Cutting edge solutions for realty gurus

In today's property game, estate agents need any advantage they can get in order to secure more mandates and to work more efficiently, especially since the residential property sector has become a buyers market and prices are cooling off.

We are living and working in the 'technology age' and in order to cater to this need for competitive advantage, Johannesburg based Application Service Provider (ASP), USP Designs, created CyberAgent, an office management application that has been specifically designed for the real estate industry.

In a first for the South African property market, CyberAgent offers its clients the future of real estate business through their CyberAgent Mobile application. This technology platform provides a pioneering listing and management tool from which properties can be listed in only six minutes. The software also incorporates Internet technology, enabling estate agents to make use of the Internet and website marketing to its fullest potential at a fraction of the normal cost. CyberAgent also provides dynamic websites with customised search facilities.

Operations director Pat Jewell notes that the focus has always been to provide this comprehensive service to estate agencies, of which there are more than 12 000 throughout South Africa. However, since there are currently 64 000 registered estate agents, CyberAgent had to find a solution that can cater for the needs of the individual agents.

"Estate agents are constantly out in the field and do not actually have the time to be in the office and manage their daily tasks. But with the CyberAgent Mobile system this couldn't be simpler. We now take the "office" to the Estate agent"

Working through the means of a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) device, this innovative technology allows individual agents to administer, catalogue and publish properties online without being anywhere near the office, saving them both time and money. All CyberAgent actions are completed in real time meaning everyone has easy access to the latest information. The software is designed to be user friendly, and will run on any handheld device supporting Microsoft CE (Windows Mobile)
An added advantage is that included in CyberAgent Mobile there is a powerful Website Interface catering for those agents without handheld devices, CyberAgent Online. This can run from any laptop or desktop with Internet access
The response to this offering has been phenomenal and a recent road show held in Johannesburg and Cape Town during May this year to showcase the solution has received excellent feedback and has also sparked further interest on a National and International level

There are currently more than 600 agencies using CyberAgent on a national basis and the CyberAgent offering includes free website submissions to all major search engines, free articles in the weekly newsletter with 17 000 subscribers, free SMS facility and also free "Keep me informed" feature.

Key services that CyberAgent offers are to make canvassing easy with the use of data from SAPTG, CyberTrade and the Deeds office to do mail drops, to manage properties and print reports at the click of a button. CyberAgent also enables the estate agency to keep track of sales related commissions, VAT, outstanding payments and more. CyberAgent links with the transfer attorneys, sends and monitors transfers electronically, and more importantly, agencies are able to work offline and only go online when updating their own website that is linked to CyberAgent.

Estate agents who are interested in improving profits and productivity through technology can now catch more than a glimpse of the future, by visiting www.cyberagent.co.za. The site even provides a facility where agents can obtain the system and pay by credit card, but better still, you can try CyberAgent Mobile for yourself, by downloading the trial version and putting it to the test.