Remember the movie Miracle on 34th Street when Macy's Santa Claus (the real thing) sends a distraught mother who can't find the toy her son wants for Christmas to Gimbel's, Macy's competitor? The grateful woman spread the word, igniting a publicity firestorm and do-what's-right-for-the-customer competition among New York's most famous retailers.

Now imagine if applications such as transaction platforms were designed with the same kind of good will toward consumers. Could that be what Microsoft had in mind when it introduced its new Realty Desktop client/transaction/office management platform for brokers? Realty Desktop supports software from other vendors, including archrival Homestore's Top Producer. In a world where most ASP's are only interested in selling their own wares, not enabling other companies' products, that's saying a lot.

"That's how Microsoft has always done business," says Realty Desktop product unit manager Angie Brown. "We import/export from other databases, other spreadsheets. The way we look at it is by what consumers need, and we are very open to working with competitors. When we talked to brokers, we found that agents were interested in the ability to import products, such as key contact information on other products like Outlook and Top Producer."

So what is Realty Desktop and why do brokers and agents need it? Realty Desktop is a Web-based transaction-lead management tool designed to facilitate communication between agents, brokers, customers and vendors so that all parties are current and up-to-date. The idea is to save time, money, delays and mistakes over paper-heavy property transfer coordination methods.

"Realty Desktop creates new revenue streams for brokers while promoting deeper, more profitable customer relationships," adds Brown. "With the addition of these new features, Realty Desktop will help brokers play an integral role in every stage of the customer relationship, from the initial lead to managing the transaction to home-related services after the sale."

The application is being deployed two ways: direct to brokers by subscription service and via MLS information management vendor and strategic partnerInterealty. MLS organizations which use Interealty's Web-based MLS access program, MLXchange, will be able to offer a "light" version of Realty Desktop to agent and broker members along with listings management.

"Realty Desktop is built upon technology that is familiar to the consumer," explains Brown. "We are working with products agents can't live without." That also includes automatic integration with household-word software, like Microsoft's Office suite, soon to be offered via monthly subscription.

Underlying Realty Desktop is Microsoft Clearlead (tm,) a lead management platform that provides service professionals the ability to interact with and track customers and automate leads. Microsoft Clearlead has already been used in products serving other industries such as automotive services (Carpoint.) Brown, who came from the automotive division to run the Realty Desktop division, says, "Realty Desktop has taken that product and customized it for real estate professionals and enhanced that around customer acquisition and retention, task and transaction management and home ownership services (concierge or vendor services of the broker's and agent's preference.)"

Among Realty Desktop's new enhancements are a Client Web page that allows client access to broker/agent-controlled information regarding their transaction in a personalized, secure environment. Clients can check the status of the transaction from anywhere, at any time, saving worried phone calls to agents. Also new are transaction templates that improve the process of managing the wide range of tasks associated with transactions, including a variety of customer scenarios which can be customized by brokers to meet their unique market requirements and to accommodate individual vendor preferences.

So far so good. Now the only problem is getting agents to use it. Microsoft Word didn't take over word processing overnight, and Brown doesn't expect a quick sell-through for Realty Desktop either, with the exception of the Interealty side which could seat up to 260,000 agents in a short period of time. She knows that converting many Realtors to technology solutions is going to be a long and sometimes tough. Her mother and mother-in-law are Realtors, and they cheerfully provided many insights into the broker community.

"As I went out and talked to brokers,"recalls Brown. "I was hearing, "When the product is ready give me 3 - 6 months to prepare my organization." We are recommending to brokers that they start in one area of the business, one department such as relocation or Internet lead management. Let the other agents see it works well, and if the brokers are thoughtful how they roll it out to their agents, it should catch on."

"Brokers are interested in being able to differentiate themselves and so we are working with individual brokers to show them ways they can do that," she adds.

Pricing information is not available to quote because it depends on factors such as the size of the broker's organization and whether the product is incorporated with the MLS software and the broker is interested in upgrades and additional features. However, some brokers, says Brown, may pass along the cost of incorporating the technology as an infrastructure to agents in the form of a technology fee.

Homestore is currently beta-testing its transaction platform. How does Microsoft plan to compete? "We have a great strategy," says Brown. "We bring the best of MLS technology and combine that with an open platform and tools that help brokers see greater profits. When you combine those, we can't be anything but successful."

Published: February 23, 2001

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