As part of our success stories, we met with Gabriele Auge for an interview.

A partner from the very beginning: LBBW

LBBW describes itself as a “medium-sized universal bank” and supports its customers as a “sparring partner and companion”. They have been working with on-geo products for almost 20 years.

We spoke with Gabriele Auge, property valuation expert CIS HypZert (F,M) and responsible for LORA at LBBW, about how this collaboration works.

Ms Auge, you have been working with on-geo since 2009 and use various products, including LORA Enterprise, data.board, Sales Client and geoport. You have also contributed to the joint development of special interfaces such as the ADFS connection. What was the greatest challenge in this process?

With the ADFS connection, we can access LORA Sales Client and Enterprise via single sign-on within our banking environment and have placed our user administration on a digital footing. The greatest challenge was the large number of parties involved — LBBW, IT, on-geo — and the associated high coordination effort. Our institution uses a broad range of the LORA family. In addition to LORA full valuation reports, short valuation reports and value indications, we use the data.board analysis tool, geoport sidebar research data, LORA Portfolio and the LORA Mobile inspection app, and of course LORA Sign. We also rely on inspections carried out by on-geo.

What matters most to us is that the services and products of on-geo GmbH “go hand in hand”. For example, with data.board we can generate real-time analyses of LORA valuation and process data, or transfer research products delivered via the geoport sidebar directly into the valuation report with a click — saving us from manually copying information.

With on-geo we have found a partner who always responds to current customer needs, as demonstrated by the newly offered products and services in the ESG area (renovation roadmap for buildings, etc.).

You are already performing a deviation analysis using data.board between the value indication and the subsequent first market and mortgage lending value report for the same property. What advantages does this approach provide?

LBBW prepares value indications to provide our customers, for example, with a well-founded loan offer at an early stage of financing, with correspondingly stable terms.

To make use of the relevant regulatory opening clauses, it is essential to have an overview of later deviations from the final valuation and to identify the reasons for these deviations. With the deviation analysis, we can identify at the press of a button the relevant market/mortgage lending value reports for any chosen time period for which a value indication had previously been prepared, and display any differences in key valuation parameters at a glance. Using this tool provides us with immense relief and eliminates the need for further manual Excel analyses.

The greatest advantage is that we obtain a detailed analysis of the valuation data showing the deviations. This deviation analysis proves valuable in the lending process, where data monitoring is established. Another advantage is the “lessons learned” effect, which leads to transparency and validation within the process.

LBBW already offers a wide range of services. Are there any concrete plans or projects for the future, and how could on-geo support you in these?

We want and need to continually develop and optimise our processes. Despite significant progress in recent years, we still see great potential in digitalisation.

We are therefore working closely with on-geo GmbH on a concept for integrating digital land register information into our banking systems, as this data is required not only by valuation experts but is often manually entered in parallel into several IT systems during the financing process.

In addition, there are current topics such as ESG and EU taxonomy that are occupying the banking sector. It will be important to create sufficient interfaces between LORA and our core banking system so that all information is ultimately transferred digitally and automatically, i.e. without media discontinuities.

You have been an on-geo customer for almost 20 years. What do you wish for in the next ten years of collaboration?

For on-geo, we are a partner from the very beginning. We hope that on-geo will continue to address current topics, keep digital advancement consistently in focus and develop innovative ideas.

We are very curious to see how artificial intelligence — ChatGPT and the like — will change the valuation world and how on-geo will integrate such a medium into the LORA product portfolio.

Thank you for this insight!