WEEKLY NEWS ROUNDUP – 16/09/2022
A roundup of the week’s top property and proptech news stories in partnership with Proptech-X
Table of Contents
- An Autumn of innovation across Fine & Country
- Zoopla: Alto reveals speaker line-up and agenda for first virtual event
- Bricsys 24/7 Embeds Automated Document Management Workflow with Cooperlink CONNECT
An Autumn of innovation across Fine & Country
Founder of premium estate agency Fine & Country, Jon Cooke, says within the coming months the brand will see the biggest technological innovation since its inception 21 years ago. He adds that this month the brand has launched its new website which includes a lead management and nurture platform, with plans underway to launch its Referral System in the months ahead.
“Essentially the network will have access to a technologically advanced lead generation and nurture platform with the new website at its core. Over the past two years nurtur.group has acquired and aligned itself with lead generation and proptech innovators to ensure that we are able to continue to create products and services that enhances our network of agents. As an international premium estate agency brand, we wanted to ensure that our Fine & Country licensees had the proptech tools at their disposal to be able to harness the power of being a part of an established, recognisable brand, interacting with property professionals in various sought-after locations to attract buyers and sellers looking for upmarket properties,” says Cooke.
He notes that the new website, which was developed by Starberry, one of the UK’s largest providers of retail agency website and lead generation technology, has been developed with an international market in mind, allowing customers to easily search for properties around the globe in the language of their choice. Integrated into the new website will be the lead management system powered by LeadPro, which will allow agents to both track and nurture leads, supporting the new Referral System, which will pass on out-of-area leads automatically, increasing the potential number of instructions gained by the network. It is various innovative proptech tools working symbiotically to create a cohesive lead generation platform which will benefit the network and customers alike.
“If an agent does not have a nurture system in place…they are likely to lose the business.”
Jon Cooke
He says that while the lead management system will initially role out to UK based licensees, the plan is to extend the management system to international licensees. “The new lead management system will enable Fine & Country licensees within the UK to track their Service Level Agreement (SLA) of how quickly they respond to buyers and valuation enquiries. This will have a huge impact on the customer service licensees are able to provide, as they will consistently be able to track and improve their engagement with all customer types,” says Cooke.
He adds that not only will the website be generating and sharing more leads through referral system, but the BriefYourMarket plug in will nurture leads ensuring they are following the correct process so that they are not lost. “There is a lot of data from portals that suggests it can take around three months to go from an enquiry through to instruction. If an agent does not have a nurture system in place, which includes multiple contacts points and following up calls throughout the three-month period, they are likely to lose the business. Integrating technology that will assist agents to nurture the lead will ensure that they do not miss out and are able to maximise the conversion of the leads received, which will be a huge plus for the Fine & Country network,” says Cooke.
He adds that the various proptech elements will work together to make it easier for Fine & Country agents to engage with their customers, while simultaneously delivering an enhanced customer service journey. “Agents will also be able to use their own CRM, as the technology will be able to integrate with most CRM systems within the sector,” Cooke comments.
“We will continue to enhance the products and services we provide the Fine & Country network, pushing innovation and seeking ways that will help our network to grow and thrive within the premium sector,” he concludes.
Zoopla: Alto reveals speaker line-up and agenda for first virtual event
- Taking place on 14th September, Altogether Live will feature a wide range of speakers including industry veterans, Proptech leaders and the product team at Alto
- Altogether Live will give agents the chance to see Alto’s latest features and functionality, network with fellow property professionals and win prizes – all in a state-of-the-art virtual world
- Attendees will also have the opportunity to speak with Alto experts, see what’s next on the roadmap for Alto and get exclusive downloadable content to share with their branch
Alto, the leading cloud-based software for agents and part of Zoopla, has announced the speaker lineup and agenda for its upcoming virtual event.
Altogether Live will take place in a state-of-the-art virtual world – each attendee will have a unique avatar that can interact through live chat or video calling with other attendees, as well as collecting swag items and attending dynamic speaking sessions. These sessions will include:
- The Altogether Live panel with Mike Delap, Team Lead at Vouch, Jo Wall, Partnership Success Manager at Smartsearch, Christina Harris, Lettings Manager at Cheffins, and Tara Lynch, Head of Product at Alto. The panel will be moderated by Kristjan Byfield, Co-Founder at Base Property Specialists and The Depositary and will discuss the role of Proptech in helping agents to meet market challenges.
- The UK housing market at a turning point with Richard Donnell, Executive Director of Research & Insight at Zoopla, and James Toogood, Sales Director at Alto. This session will focus on what agents should care about most as we head into 2023.
Agents can view the full agenda and speaker lineup here – and can also sign up to join the 180 registered attendees. Attendees will also have the opportunity to create a digital swag bag of exclusive downloadable content to share with their branch.
Commenting on the event, Simon Woodward, Director of Product at Alto said: “We’re looking forward to welcoming agents to Altogether Live next week, with plenty of informative and insightful sessions featuring on the jam-packed agenda. Attendees will also have the opportunity to visit our expo floor, where they can learn about Alto’s sales, lettings, marketing and client accounting functionality that makes us really stand out from the crowd.”
Kristjan Byfield, Co-Founder at Base Property Specialists and The Depositary comments: “I’ve long been a fan and advocate of the proptech space and what benefits can be derived from this by agents. The ongoing innovation in this space, both by individual specialist products and the broader CRM space, has only seen this accelerate as we inch closer to a seamless, integrated landscape. I’m really excited to moderate this talk with one of the biggest proptech company’s in the UK, Zoopla, and some of the leading offerings in this space in shape of Vouch & Smartsearch. I’m excited to see what thoughts and insights will be shared on the day.”
Bricsys 24/7 Embeds Automated Document Management Workflow with Cooperlink CONNECT
PRESS RELEASE: Global provider of design and collaboration solutions, Bricsys, part of Hexagon, announced its partnership with web application platform Cooperlink CONNECT. Bricsys 24/7 users will be able to automatically upload, record and archive documents in real-time from Microsoft SharePoint to Bricsys 24/7, reducing the time spent manually saving files and re-encoding metadata.
This collaborative two-way integration provides a 100% digitised and automated coordination of information: from the classification and exchange of documents to the validation of technical sheets.
Ideal for users working on large construction projects from design to handover of the as-built files, the business-oriented platform enables better collaboration among contractors, owners, architects, and engineering teams thanks to uniform data accessible in one central place. This eliminates the risk of project fragmentation, miscommunication and errors that are costly and time-consuming to fix.
Real-time validation tracks changes made to work-in-progress data. Full transparency across teams allows users to catch any issues when manipulating data across disconnected systems in early development cycles from SharePoint to Bricsys 24/7. The integration also takes care of API updates, file synchronisation and guarantees predictive prices.
Rahul Kejriwal, CEO of Bricsys, says: “Both software complement each other perfectly. Cooperlink CONNECT enables a real-time 2-way integration between Bricsys® 24/7 and Microsoft SharePoint (and OneDrive) or a file server. Through synergies and a significant expansion of know-how, we can offer our customers a broader knowledge management solution and guide our users through their digital transformation journeys”.
Axel Palmaers, CEO of Cooperlink says: “The ability of our technologies to combine is extremely beneficial to construction projects, and we are excited to work with Bricsys in this partnership. Avoiding silos of information is increasingly important to our customers to enable better collaboration among departments, uniform data access in the whole organization and to reduce the costs of errors resulting from discrepancies between disconnected systems.”
Set up rapidly, Cooperlink CONNECT is available to a growing number of worldwide Bricsys 24/7 customers, no matter their role.