Rice
Madison County Recorder Matt Rice is encouraging citizens to become familiar with a new technology that will help streamline the process of recording documents and help to make his office more efficient.
Instructions for electronic recording or "e-recording" will be explained during a public training workshop on Tuesday, July 12, at 10 a.m. in the Nelson "Nellie" Hagnauer County Board Room.
In a press release issued last week, Rice said his office is partnering with three different e‐recording vendors to provide access to this new technology. Simplifile, a national E‐Recording vendor based in Utah, will be offering training on its system in the workshop on Tuesday.
Rice said that initially the focus of the e‐recording initiative will be for customers who file mortgages, as well as mortgage assignments, releases and modifications. He is encouraging local real estate attorneys, mortgage bankers and title companies to become more familiar with the technology. Although, the service will more greatly benefit customers from across the United States who interact with his office from greater distances.
"This technology not only streamlines the process, but it helps to get the document recorded more quickly for the customer and also reduces staff time," said Rice.
Traditional recording of documents includes time intensive steps for scanning and data entry, as well as for the financial transactions and communication through the postal service. E‐ recording reduces this lengthy process by reducing document delivery times and order processing from days to literally seconds. E‐recording reduces time, cost, errors and the potential for fraud in the process, while improving productivity and customer satisfaction.
According to the Property Records Industry Association, the e‐recording technology was first implemented nearly a decade ago and is now used in more than 470 counties in 34 different states.
"The result is a quicker transaction for our customers ‐ that is just as safe and secure," said Rice. "This initiative represents the first step in a major technological upgrade of the Madison County Recorder's Office."
E‐recording also reduces the large amount of paper clutter between the point‐of‐transaction and the scanning and indexing of a document, making it a 'greener' and more environmentally‐ sound process.
Rice acknowledges that this new technology is not cut out for all of his customers, which is why the traditional process of recording mortgages, and the many other non‐mortgage‐related documents received by his office, will continue.
Madison County Board Member Jean Myers, who chairs the board's Information Technology Committee, said Rice has more than 60 people registered for Tuesday's training.
"There is already good interest in this new technology and I anticipate that it will be well‐ utilized as more people become familiar and comfortable with using the Internet to communicate with the county," Myers said.
For more information or to register for Tuesday's training workshop, contact the Madison County Recorder's Office at (618) 296‐4475.