"In a distressed-asset situation, the board members of a corporation will be working with asset managers, banks, the Small Business Administration, vendors and so on, and the resulting paper trails are cumbersome and very inefficient, hence this product," says Steve Van Eerden, software manager at Namco. "AssetTrail is groupware that allows different organizations to participate in an operation and leave a complete record of all communications."

There's nothing terribly high-tech about AssetTrail. In fact, at first glance, it looks almost retro: a sophisticated version of the message boards that have been on the Internet since the 1980s. But it may be the most efficient way to carry out and document actions on distressed assets, not to mention storing the records afterwards. Considering the savings it could generate, many users might consider it cost-effective--and certainly, it nearly eliminates the huge stack of paperwork associated with such proceedings.

Namco describes AssetTrail as comprehensive one-stop financial tracking that allows complete communication, management and financial control of all necessary information related to any type of asset, including real estate, personal property and financial instruments. It's an ASP-based system that can be accessed, updated and managed from any location.

The complete package consists of five elements. Asset Tracker allows the user to place orders for services such as locks, repairs, appraisals, cleanup, security, and inspections, manages and archives e-mails to everyone involved in the transaction.

Asset Communicator is in charge of sending e-mails to all participants; distributing them via various permission levels (the administrator create up to five different levels); and communicating with portfolio risk managers such as Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and HUD.

Asset Reports displays information such as the real-time status of the asset, to-date expenses, appointment schedules and services ordered, all related correspondence and complete transaction history.

Asset Marketer allows the marketing of the asset by exporting an electronic file or uploading to a third-party Website, such as a real estate company or auctioneer.

Finally, once all activities have been completed and the file is closed, Asset Archive provides clients with a CD-ROM (protected with a secure lock-key) containing a complete record of all information pertaining to the asset.

"The message area documents every single action," says Van Eerden, "and includes general and secure information, primarily in text form. The secure information comes from a secure, encrypted location and is on public display only for an instant. The moment the file is delivered to your browser, it's destroyed in the public area, and once you leave that screen, it's gone from your own browser as well.

"By means of pull-down boxes," he continues, "you can tag a message to indicate a task assigned to a specific person. That person is then automatically notified by e-mail in addition to the message on the board. A calendar box can be used to draw attention to a date, and if the message deals with an expense, the amount can be placed in an expense box to make it more noticeable to the reader."

The integrity of the messages is guaranteed simply: No message can be edited once posted. If you need to make a correction to a message, you have to post a new one.

"Our users were mainly banks, at first, and they used AssetTrail to communicate with attorneys and other banks," explains Van Eerden. "Now, other organizations use it, too: mortgage companies, government agencies. For example, this system lets the SBA approve or disapprove an activity before it happens.

"The typical projects are problem loans," he says. "The time lag between identification of the problem and foreclosure is invariably costly, and this product helps to cut that time down."

"We license the client for the use of the server," explains company director Kim Hagen. "Steve co-handles the setup and the security training. It costs $25,000 per year, plus a per-case charge of $285. That includes a day's training and delivery of the CD at the end of each case. If your bank has several branches, they can all use the same account."

"The string of messages relating to each case will remain on the Internet for 12 months before it's archived onto the CD," Hagen continues. "And that one CD represents all the paperwork you'd see piled up on a desk, before you had this product."

Readers can contact Joseph Dobrian at [email protected]