“We were wondering how we were going to do the abstracts,” says Anderson. “It seemed to us that they were time intensive, labor intensive and redundant. We considered what our offshore data entry firm was doing for us already: looking at the documents, determining who the grantors and grantees were, locating legal descriptions, and adding recording dates, filing dates, and document numbers. Then we thought: An abstract is basically a recompilation of that information. In addition to identifying bits and pieces, you’re retyping the document in the format required for an abstract. So we said, ‘They should be able to do that.’ And that started the wheels turning.”

First Dakota Title’s experience with offshore data entry began in 1989, before the company opened its doors. Anderson had averted a financially burdensome late start up by hiring a company called HDEP International to help create his backplant. A Honolulu based firm with data entry facilities in Manila, Philippines, HDEP took responsibility for the entry of 600,000 records—about half of First Dakota Title’s entire two county project. Anderson was pleased with the speed, accuracy, and motivation of the Manila operators.

Since then, the company has continued to rely on offshore outsourcing for an expanding array of products and services.

"Rumors of the American white collar sector's death are premature," said Prashant Kothari, Clark's fellow speaker at the "Benefits and Pitfalls of Outsourcing" workshop. The U.S. has fewer than 700,000 employees in India, compared to the 140 million people employed in the U.S., Kothari, the president of outsourcing firm String Information Services, said.

"Outsourcing is not new to the mortgage industry," Kothari pointed out, saying that domestic outsourcing has been around for some time.

Vendor management companies for mortgage brokers are experiencing explosive growth because of the popularity of outsourcing, he said. Information technology is the most commonly outsourced function, and India is the country where these jobs most often go, according to Kothari.

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There were no layoffs as a result of the outsourcing, Clark said. Employees were migrated into new jobs instead.

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"First and foremost, top management has to buy into offshoring," Kothari told the audience. "Everyone must buy in. Introduce it slowly." Speaking of his company, he said, "We haven't replaced any workers."

Title production has been outsourced for some time now, but is there more you can do to increase efficiency? Have you considered post-closing tasks? Your competition has! Title agents and settlement service providers have begun outsourcing recording, post closing quality control, lien releases, policy production, and more. Join our panel of vendors and industry customers to learn how you can take advantage of the latest trends in outsourcing.

Fifty-one percent of those US adults surveyed said that they did not want a US organization to send sensitive personal information such as social security or driver's license numbers to a local company in another country. Opposition was higher when it came to sharing even more sensitive information: 60 percent didn't want their credit or debit card account numbers shared with an offshore company; 64 percent opposed having their employee records shared; 73 percent opposed having their banking or home mortgage information shared; and a whopping 83 percent opposed having their health records shared with a local company in another country.

"That so many Americans are concerned about sensitive personal data going overseas isn't surprising given the growing threat of identity theft and general misperceptions about outsourcing itself," said White & Case partner Steve Betensky, who regularly advises companies on outsourcing issues. "But what makes this so challenging for US companies is that while consumers don't want their information sent oversees, 73 percent of US adults surveyed also said they are unwilling to pay higher prices for products or services if that would ensure that their personal information would not be outsourced offshore."

Betensky adds that the problem is further compounded by the fact that 82 percent of survey respondents felt that new US regulations were needed to ensure that offshore companies had adequate security and privacy safeguards in place -- despite the fact that many industries such as healthcare and financial services are already strongly regulated.