 2 releases, we have mentioned the steps we are taking towards retiring XSites, which used the the soon-to-be-deprecated Adobe Flash. That day is here!
  As of today, you will no longer be able to access what used to be your 'XSite' (found at domainname.vmpxsites.com). Many of you probably never visited the site unless you needed to update permissions related to the VMP Client order or to update your company info displayed on client invoices. We previously moved the permissions into Mercury Network so you can access them more easily. Now, we have made updates throughout Mercury Network to reflect the removal of XSites and ensure there is no disruption to your or your client's workflow. Here are the changes you may notice:
  • Company info displayed on your invoice was moved from step 2 of the Wizard into the VMP Client order's Automatic Invoice Settings.
  • You and your clients will be redirected to either the Client Portal or Business Management from any bookmarked URL which pointed to the XSite. If you are redirected to Business Management but have not logged in, you will be prompted to enter your login before you're taken to the relevant Business Management location.
  • The term XSite has been renamed across Mercury Network; for example, instead of seeing View XSite order you will now see View Client order.
• We are also upgrading security features related to Document Attached email notifications sent to VMP Clients and Mercury Network users. You and your clients must be logged in to the correct account in order to download order documents. When clicking a link in one of these notifications that was sent before today, VMP Clients and Mercury Network users will be directed to the VMP Client portal. Notifications sent after the release will correctly point you and your client to the appropriate login.
• Additionally, the old version of the Make a Payment page (used by borrowers to submit their credit card info) is now obsolete because it depended upon Adobe Flash. All customers have been upgraded to the new version which is ADA color compliant, includes mobile capabilities and uses improved security features.
• The new Make a Payment page will now work correctly for AMCs who send the link to borrowers manually. The borrower will now be able to search for, find, and pay for their order, as intended.

VMP Client Order (previously XSite Order)

• There were cases when orders with a missing payment method would not expire the assignment as intended. This has been fixed.