As the origination side of the mortgage business looks to reinvent itself, firms that focus on streamlining lending operations or helping prevent fraud have become hot tickets in a space that’s largely become a vacuum.

One such example is Cogent Road, a San Diego, Calif.-based provider of Internet-based applications for the mortgage industry, which said Wednesday that it had signed up a whopping 245 new customers for its Funding Suite credit management system during the first quarter of 2008. Adding additional customers to its client base brings the total number of mortgage companies using Cogent Road’s Funding Suite to 4,173, the company said in a press statement.

Funding Suite enables mortgage originators to automatically identify credit data errors and credit usage errors in order to legitimately strengthen credit scores for potential borrowers.

Much of this growth has come on the heels of the introduction of a so-called Intelligent Credit Report, a dynamic display of client credit data that provides faster, more accurate prequalifying assessments than traditional paper-based credit reports during the origination process. The Intelligent Credit Report, launched in November 2007, provides originators with unique tools such as interactive tradelines, automatic detection of underwriting conditions and a wide array of free credit proofreading tools.

“As originators increase their scrutiny of borrowers’ credit histories, it is increasingly important to identify and resolve the mistakes in these files that can make the difference in how much borrowers pay for loans - or if they are approved at all,” said William DiPaolo, managing partner for Cogent Road.

For more information, visit http://www.cogentroad.com.