It has been a long time since I have felt this optimistic. The weight of the COVID 19 pandemic is easing as cases are down and vaccinations are rolling out. March Madness has returned along with warmer weather, the crack of the baseball bat, green grass…. life is getting good again! Life turned upside down just a little over a year ago, but it has certainly seemed longer. As we emerge from this year long nightmare, did we learn anything? On the personal level, I learned to slow down and enjoy the simpler things in life. I read books again – digitally of course. Rather than weekend dinners and movies out, it was having a socially distanced cookout on the outdoor firepit with next door neighbors I hadn’t connected with in some time. I learned the meaning of binge-watching various Amazon Prime and Netflix original series. I did home projects that I had been putting off for over 20 years! Sure, there were things I missed that I am ready to return as soon as restrictions are lifted, but I was grateful for the time I was able to slow down and enjoy life. Now that I am fully vaccinated, I am ready to return to some level of normalcy but also wanting to balance the return with the other things I enjoyed during the lockdown. In the end, I spent less money and saved more and that was another positive outcome!
As we spring, slowly, from this lockdown and pandemic in the coming few months, I hope you take stock of the positive impacts that resulted from this once in lifetime (I hope) event. On the professional front, we all learned how to work and do business remotely and embrace the tools that supported this remote work and collaboration between both employees and customers. Digital technology emerged the winner out of the pandemic. There has been no shortage of new startups and fintech solutions emerging overnight to fill this growing need. We were fortunate to have been one of those older well-established companies long before the pandemic created this growing demand. Our customers were able to continue their daily business working remotely and while accessing digital image loan files and processing and servicing new customers and existing commercial and agricultural loan renewals in the Square 1 Credit Suite.
In addition to supporting the need for remote work in a digital environment, Square 1 Credit Suite has always emphasized the need to work more efficiently. In 2020, we released our new SET Reader product to read data from electronically filed individual, partnership, and corporate tax returns and supporting schedules into the credit analysis and spreads of our financial analysis area of the Square 1 Credit suite. This is a tremendous time saver for credit analysts and lenders enabling an increased focus on the actual meaning of the numbers and trends associated with your borrower. Per the IRS, over 90% of tax returns are filed electronically, which means a strong majority of tax returns filed by your customers can be read by the SET Reader.
Later this month, we will be releasing our own Square 1 Portal to support the secure collaboration between customer and lending institution of loan documents. This will further support the front-end digital management and efficiency of the collection and management of documents to originate and close loans.
May 4th and 5th is our virtual user conference in which many of you have already registered. We will be premiering the Square 1 Portal at this event. In addition to a host of other important product developments and updates, we will continue to preview the recently releases to the SET Reader to demonstrate to those that have not already licensed this product, how quick and easy it is to accurately read and populate tax return spreads for all individual and business tax forms and their schedules, saving large amounts of time in the loan origination or annual servicing of your customers.
Enjoy your summer!
Thank you for your business.
Duane Lankard
Suntell CEO and Founder
Makers of the Square 1 Credit Suite
