Eagle’s goal is to become a paperless company – an ambitious goal for an industry that has traditionally centered on the verification and exchange of documents. By watching technology trends and listening to its customers, Eagle has developed several initiatives the last few years to accomplish this.

Traditionally, closing document requests were received via fax and finished documents delivered via overnight courier due to the need for confidentiality. By mid-1995, technology made it possible for Eagle to provide services that allowed the company to send documents to their clients electronically, using Eagle’s proprietary software called ERPS (Eagle Remote Print System) which utilized a modem hooked directly to the clients’ printer. Some clients even ordered and received documents via e-mail. The documents were accompanied by a printing application, which automatically printed out the documents at the client’s location.

However, Eagle’s ERPS proved to be unreliable due to problems with electronic transmission, such as phone line problems and common modem "hand-shaking" difficulties. Therefore Eagle began looking for a new means of file transfer. The popular PC Anywhere was ruled out because it didn’t provide the privacy and security the mortgage industry required. Eagle began looking for an easy to implement, secure solution that would allow it to communicate with clients with confidentiality, yet use the convenience of the Internet. The company investigated several solutions, finally discovering DropChute Enterprise and DropChute Pro from Hilgraeve, Inc. DropChute products provide Eagle with the privacy their customers need, plus the ease of use and flexibility to meet their customers'.

Customers send their document orders to Eagle through the company’s own document order program, WinENTRY, which features a computerized form for ease of use and interfaces with the client’s processing software to eliminate re-keying customer information. DropChute Pro, Hilgraeve’s instant file delivery software, runs in the background. This enables the customer to click a button within WinENTRY and use DropChute Pro to send the document order directly to Eagle.

To automate the receipt and fulfillment of orders within their office, Eagle worked with Hilgraeve to customize the application. They utilized Inbox Automation, a feature of DropChute Enterprise that enables the company’s document processors to automatically send the files to Eagle’s order processing system.

In addition, finished Document Packages are printed to a file in DropChute Enterprise’s AutoDelivery folders, which in turn automatically deliver the file (500k- 800k in size) to their customers who have dedicated Internet connections.

Since most of Eagle’s customers do not have full-time connections to the Internet, DropChute Enterprise queues the printable files and sends an automatic e-mail notification. As soon as the customer connects to the Internet, DropChute Enterprise sends the files automatically. Those customers

without Internet access can call in to Eagle directly, since DropChute Enterprise accepts connections via modem as well as the Internet. Once the connection is made, DropChute Enterprise sends the printable files directly to customers’ printers.

Using DropChute Pro, Eagles’ customers enjoy the same security and reliability found in DropChute Enterprise. DropChute makes a direct connection through the Internet, without going through any Internet servers that can affect the reliability of a connection. This direct connection is particularly useful when sending large files.

A second Eagle custom-written program called "Download Manager" accommodates Eagle customers who need to send the completed documents directly to title companies or settlement agents and attorneys. Download Manager incorporates the file transfer capabilities of DropChute Pro, providing on-the-fly encryption, virus protection and unparalleled reliability. If a transmission accidentally halts, DropChute’s crash recovery automatically resumes the transmission where it left off.