Great Western Picks Pacific Bell Service to Speed Mortgages

Great Western Financial Corp. plans to use an electronic commerce service from Pacific Bell to eliminate paperwork and accelerate the granting of mortgages.

The service, which is to provide a series of enhanced intranet communications options, is one of several that Pacific Bell plans to launch formally next month. It is designed to speed the exchange of documents among lenders, appraisers, and title companies.

"This is E-mail with an attitude," said Steven T. Kennedy, product manager at Pacific Bell.

He said the service would use Pacific Bell's telecommunications network and would be more secure than traditional electronic mail.

The California Baby Bell company, which bills itself as a one-stop shop for managing company intranets, said it hopes its new services will let companies turn their internal data networks into "extranets" that reach customers, suppliers, and other outside parties.

When all parties to a financial transaction are operating on a single network, Pacific Bell can offer services like registered E-mail with return receipts. In addition, software used by real estate appraisers can be customized to send E-mail without having to print or reformat a computerized document.

"The fact that we are able to get immediate status reports on all the items that are open" is a great benefit, said Tom Gonzales, a consultant to Great Western and owner of a software company called Business Management Training.

"You know where your orders are," he said.

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