Ellie Mae gets married.

Ellie Mae Inc., the provider of innovative software and services for the mortgage industry, announced a strategic alliance with a la mode, the provider of desktop and web-based technology for the appraisal industry. According to the agreement, Ellie Mae will provide direct integration from its three loan origination systems--Encompass, Genesis 2000 and Contour--into the actual desk top applications that appraisers use, by building a custom Ellie Mac plug-in for a la mode's XSite Order Manager product and by building new custom facilities within Ellie Mac's suite of LOS products. Through this collaboration, Encompass, Genesis and Contour users will be able to place orders to their appraisers, right through their LOS, into the appraisal form-filling software that resides on the appraisers' desktops. The order data will automatically populate the appraiser's system, regardless of its brand, significantly reducing data entry time, errors and other points of "friction" in the current manual process.

On-going status of the appraisal assignment will also be pushed back to Ellie Mac clients via a la mode's XSites Network. As appraisals are completed, the documents will then be automatically transferred back from the appraiser's XSite Order Manager into Encompass, Genesis and Contour.