Delegates from major agents and portals were among a large audience at the unveiling of a new IT ‘platform as a service’ proposition yesterday.
They included Acorn, Arun Estates, Chestertons, Countrywide, Connells, Leaders Romans and Savills, plus Rightmove and Zoopla.
They were at the launch of Reapit’s new offering, Foundations, which is designed to be an open platform for third-party developers of apps.
Among the live demonstrations was one given by Rob Sendall, managing director of Lifetime Legal, showing how anti-money laundering checks can be made using the integration.
The new platform will be available for developers, including agents themselves, to register and start to test development by the end of this year. Full launch will take place in the first three months of next year.
Few such launches have taken place in recent years, since the closure of the Property Computer Show, and fewer still at yesterday’s scale or expense.
Comments (17)
Forgive me for my simple analysis – what a load of tosh
Layers of technical sh?!e & jargon to justify yet another flotsum of feeders nibbling from our actual business
Suckers abound for iPhone 5, 6, 7,8,9, 50, 150, 1000
Property, Vendor, Agent, Buyer or Tenant – let’s remember that is what pays the salaries/bills
The software/jargon/magic sh?!e is glorified Admin
Instead of building our business into one that needs linked to an intensive care suite of software in order to exist, how about standing back and acknowledging that our business (the patient?) is breathing fine on its own
Remember when we put a Man on the Moon with the equivalent of a home pc software package?
Human Beings? – waaaaaaay underated!
All the third party product providers wetting themselves over it as opens up more doors for them with reapit clients.
It is basically an open API with dropbox call it what you want. Yes you can create your own internal ‘Apps’ but what agent has the time or inclination to do that. maybe a few of the big boys but not the core users.
As much as i think the chap is a wet lettuce, Charlie Wright was on the right line saying we should have an industry standard platform so then agents can choose who they want to integrate with at ease.
Yeah, yeah another “Game Changer” …… Course it is, and yes it is “A Negative Post”
Make no mistake this is an absolute game changer if what we witnessed yesterday is delivered as seen.
I had a few tears rolling down my cheeks as one of the few remaining Achilles heels of the software has been comprehensively dealt with …and how.
Since the day I joined Reapit I fought a lonely battle trying to get the company to rise to the challenge of doing third party integration properly. I understood that every one that was done right made the actual core application more attractive. I was in a minority however as third party integrations were seen as a pain and drain on resource.
So to see them not only fix this issue but set the benchmark for all other CRM’s is incredibly impressive and I probably have to admit that they’re going to survive without me !!
Because this isn’t something innovative just in our own little industry I’m talking about anywhere. The worlds most successful CRM Salesforce has its own version of a App Store style Marketplace but Reapit’s PAAS takes this onto a whole new level.
Plenty of work still to be done as it ultimately needs to be delivered and the elephant in the room is there’s no detail on what this is going to cost but those aside this is without doubt the most striking development in the Supplier space this year …well after kerfuffle of course
It should be law for a crm to allow agent access to all it’s data.
Expert agent don’t make it easy for agents as they love their web design business to much.
( have you checked your Google maps recently ) they don’t work. Telling customers with 2 year old websites, thry need a new site!!
Expert Agent are one of the most unresponsive companies I have ever dealt with…shockingly poor . Avoid.
Well if it passes Kerfuffle muster, they must be barking up the right tree. When we were looking at going over to Reapit it was the lack of effective 3rd party integration that put us of (and the cost) but they do seem to have listened to what customers want and need…… Whaley, let us know when we need to get on board, when the dev glitches are ironed out and the key proptech players have recognised the added value to their products.
What was revealed yesterday is a seismic shift in the way tech is used in our industry and how they communicate with one another. Whilst many at the event found the presentation too ‘techie’ (and indeed it was a very technical representation akin to a developers conference) I felt this was the right way to present such a huge innovation in this area and to move away from glossy, flashy but ultimately fluffy launches of the past.
To say this was akin to an ‘open API’ means you either weren’t there or don’t understand the difference between an API and what has been built. Simply put, reapit agents will now be able to have the exact tech-stack within their business that they want. Not just from the open market but to be able to build or refine unqiue products to fit your company objectives- be that enhanced compliance, better extraction of data or unique service offerings.
Agents and developers will be able to build an array of products, from micro-solutions to big ideas, quickly and easily and facilitate rich integrations. Any reapit agent frustrated with a particular element of functionality (or lack thereof) in RPS can simply plug in a solution to replace (overlay) this- either by buying or building.
All previous launches and stands looking pretty and delivering the right sound bites have always looked/sounded good but often the tech behind them is basic or due to age quickly. This represents a massive shift in the approach and environment this space is fast becoming and has cemented the fact that tech will soon touch every part of every property process- so you’d better start learning, evolving and adapting.
For medium & large agencies this should have been a revelation! Developing your own crm or even micro-solutions that then have to integrate with various crm’s made in-house design & development hard to justify from a financial perspective. These agents will not be able to commission developers (or hire their own FT team) to conceptualise, build, test & release solutions quickly and effectively. A hugely exciting move for agents and developers alike and a huge pat on the back to reapit for leading the charge and laying down the guantlet to basically every other crm.
Very impressive presentation. The tech side of things will enable some great collaborations.
More importantly is the complete rethink on how a CRM company works for customers and partners. For years CRM companies made it difficult for other platforms and products to interact , were pretty off hand with clients and far too slow to develop innovative products. Reapit have attempted to address this with their Foundations concept.
The Zoopla stable of CRM products need to get a move on and start thinking about how they offer their services.
Well…..? Is it going to be as good as the Hype? There must have been some Pie readers there….. And will we be able to make some sense out of all this Kerfuffle?
Not sure, I hadn’t heard of it and Iam on here every day spreading the love .
Basically an open Api so third parties can sell you more stuff.
Would have been far more impressive if Reapit were offering further products and services within the current rates.
Not even remotely close SP.
It really isn’t that at all
Yes – I was at the presentation and from a technology perspective it is outstanding work that they have done.
Note – we are technologists but have no commercial connection with Reapit!
The key is about the infrastructure change – opening up the platform is not just about an API but about enabling integration at the application level. The REALLY clever bit is that they will enable developers to rapidly deploy add-ons to the application and provide support both documentation and library-wise.
APIs are easy – providing development support is particularly challenging and they have achieved this.
It means that for companies like ours we can pass information both ways – from and to the platform which is particularly clever.
Very intelligent work …
Peter
I couldn’t have said it better myself Peter. This will save agents time and money.
Love the idea of an api to help devs build products for a agents.
D
Is our data also sold to them though?
Personal data (vendors details)
Stats..
I like idea of a big data a.i. app which can forecast net sales subject to some other data an app could mix up.
It works in a similar way to the apps you download to your smartphone. When a developer publishes their wares to the Reapit ‘appstore’ they have to disclose what of the agent’s data they need to perform their function. The agent then decides if they want to install the app and give away the required data.
Costs have not been openly discussed yet.