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History of Zoot Enterprises

Zoot Enterprises was formed in 1990, when founder Chris Nelson recognized a need in the financial industry for products that could access multiple credit bureaus' information and allow for easily customized reporting. Zoot's first product was a standalone credit reporting application. This product provided a dial-up connection to each of the bureaus and a standardized approach to viewing and reporting on the data.

Financial services and credit card processing leaders adopted Zoot technology to improve their performance and reduce the cost of credit analysis. Nelson quickly added decisioning and analysis capabilities and was able to offer automated credit decisioning at a reasonable cost.

Zoot's second-generation product, the SPOC® decision engine, was built as an Application Service Provider or ASP (formerly called a service bureau). The ASP model enables clients to access multiple credit bureaus and data sources with a single network connection. Zoot managed (and continues to manage) the interface between clients and all information sources.

In 1997, Zoot began offering web applications. Zoot developed America's first Internet-based home equity application on behalf of Wells Fargo Bank. Since then, we've created credit application and loan processing websites for dozens of financial institutions. In most cases, the consumer never realizes that when they click "Apply Now," they are connecting to Zoot's data center to complete their loan form. Our latest enhancement is a set of internally developed rapid development tools that make creating web applications as easy as we've made creating credit decisioning.

Zoot's most recent innovation is the migration of our ASP service to a hosted application environment. Clients enjoy the advantages of a reliable ASP environment while maintaining complete control over their application. They can control their applications, modify business rules and logic flows, and even move code to production without programmer assistance.

The company that started in Nelson's basement has now grown to approximately 200 employees. Rapid growth prompted the company to build an $18 million headquarters building in 2001. The initial building was designed for 450 employees and additional land provides room for expansion up to 2,500 employees. The 177-acre campus plan includes homes, retail and commercial space, a daycare center, and a guest lodge for visiting clients.