Why Cornerstone Network chose Acre
About Cornerstone
Cornerstone Network is a well-established mortgage and protection network that helps advisors deliver outstanding client outcomes through Business Intelligence and Management Information, as well as providing best-in-class technology to the network.
For this case study we spoke to Chris Caulfield-Jones, Head of Risk and Compliance at Cornerstone Network, to find out how Acre is helping Cornerstone Network advisors save time, reduce risk, and unlock new revenue opportunities.
Cornerstone decided to make the switch to Acre because they were looking for a technology partner that could deliver on three main areas:
Better integrated services
“A developing shortfall of our previous system was advisors not really being able to access integrations to other revenue streams, or as easily jump into a protection sale off the back of a mortgage.”
Acre has always been on a mission to provide an all-in-one platform that integrates as much of the advisor ecosystem as possible. Jumping between systems and re-keying information repeatedly introduces a lot of friction for advisors, friction which gets in the way of holistic advice for clients, and leads to many missed opportunities and less value captured for firms.
“The conveyancing integration in itself is a time-saver, you’ve got your portal and case manager for updates. That is a huge time saver, particularly for the smaller firms, rather than having their admin teams constantly having to chase solicitors… With Acre integrations like conveyancing, insurance, and now wills, we’re giving advisors as much opportunity to make more revenue with minimal input as possible.”
More intuitive software
Good User Experience is a huge guiding principle for all the software we build at Acre. An intuitive mortgage platform can make a world of difference all the way from a first time user getting to grips with a new platform, to a seasoned pro using it regularly throughout the day. The cost of poorly designed software can be huge to firms, let alone entire networks, where training times are longer, and overall quality of life is impacted.
“A lot of advisors who have been advising for more than five years are particularly surprised by how easy it is compared to what they've known from other systems… It’s just a very easy system to get. It’s very powerful, but it’s done in a very simple, easy to interact with way… When I was testing it, I purposely didn’t watch any training videos, I managed to get through a case in less than 30 minutes and that was before doing any Acre training. Conservatively, you’re saving a minimum of an hour per case.”
A platform that supports better accuracy
As with all networks, compliance and a reduction in human error are a must, and spread across a large number of advisors, any reduction in avoidable human errors is hugely valuable.
"Acre ensures advisers aren’t having to re-input case information and what’s more, it will question the validity of that information to minimise errors in sourcing.’’
Acre is designed to reduce avoidable errors by checking data and providing guidance on any potential errors or missing information.
“The benefit of Acre is it creates tasks that the advisers follow throughout the journey so you’ll see things, especially the little human errors that potentially become big problems later on down the line when it comes to a submission or completion”
Acre is now Score
What's changed?
What's changing is the name and the way we look. Acre is now trading as Score, with a fresh brand identity to match, but everything you rely on stays exactly where it is. It's still the same mortgage all-in-one platform that advisors, firms, and networks across the country already use to grow their businesses, now presented under a name that brings us in line with the wider ClearScore Group.
Why the new name?
ClearScore acquired Acre earlier this year, and we've carried plenty of momentum into life as part of the Group since. Moving to the Score brand is a natural next step, because it brings us in line with ClearScore and reflects the mission we share, which is to make home buying quicker and easier and to help people take control of their financial lives. As our founder and Managing Director Justus Brown has put it, the day-to-day service you receive won't change at all, and bringing our brand together with the Group simply makes that shared mission clearer.
Has the mission changed?
Not in the slightest! We have always been here to make home buying quicker and easier, taking the pain out of the process so that people can get into their homes sooner, and that is exactly what we will keep doing, with a good deal more behind us now to do it well.
Will the service change?
No, it won't, you'll continue working with the same platform and the same people, and your existing contracts and commercial terms stay exactly as they are, still held with the same legal entity, Acre Platforms Limited. Our Customer Success team will keep looking after you just as they do today.
About ClearScore
Who is ClearScore?
The ClearScore Group is a global leader in financial marketplaces, helping over 27 million people access credit, insurance, and other financial products with greater transparency, fairness, and control. It founded its flagship UK credit marketplace in 2015, has since expanded across four continents and into new verticals such as its DriveScore app, and now works with over 200 partners worldwide. ClearScore is profitable, growing, and on a mission to make personal finance clearer, calmer, and easier to understand, and that mission runs right through its culture, along with a genuine belief in giving people more clarity and control over their money.
How do we fit into ClearScore?
We sit alongside ClearScore's other technology platforms, including D•One, its open banking service for lenders, together powering borrowing and home lending across unsecured credit, auto finance, and now mortgages.
What does the change
unlock?
What does joining ClearScore bring?
Joining ClearScore gives us a great deal more room to grow. With their backing, we can accelerate our technology roadmap and bring new AI-powered features to the platform faster than we could before, and we can enrich what we build with ClearScore's proprietary data and insights, getting cutting-edge technology into the hands of mortgage and protection businesses sooner.
What do brokers and firms stand to gain?
For the brokers and firms who use us, it really comes down to growing faster. Drawing on ClearScore's financial power and its UK user base of over 16 million, we can build the features you ask for more quickly and bring more leads into the ecosystem, which gives brokers, networks, and advisors more opportunities to win new business.
Is the business growing?
We're growing quickly, and so are the firms who build their business on the platform. Since the acquisition, we've seen record numbers of monthly mortgage submissions come through Score, and we've more than doubled our revenue year on year, with growth of over 2.5x. That momentum is showing up in our customers' businesses too: firms on the platform are saving each broker around four days a month on application processing, identifying protection needs for 85% of their mortgage clients, and doubling their client conversion rates. Delivering results like these takes serious engineering and serious investment, and with ClearScore behind us we can keep raising that bar at a pace few others in the market can match.
Why build your business on Score?
Because you'll be choosing a platform that is built to last. A lot of new mortgage tools have appeared lately, and many of them are small, pop-up CRMs put together quickly on basic AI, the kind of thing that can disappear just as fast as it arrived. Score is a very different proposition, we are an established, whole-of-market platform that brokers, networks, and advisors across the country already trust with their businesses, and we are now backed by one of the most advanced and reliable fintech stacks in the industry through ClearScore. A proven platform, real investment, and genuine scale mean we can keep powering ahead of newer, lighter-weight tools and keep building for the long term.
Independence and
ownership
Is Acre being absorbed into ClearScore?
No. We operate as an independent business unit within the ClearScore Group, with our full management team staying exactly where they are, and we'll carry on supporting mortgage and protection firms with the same data-driven platform, now with the reach and scale of the wider Group behind us.
Will our advice-first philosophy change?
No. We have always believed that the best mortgage decisions come from high-quality, personal advice, and it is a belief ClearScore shares. If anything, the direction the market is heading only reinforces it, which is why we will stay a whole-of-market platform focused on helping brokers do their very best work for their clients.
Your data
Is my data safe?
Yes, and nothing about the move to Score changes that. Your data, and your clients' data, is protected by exactly the same contractual obligations and technical safeguards as before, and being part of ClearScore does not give anyone new access to it. We will never introduce your customers to a third party without the right consent, and your clients always keep the rights to their own data. If anything, joining a group whose entire business is built on handling data responsibly, and only ever with the user's permission, raises the bar we hold ourselves to.
The best way to see what Score can do is to book a demo, and we'll walk you through the platform and how it could work for your firm. If you'd rather drop us a line, you can reach our sales team at sales@scoremortgage.com, or send any general enquiries to hello@scoremortgage.com.