This is part one of a three-part series.

As the dust settles in the Moscone Center convention hall and the 2008 MBA Annual Conference attendees make their way back home, one question stands out in their minds: Did I accomplish what I came here for? While attendees often have a variety of goals, this year the focus was resolving the difficult challenges facing firms in the industry, answering questions around future revenues/expenses, and learning how vendor technology can help fight these battles.

In short, this conference focused almost entirely on staying out of the red and using technology to get back in the black. The ever-present talks of origination strategies and technologies leveraged among the prominent movers in that market were replaced by discussions of servicing and processing concerns, next steps for the GSEs, and how the Treasury Department’s Troubled Asset Recovery Program (TARP) will affect business.

Is it clear to all of us that the mortgage industry faces a real challenge of becoming profitable NOW and in the FUTURE. The credit markets are almost in an illiquid state and industry leaders know they must quickly re-position themselves and get lending practices back on the profitable track before it’s too late.

In a survey conducted by Overture at this year’s conference, lenders and vendors alike noted the two overarching issues that will impact the success of their business in the near-term:

1) product/services they choose to offer

2) stabilization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

As the industry looks to resolve these concerns, respondents overwhelmingly expressed a desire to make the use of technology a high priority in the near-term. While it is uncertain how long the stabilization of the former GSEs will take, it is apparent that what the market needs now is data transparency, consistency, and clarity - three things that decisioning technology can fully accomplish. Industry players must closely evaluate their business operations and figure out how to leverage technology to position their products and services to achieve these critical goals.

In our next entry, we will focus on how Overture was able to present unique solutions to these issues and give attendees a new perspective on how to overcome their challenges through the use of technology.