SOFTWARE REVIEW
IT industry to tie their clients in – check the data storage and support fee structure carefully – the service provider holds all the cards in this scenario. If you don’t pay you won’t have access to either the software or your data”. “On the rural front cloud/web based is
sometimes simply not practical. Promises of improved broadband delivery are being made by all parties… but it all takes time to arrive – literally!”
SECURITY ISSUES? Security is definitely a major issue. “If you’re allowing a third party to look after your data, how secure can it be?” Peter Grant of VTUK asks. He doesn’t believe agents will be happy using the cloud. “The only real value of an agency is its data – whether it has nice looking branch offices, smart looking cars – so our clients will never dream of giving their data to someone else.” Phil Barton says that Property Intellect
“made a specific decision not to go online” because of this. He also believes that data protection can be an issue (for instance if customer data is being held outside the EU on a US-based server). But Glyn Trott of LetMC says that using
a cloud system can make data more, not less secure. The greatest risk to most agents, realistically, is a negotiator taking a copy of the data when they leave – and go to another agency – or staff giving up their passwords. “Ironically, if you host your own software and your own data, you can be more at risk. I’ve had two clients where someone walked in, picked up the machine and walked out, taking the business with them.” If the data is held by the service provider, no one can steal it from the branch and the software has been designed not to allow negotiators to download or print out client lists. Besides, the service agreement includes secure hosting of data – for instance Expert Agent backs up data at two separate locations; that’s not the case with the traditional software agreement. Phil Barton also worries about what
happens if the software provider goes bust. “In the case of a locally installed product, you’re sitting on a database on your PC,” he says. The software will carry on working, though eventually a new system will probably be needed. If a cloud-based provider goes down, there will be no access to the data – or to the software.
The greatest risk to most agents is a negotiator taking a copy of your data when they leave...” Glyn Trott replies that good cloud
providers have thought this through. For instance they will often put the software in escrow, so that if anything does happen to the software provider, the client can take possession of a clean copy of the software. Besides, he says, if the company goes into administration, the administrator has a duty to keep the company saleable, “and that means keeping the customers running.” The whole model of providing software
as a service, though, should help cloud providers keep solvent. As Trott points out, “As a subscription based company, we have regular funding, month in month out, and we don’t have to sell five new licences to keep going.” There are certainly a number of
convincing benefits to cloud computing. One is that the cost of data storage and processing power is shared between all the subscribers. Glyn Trott says “With the subscription fee you’re not only paying for the software, you’re also paying for hardware that as an agent you couldn’t
“With a locally installed product you’re sitting on a database on your
PC. If a cloud based provider goes down there will be no access to your data or to
the software.” PhIl BaRTon PRoPERTY InTEllECT
possibly afford.” He believes that’s something that is particularly attractive to start-ups, though LetMC also appeals to mid-size clients with 9-10 branches, like Jordans Residential. “We can serve the smallest and the largest,” he says; “that’s what the cloud enables us to do.” Stewart Anderson points out that as
locally installed software, using the powerful Oracle database, Aspasia had identified the big multi-branch agent as its target market. But the advent of the cloud enabled it to broaden its appeal. “We took a real punt, and we created one of the first web based products in the market.” While it’s still not economic to provide the software to clients with fewer than ten users (or seven, on the lettings side), Aspasia has definitely moved out of its blue chip niche. Cloud computing is, in some people’s
views, more directly beneficial to software providers than it is to agents. Hosting software applications “in the cloud” simply means that we are using different server hosting providers.
“The only real value of an agency is its data, whether it has nice offices
or smart cars. Our clients would never dream of giving their data to someone else.” PETER GRanT VTUK
22 JUNE 2010 PROPERTYdrum
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