Featured news — posted October 5, 2004

The new Aurora generation of Apex — an all-new version 3.0 — is unique to the appraisal profession and is truly a custom version that Apex and a la mode worked on together. To our knowledge, two separate companies in the appraisal industry have never teamed up to make the appraiser's work environment completely seamless between their two respective programs. a la mode's custom version of Apex (version 3.0), which only a la mode customers will get, is even using Aurora's new look and style so you won't feel like you're having to jump from one program to another. Since the new version of Apex has been almost completely rewritten in new code, the Aurora engine won't support the older, or legacy, versions of Apex.

That means — we need to emphasize, and make you clear on this — you will have to buy the new version of Apex if you want to use Apex in Aurora. The new version of Apex is set at $299 [NOTE: When first published, we erroneously reported the price as $399 — Ed.]. We're working together to bring you special intro pricing on single copies and also an a la mode only network version. So stay tuned here to learn more. There are a ton of reasons why it's worth it, even beyond the seamless integration with Aurora.

This new version of Apex has been under development for three years, and in those three years they've been able to add some really outstanding features. Like Undo, a feature that does what it says it does, letting you "undo" up to your last five actions with a single keystroke. It operates a lot like the feature of the same name in Microsoft Word™ or Excel™ — and it got a standing ovation (no kidding) when Apex previewed it at a recent seminar in Colorado.

There are literally dozens more new features to look forward to that will save you work, time and money:

1. "Draw First Mode" — You can now begin sketching immediately, without needing to "Define an Area" first. When drawing a shape and it ends at the Point of Beginning (POB), Apex will now ask you if you want to make this shape a Defined Area or just keep "doodling." This is great for new users since so many appraisers have been "trained" to use the [F4] Define Area method for years and years. Nevertheless, when surveyed, existing users overwhelmingly thought this concept would be a timesaver.
2. "Random Mode Drawing" — You'll be able to draw random lines depicting structures, (perimeter "Area" lines, interior walls, "call out" lines, whatever) in any order as you would on regular graph paper, without the program attempting to make them into a Defined Area. You can then go back and select a series of lines which make up an Area for calculations. This was a very popular item among testers and something really geared toward mobile use. You can simply sketch lines in a sort of "ad hoc" mode, depicting elements as they come to them while traversing the subject. This has already been colloquially dubbed "bar napkin sketching," which gives you a little bit of the flavor of what the feature is going for. It's going to make it easier to perform free-form sketching in the field you can make "official" later.
3. Suspend Area/Continue Area — You can now "Define an Area" as you would traditionally, but also if you want to add notes, draw lines not included in calculations, add Symbols, etc. and then continue what you were doing, you can. This is sort of a "Pause and add details, then continue what you were doing" tool. Previous versions of Apex always popped up a dialog when you tried to do this, and users overwhelmingly wanted to be able to "multitask" the way this new feature will allow you to. For example, if you wanted to add text like "Cracked Slab," previous versions of Apex essentially said "You must close the Current Area" before trying to do something like this. No more!
4. Draw nested Areas — You can now start drawing an Area as you would traditionally, then if you come to say, a porch or garage, simply Define another Area, complete it, and when it closes, the new version of Apex returns back to the Area you were drawing. This was lifted from a very popular feature of MobileSketch.

Want to see a screen shot preview? It's a few weeks old already, but it gives you a good "taste" of what we're talking about. Click here for a preview.

Aurora, like all it's WinTOTAL predecessors, doesn't support old versions of software because we write new code for new versions. That's part of continuing our tradition to keep appraisers on the cutting edge of technology. Because the new code written in both Aurora and Apex version 3.0, coming this November, creates such a tight integration some of the new Apex features won't be available until Aurora is released. One example is Aurora's new forms engine will work with Apex 3.0 to transfer room counts automatically into your forms. But Apex version 3.0 will be available very soon so you can begin to benefit from its new features and drawing enhancements as soon as possible.

Even though the new, custom a la mode version of Apex will be released before Aurora, it'll work flawlessly and seamlessly with WinTOTAL. You'll gain an exciting and easy new interface and many new features. However, the full benefits of the new Apex will be seen and realized when Aurora, the new version of WinTOTAL ships in coming months. The integration is extremely tight between the two latest versions and each works best together, like transferring room counts from Apex back to WinTOTAL's room count grid on the major form. Development wise, we're spending our sketching integration resources on everything new. When Aurora ships, we will not be supporting the old version of Apex within it. We simply can't.

There's a lot to look forward to both in Aurora and the new version 3.0 of Apex, and we hope you're as excited as we are when you see them in action!

Why make it easier on AVMs and data miners? We don't

Occasionally, especially these days when appraisal software companies are buddying up to AVMs — see here for a description of how ACI's Forms Server integrates with AVMs, and here to see how Bradford Technologies is teaming up with Veros Software's VeroVALUE AVM — we are questioned about (or accused of, depending on your point of view) WinTOTAL reports being mined for data by AVM providers.

The issue of data mining is something we take very seriously, and we've led the fight to protect all appraisers. That's why we provided encryption for WinTOTAL Athena's files (so lenders can't mine native files like they can with other vendors), and WinTOTAL Aurora will have the same rock-solid protection. Also, that's why we built the Mercury Desktop/Network system — soon to be XSites Order Manager and the XSites Network — in the first place.

The Network functions as a "gatekeeper" for you, so you always have to "grant permission" for a file to be converted to or read by any other program. In the WinTOTAL plug-in to the XSites Network, you get to see exactly what data you are and are not providing, and you get to "turn off" portions of it if you so choose. That way, you can provide tracking data only if you want, and no comps.

What happens when you send your report to a given client? Some of our partners use data extracted from reports for review purposes. We have reviewed their management practices to assure ourselves this is really the extent of it. But even if you're suspicious, consider this inescapable fact: The data available on the open market — from assessors, MLS's, AIRD, and so on — is good enough to build an AVM already and it's cheaper to just buy access to one of the off-the-shelf AVMs than it is to build your own using your own data, if you're a lender or management company.

Cold comfort, maybe, to those of our customers who consider AVMs "the enemy," but both you and we are at least doing our part not to participate. AVMs indeed are being marketed aggressively as acceptable substitutes to human appraisals. They're not, for reasons we've gone to great lengths in this space and in the press to discuss, but undeniably they're trying to be. That's why we see taking appraisers' money and funneling it into AVM companies as so absurd.

You shouldn't "fear" AVMs as competition — we certainly don't — but you need to prepare for them to be marketed as competition. Aggressively marketing yourself — something most appraisers don't like to do — is one great way to do that. Another very effective way is to not pay your money to AVM companies, either directly or through your appraisal software provider. Why make it easier on them?

We are what we are — we invest millions in developing the very best, most useful services and tools for appraisers to be as efficient as possible, and market themselves as successfully as possible as better alternatives to AVMs and data aggregation services. We do it because the more money you make, the more business you get, the more money and business we get. It's really that simple.

If we undermine you, or fund those who are trying to, we're undermining ourselves. Smaller, less profitable companies sometimes get desperate for the immediate payoff and don't see the long-term ramifications of the things they do. That's true in any business, not just appraisal software development. But we didn't get to be this big doing shortsighted things like that.