Posts

Showing posts from May, 2010

OMS contacts module enhancements – view all contacts as administrator/manager

Image
We’ve made enhancements to the OMS contacts module. This is the first of several enhancements to follow in the contacts module. For users who have office administrator or office manager access, you can now view all the contacts captured on property listings by going to the contacts module, and clicking on (A) shared contacts, and then on (B) general, buyers, sellers or tenants.  Note that only office administrators and managers have this access to view contacts listed by all users on all properties, standard users will only see there own contacts and contacts shared by other users.   The ‘active contacts’ (C) is an existing option and allows you to filter only active contacts. Unchecking this will show all your inactive contacts. When you open a contact, you can mark it as ‘active’ or not. The ‘is shared with office’ function allows standard users to share that contact with the office shared contacts list. Note that we have reports from some users that the ‘configuration’

Private Property interface issue

We are currently busy resolving an issue with the private property interface where you are unable to remove your listings from the Private Property website (due to an interface change on Private Property’s website). We apologise for the inconvenience caused.

New RE/MAX Living website launched

Image
We have launched a new website for one of Entegral’s oldest RE/MAX franchise clients, RE/MAX Living ’s @ www.remaxliving.co.za 2 new features we’ve introduced which is also available to all our clients on requests are: 1. Multi-suburb search (allows more than one suburb to be selected for a search) 2. Google Map (showing area or if you’ve marked it on the OMS, the exact location of the property):

OMS to SA Hometraders interface is live

Image
We’re happy to announce that the interface from the OMS to the SA Hometraders website is now live. For pricing on the interface please click here: http://www.entegral.net/?c=products_oms_plans If you have this interface in place your property listings loaded in the OMS will update every 30 minutes to the SA Hometraders website. Your OMS reference number is also used on the display ad on the SA Hometraders website, so no need to worry about different property reference numbers. View how one of Entegral’s Enterprise clients, Betterhomes , listings are displayed on SA Hometraders: http://www.sahometraders.co.za/agency_property_all.asp?AgencyID=NGGP3R9JX&ShowSold=False&sort=0 Note, SA Hometraders clients will soon also be able to interface listings to MyProperty South Africa .

A closer look at our Premium Mail solution

Image
We’ve updated marketing documentation for our Premium Mail solution with PDF documents now included on the page: http://www.entegral.net/?c=products_email The Premium Mail solution is a bit more expensive than the Value Mail solution but offers a lot of bang for your buck including: 10GB Mailbox sizes 100% uptime More comprehensive spam and anti-virus protection Advanced but simple to use webmail interface Optional Microsoft Exchange and Blackberry Enterprise Server services Optional email archiving services If you’re looking to switch from your ValueMail to PremiumMail solution please contact our helpdesk for a quotation.

Improved response times for OMS

Image
We have improved the page load times in the OMS – pages should now load a bit faster than usual. Noticeable will be when you open property listings or use the active listings function. Did you know? The OMS works perfectly fine on Netbooks (we tested on a Netbook with a 1.6Ghz atom processor and 1GB RAM connected through a Vodacom 3G connection). This allows for a cost effective rollout of the OMS for your whole estate agency with Netbook prices coming in at only R2800-R3800 and OMS user licenses included in your monthly subscription. You can easily give all your agents access to manage their property portfolios, access central stock lists and print property brochures. The end results is a more up to date and accurate online property portfolio which buyers will love.

Property Voyage Mobile Site Launched

Image
Our very first mobile website developed for one of our South African based clients, Property Voyage ( http://www.propertyvoyage.co.za/ ), has just been launched. The site is based on a template framework and contains features such as an advanced drill down search for property as well as a quick search function to find properties listed by them in your area. Bond and affordability calculators were also included along with basic enquiry forms and the latest news from the Property Voyage Office. View their mobile website on http://www.propertyvoyage.mobi/ There are more cellphone devices in the world than PC's and television sets combined (mobi.com), the perfect medium to reach your target audience! For more information on mobile websites developed by Entegral, click here

OMS Area change: Stanford

Stanford has been moved to appear as a suburb under Hermanus , and not a town on its own.

Arello district 6 meeting invitation to all estate agents

Image
The Chief Excecutive Officer and the Board of the Estate Agency Affairs Board invite all those interested to attend the 2010 ARELLO DISTRICT 6 MEETING. For more information contact Portia Mofikoe at portia.mofikoe@eaab.org.za or Tel: 011 731 5633 Click on http://www.eaab.org.za to download more information.

External property portals: SA Hometraders link ready

Image
We are happy to announce that we’ve completed testing from the OMS management system to the SA Hometraders property portal ( http://www.sahometraders.co.za/ ) and ready to start integration of your listings. Costs are R500 for setup on the OMS and R385 vat excl per month payable to SA Hometraders for the online advertising of your listings. We will send out a newsletter on Monday 17 May with the details. If you are interested to activate your feed please email our helpdesk on support@entegral.net The new SA Hometraders interface now compliments the existing high traffic interfaces the OMS offers to MyProperty, MSN, IOL, Jump and other prominent portals.

National client websites: rates & taxes fixed

We’ve corrected a problem where the rates & taxes didn’t display on properties for national client websites.

Choose the right technology for your real estate franchise operation

Image
More and more people are using the internet on daily basis. In effect, more people will also visit your site if your SEO and other online marketing initiatives are any good. For national real estate franchise groups this present a unique challenge. Not only do they need to centralise listings into a single database and make these properties searchable for the general public, but the website needs 99.9% uptime and the speed of searches need to be lightning fast. In general these franchise sites also attracts more visitors than your single agency websites and therefore needs regular tweaking to enhance the response times to visitors. This leaves the master franchise with a difficult question: which database platform is right for my franchise operation? Luckily the answer is a simple one…. Microsoft SQL Server. Entegral has, since 2009, started international rollouts of its OMS system , including custom configurations for large USA based franchise clients.  This presented the Entegral R

The social media revolution in 2010

Image
In September 2009 we’ve posted a video with some fascinating facts about the internet . Now, in 2010, check out the latest ‘Social Media Revolution’ video from Erik Qualman: Social Media is slowly changing the way customers interact with estate agents. Printed advertising is no longer the #1 referral source for most agents with the web taking over that role. Now social media presents another opportunity for estate agents to connect with clients through Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Forums, Video and other media. Don’t know what all the fuzz is about Social Media, check out the following slideshow that explains everything in more detail. I just love the slide on ‘18% of tv ad campaigns generate positive ROI’ . I bet it is even lower for printed advertising… What The F**K is Social Media? Estate Agents who are still pushing all their earnings into print are just plain stupid – they will simply become a statistic on the number of declining estate agents we are seeing. Watch the

Nick Berman properties website launched

Image
We’re proud to announce the launch of Nick Berman Properties at: http://www.nbproperties.co.za/ The website was a custom office design. Looking to upgrade your current website? Please contact our sales department at support@entegral.net in advance since we are fully booked for development for the next 4-8 weeks.

Promoto your property listing on Facebook

Image
It is now easier to promote your newly listed property on Facebook with MyProperty’s new Facebook ‘like’ button appearing on the top of all pages. Simply click on the button (and login to Facebook if necessary) and this property will be posted to your Facebook profile: Appearance on your recent activity list which can be seen by all your friends: In return your friends may also ‘like’ your link and further promote your listing to their friends. As with everything in life, be careful not to overdue it and like all your properties on one day.

Performance improvements on websites and OMS

We have made some performance improvements on client websites and the OMS system. Particular attention was paid to search queries and agent/office portfolio searches (load times).

MSN South Africa now a massive 1.9 million unique visitors per month

Image
Just hot of the MSN story we published on Friday , MSN South Africa recorded another record breaking month with a massive 1.9 million unique visitors to the website, thereby retaining its spot as 2nd most visited website in South Africa. Entegral is the exclusive property partner for the MSN Property channel. The MSN home page features dedicated Property links, property news and featured property, giving estate agents maximum exposure. Agents listing on the OMS can advertise directly to a number of high traffic portals including MSN and MyProperty. Source: MyBroadband

Entegral launches YouTube video channel

Image
We are proud to announce the launch of the Entegral Video Channel on Youtube. We’ll post some interesting real estate technology related videos on a regular basis. Visit our channel at the following link: www.youtube.com/entegralsa Check out our first two posts about the iSearch and Driving Directions features on MyProperty South Africa . Tip: create your own video channel on YouTube.com, simply create an account (its free) and configure your channel. You can upload video tours of all your homes, and posts the links on your properties listed in the OMS! A great way to gain extra exposure and get mandates.

Using MyProperty’s driving directions feature

See how far a particular property is from your office or current home or simply get driving directions for this Sunday’s on show property. MyProperty makes it real easy, check out the demo video: Note: Agents can mark a property as ‘show on map’ on the OMS backend. When this is done users will be automatically be able to use the driving directions feature shown above.

Using MyProperty’s powerfull iSearch function

See how easy it is to find properties on MyProperty South Africa using the powerful iSearch function. Simply type in what you are looking for and the MyProperty search engine will do the rest….

OMS download library Firefox issue resolved

Image
We’ve corrected an issue on the OMS Download Library files download section where Firefox browser users could not download files. The issue is now resolved. The download library module is available to Enterprise clients and allows for document centralisation for all users/offices.

OMS firefox issue resolved on property details

Image
We’ve fixed the issue with the Firefox browser where it didn’t want to update the property features when you changed it to a different type, e.g. commercial. The issue has been resolved on the capture and editing parts

OMS seller referrals – areas corrected

Image
When capturing a new seller referral the town/suburbs sometimes didn’t want to load. We’ve corrected the issue.

OMS Referrals new days since update/create columns added

Image
The days column in the view referrals section now have 2 days columns: days since updated, and days since created. This allows for better tracking of referrals. The OMS Referrals module is included to all Enterprise (National) clients and allows paperless referrals tracking in an organisation.

OMS brochures, spelling mistake corrected

Image
We’ve corrected the spelling mistake in the footer of brochures as indicated below. The update will be available 5 May 2010.

OMS Property Brochures P.O.A. price

Image
Properties marked in the OMS as P.O.A. (price on application) properties will now get a P.O.A. on the amount section on brochures and not a ‘0.0’ as before.  Available on 5 May 2010 in the OMS. The OMS brochures saves you time from designing & printing your own brochures. Simply open a property listing, go to the reports section and pick your brochure to export to PDF.

OMS advanced search on short term rentals fixed

Image
There was a problem when you select ‘to let available (short term)’ as status option in the advanced search – it didn’t return any property listings. We have loaded and update for this. The advanced search module enables you to find active listings and older (inactive, sold, expired) listings in the OMS by specifying various search criteria.

Get your properties on South Africa’s second most visited website

Image
With over 1,2 Million unique browsers per month www.msn.co.za is South Africa’s 2nd most visited website. Entegral is MSN’s exclusive property channel partner and all listings loaded through our OMS system are automatically loaded on the MSN property section. The MSN Property channel has seen significant growth over the last few months and with Entegral’s increased online marketing campaigns launched start of April many estate agents are reporting exceptional results. Sign up today with Entegral’s OMS, there is no long term contracts and we have interfaces in place to all major property portals, including the launch of the SA Hometraders interface this month. MSN Home page property features: MSN Property channel: