GMAC Commercial Mortgage Selects Microsoft and Intel To Provide Server Platform for MortgageRamp

HORSHAM, Pa., REDMOND, Wash., and SANTA CLARA, Calif., Oct. 10, 2000 — GMAC Commercial Mortgage Corp. (GMACCM) today announced that Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp. have been selected to provide the primary technology platform to power MortgageRamp, the only online full-service commercial real estate community and a wholly owned subsidiary of GMACCM.

The combination of Microsoft® .NET Enterprise Server software running on Intel-based servers, and the Microsoft Pocket PC platform, met the aggressive time-to-market and mobility demands of MortgageRamp. In addition, this configuration delivers a 99.999 percent uptime as well as the scalability and agility required to process the billions of dollars’ worth of business that flow through MortgageRamp and GMACCM.

“We needed to establish an e-commerce solution in less than three months,”
said Michael Greco, CEO of MortgageRamp.
“In addition, we wanted to leverage our existing infrastructure and deliver an industry-leading solution. We interviewed the whole field but only Microsoft, Intel, Compaq and Cisco were able to provide a complete end-to-end solution.”

MortgageRamp is sponsored by GMACCM, the largest commercial real estate lender in North America, with more than 1,250 employees, 58 offices and an approximate portfolio of $82 billion. Utilizing a completely Web-based workspace for loan origination, MortgageRamp brings together industry-leading lenders, including Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Allied Capital and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, as well as brokers, borrowers, vendors, appraisers, inspectors and engineers to interact, exchange information, post reports and enable smart real estate financial decisions. Through unification of every piece of the commercial real estate process, the Microsoft and Intel solution has allowed MortgageRamp and GMACCM to reduce commercial loan processing time from 120 days to 10 days or fewer, in a single, easy-to-use Web-powered system.

MortgageRamp operates on six Intel-based four-way Compaq ProLiant 6400R Web servers featuring the Pentium® III Xeon™ processor and two clustered Compaq ProLiant 8500R eight-way servers, featuring Pentium® III Xeon-based processors as database servers in the back end.

The Microsoft- and Intel-based solution delivers enterprise-class e-commerce and helps MortgageRamp and GMACCM realize immediate, positive business impact. MortgageRamp and GMACCM worked closely with Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS), taking advantage of expertise and best practices that sped time to market and helped reduce project costs. MortgageRamp plans to expand the Intel and Microsoft server solution by deploying up to 3,000 Pocket PCs to customers of MortgageRamp. Pocket PCs will streamline MortgageRamp field services such as inspections, reports and appraisals, further reducing decision times and allowing for increased order processing. GMACCM and MortgageRamp also are evaluating other innovative uses of the Pocket PC to support key commercial mortgage business and technology initiatives.

“We evaluated other mobile devices, but chose Pocket PC for its robust development platform that easily integrated with the rest of the e-commerce solution we had developed,”
said Niraj Patel, chief information officer of GMACCM.
“Pocket PC also offered the greatest functionality in areas critical to GMACCM and MortgageRamp such as security, expandable memory storage, rich browser capability, and a wide range of wireless and wired connectivity options.”

“The pace of today’s Internet business requires companies to implement solutions more rapidly than ever before,”
said Peter Boit, vice president of e-commerce solutions for Microsoft.
“Our customers like GMACCM and MortgageRamp demand that Intel and Microsoft deliver the most agile solutions on the market, while also meeting strict time-to-market demands that allow them to stay competitive in this next phase of the Internet. We are excited to continue our best-of-breed work with Intel, delivering the e-business platform that brings companies leading performance today and prepares them for the .NET software services of tomorrow.”

“The collaboration between Intel and Microsoft offers server customers a flexible e-business architecture to accelerate their time-to-market deployment with new Internet services,”
said Mike Fister, vice president and general manager of the Enterprise Platforms Group at Intel.
“MortgageRamp is a great example of a company that has benefited from the modular ‘scale-out’ methodology that makes Intel-based servers ideal for today’s fast-growing Internet economy.”

With MortgageRamp, GMACCM is the latest customer to adopt the Intel and Microsoft e-business platform under a recently announced e-business alliance between the two companies. Microsoft and Intel are working together to deliver joint customers best-of-class, end-to-end e-business solutions as well as offering integration and service to e-businesses such as GMAC, FreeMarkets, Lycos.com and many others.

About GMACCM

GMAC Commercial Mortgage, based in Horsham, Pa., is a wholly owned subsidiary of GMAC. It is the nation’s leading one-stop financial resource in the commercial banking industry. The diverse lending and servicing specialist has more than 50 offices nationwide. GMACCM has a servicing portfolio of over $82 billion and provides a variety of financing products and services, including permanent, interim and construction lending, with specialized lending units focused on healthcare and hospitality as well as e-commerce offerings through Internet commercial mortgage lending.

About MortgageRamp

MortgageRamp is the only complete source for the commercial real estate industry offering a turnkey solution to help borrowers, brokers, lenders and vendors execute every step of the loan process from bid to close. MortgageRamp provides access to all the most respected lending institutions and combines revolutionary technology with personal customer service. MortgageRamp helps companies make smarter real estate decisions by bringing together every piece of the commercial real estate value chain at http://www.MortgageRamp.com/ .

About Intel

Intel, the world’s largest chip maker, is also a leading manufacturer of computer, networking and communications products. Additional information is available at http://www.intel.com/pressroom/ .

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.

Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages.

For complete benchmark information on Intel Pentium III Xeon processors, visit the Intel Web site at http://www.intel.com/ebusiness/products/server/index.htm .

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