The Benefits
To our clients and customers we offer:

• A unique and tailored service to match your requirements
• A cost effective outsourced management of the survey/ valuation process with potential in-house savings
• An improved turnaround expectation in report delivery
• A valuation/ surveying service delivered independently of the sales process National coverage from one point of contact

We aim to take all the pain away from managing and administering local surveying firms on a national basis.

To our panel members we offer:

A promise to allocate work on capabilities and performance Provide access to national clients Assistance with arranging PII cover.

We pride ourselves in our flexibility to meet our clients needs rather than offering an off-the-shelf solution.

Direct Valuations is the only panel manager to offer a client the choice of 3 operating systems, either our own web based ValNet system or the industry standard Quest or Xit2 solutions.

Our IT team have a proven record of accommodating either platform to meet client’s requirements with the minimum of disruption.

We believe the secret to a good panel management service is having an effective working relationship with our clients. Our operations are designed along a client focused rather than functional lines. Therefore each client has a support team that manages that workload and priorities are managed in line with each client’s requests. In that way the need to escalate a case can be done via the Client Account Manager as an exception. Otherwise each case is dealt with on a time of arrival basis.

We are particularly pleased at our track record in assisting new entrants to the UK mortgage market with a string of successful start up relationships.

The business was created with the sole intention of providing national panel management of surveying firms. Comprehensive coverage is assured throughout England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Through rigorous selection and performance management techniques, we can call on over 400 surveying firms accredited to our standards, although the core panel of regular suppliers is considerably smaller.

Direct Valuations has successfully processed over 150,000 cases in a year. Operating with both the Quest and Xit2 platforms enables us to provide the capacity to clients who deal with either of these environments.

We believe that a panel management service offers a client the opportunity to stand back from the normal operational difficulties that any surveying business suffers from during periods of holidays, sickness, staff turnover or loss of performance focus. This is our responsibility.

The allocation of instructions and the continued membership of the DV panel is subject to on-going review based on performance and turnaround times achieved. We aim to reward successful performance with more instructions while maintaining a balance with the need for coverage in less active areas of the country.

We are continually developing the working relationships with our panel members to ensure instructions are efficiently and effectively received and handled in the timescales required. Our panel management processes ensure that the most experienced local Surveyors are selected, thereby providing a quick response with clear advice. We use our management information to monitor the level of work allocation to our panel members.

We continually review the acceptance delivery and any declination of instructions. In this way, it is possible to identify quickly any opportunities for service improvements in postcode allocations, or any need for additional panel coverage. Failure to meet service levels can lead to the firm/ surveyor being placed on ‘hold’ until standards resume and ultimately failure to meet service standards can result in removal from the panel.

Professional quality is monitored through our panel management team, with the use of centralised sampling of reports and the auditing of our panel members. In this way we are able to scrutinise the quality of information collected at the time of the property inspection, the clarity and suitability of advice given in the survey or valuation report, and the quality of supporting comparable evidence.

All appointments to membership of the panel require the completion of a detailed application pack and an interview to underline quality requirements, processes and support systems. If all our criteria is satisfied, an appointment will be made, subject to ongoing regular review and acceptance of our quality control and audit procedures. It is strict policy that our panel members are current Chartered Surveyors and adhere to the RICS Code of Conduct. In addition, evidence of appropriate insurance cover (minimum £1m) is a requirement prior to entry onto our panel.

Direct Valuations is the only panel manager to offer a client the choice of 2 operating platforms, either our own web-based ValNet system or the industry standard Quest solution.

ValNet provides a single view of the valuations and survey instruction process to our clients, surveyors and staff. ValNet manages the process and workflow from instruction through to report completion.

Developed in conjunction with Vertex and designed to perform in today’s ‘fast moving’ economy, ValNet’s robust and resilient architecture offers 24x7x365 access to all instruction cases. ValNet is a secure process management system having handled over 500,000 instructions to date.

We have also developed our systems infrastructure and staff capabilities to afford use of the alternative Quest and Xit2 systems for those clients with existing processes that wish to remain on these platforms.

Our technology teams have a proven record of accommodating either platform to meet a client’ requirements with the minimum of fuss.

Quality is a key issue for the management of the business. To ensure integration of the business aims and deliverables the company undertook the rigorous assessment required for Quality Assurance and hold an accreditation from Moody International for ISO 9001.

The award cover all aspects of the business from recruitment and training of staff through operational and accounting processes and onto panel management activities. The Quality Policy ensures all processes follow a policy and are documented for staff training and operational management issues.

Each process is subject to regular audit and review with external auditing at a 6 monthly period. As well as improving operational performance the Quality activities of the business provide a benchmark for improvement activities.

Direct Valuations can provide a complete range of management reports tailored to suit your own specific requirements. We work with all our clients on bespoke projects and will run and create one off ad hoc reports when required.

Direct Valuations trends and tracks information on number of instructions, service and performance level achieved as well as management complaints/ issues.