 Aspasia Cloud is designed to operate in the digital age where communication is almost entirely electronic. Communication by letter is designed to be very much an exception to be used where there is a legal requirement or where a customer simply doesn't have a means of electronic communication. Electronic communication is almost instant, very much more efficient, entirely cost free and therefore an obvious choice in this digital age as shown by pioneers in cloud technology like Amazon and many others. In the medium term agencies who do not embrace modern methods of communication are unlikely to survive faced with the myriad of electronic alternatives now widely used. Modern sites designed to remove agents from the process of buying or renting property make extensive use of electronic communications and agents must do likewise to offer comparable levels of service and cost efficiency. Electronic communications also lend themselves to automation which serve to give customers a higher level of service than is possible with traditional methods of communication like letters and the telephone. This is so important in the battle to raise the public perception of agents as worthwhile and worthy contributors to the buying and renting process. It also means that agents can handle more transactions with less staff overheads which of course results in business efficiency and will be essential to survive in the future. The old fashioned traditional agency methods are unlikely to prosper in the future with the possible exception of a few small market sectors. Word Processing Traditional Aspasia uses Microsoft Word but Aspasia Cloud does not because they are from different architectures and desktop based Word does not fit into cloud technology. Word was the obvious choice 10 years ago when traditional Aspasia was conceived largely because it was so much of a standard that it was the natural choice for the majority of businesses and Aspasia would probably not have prospered without such integration particularly with larger customer groups. The integration of desktop based Word and Internet based Aspasia was not without its difficulties. It resulted in us being restricted to Internet Explorer as the browser and to the PC as the device on which to run Aspasia and these restrictions are no longer acceptable to fulfil the aims of Aspasia Cloud. Moreover, this combination of different technologies resulted in speed and other operational complications which have been eradicated with Aspasia Cloud. The business of merging a document in Word resulted in uploading and downloading data combined with local machine processing which was, and always will be, a slow and complicated process which has no place in cloud technology. Aspasia Cloud is integrated with a commercially available web based word processor that is very easy to use and more than capable of addressing the requirements of residential agency work. Moreover it is free to customers and requires no maintenance or support whatsoever. The documents are stored in Aspasia Cloud's Oracle database (as before) and are also stored in Google Apps which permit extraordinary facilities for ease of access and sharing. Migrating existing correspondence to the new framework is a relatively simple process but it needs to be seen in the context that in today's world nearly all communication is delivered electronically rather than by the use of paper and associated printers. Emphasis on Email  In the traditional (indeed current) agency model the emphasis on written
communication takes the form of printed correspondence, certainly for
documents that could in any sense be classified as official or formal.
Although there has in recent times been a growing use of email for
largely less significant communications, the printed word is still seen
by many as a necessary and required element of agency transactions.Unfortunately,
printed communications bring with them many inefficiencies and
unnecessary costs. First they are costly in terms of the print process
itself and postage but more importantly in terms of the staff overheads
involved. Secondly they are slow and likely to introduce an unnecessary
delay in the context of today's digital environment. From a software
point of view they also create difficulties with the time and effort
involved trying to ensure a consistent final presentation across the
wide variety of printing devices and mechanisms available and can
present further difficulties in the context of integrating a web based
and desktop computing environment. Another side
effect of printed communication is that it is difficult to use this
medium to effectively convince customers that agencies provide value for
money and this helps to contribute to a poor public image. Changing the
emphasis to email (SMS, etc.) means that we can automate feedback to a
much higher level resulting in more satisfied customers who are more
able to understand the services agents provide to justify their fees. New
opportunities In many other industries
communications are now far more likely to be conducted electronically by
email, SMS or online and so it must be if agents are to prosper in the
new world where the list of outside pressures on the traditional agency
model grows by the day. Now even officialdom in the guise of the Office
of Fair Trading is creating another incentive for change in the arena of
residential property sales. The sheer immediacy, business efficiency
and customer convenience of the new communication methods will quickly
dictate a change of emphasis. Moreover, the ease of use and convenience
inherent in these new electronic methods of communication will also
result in less emphasis on the telephone for all but those occasions
where an immediate two way or sales dialogue is required. Recognising
this and also accepting that there will be occasions when the
traditional methods are still required, Aspasia Cloud has been designed
to give the overriding priority to electronic communication,
particularly email, over printed matter which is now regarded as a
minority alternative option. When email itself doesn't have the scope to
deal with the matter comprehensively, it will include a link to an
online facility where any deficiencies can be overcome, often in the
form of an interactive dialogue. There is also the fully integrated option of having all documents signed electronically online for all communications with customers and suppliers where a signature is required. Aspasia Cloud uses the world's largest online supplier for the provision of these services and the same company is used extensively within organisations like BT and many others. How it will work Given
the new prominence of email as the preferred communications medium it
was imperative that first we chose a serious professional email system
to integrate within Aspasia Cloud itself and secondly to make it handle
incoming email in such a manner that correspondence would be
automatically linked to the appropriate records within the system with
none of the manual time consuming "cutting and pasting" that is the norm
with other systems. Aspasia Cloud incorporates
the acclaimed security and functionality of Google's universal email
system in its Google Apps Premier (Postini) format. This provides a huge
range of features ranging from the virtual elimination of spam to the
ability to control all aspects of a company's email from a management
console if so desired. Users have their normal email
addresses referencing their own company domain just like any other
system and it makes use of all the normal Google interoperability with
computers and mobile devices from any manufacturer. As
such we believe that the primary method of communication within Aspasia
Cloud is now based on the most comprehensive and sophisticated email
platform available today and benefits from the power of Google's search
technology for the long term ease of use and retrieval of customer
information. Potential
benefits The
benefits from a change of emphasis from printed to electronic customer
communications include the following....
Aspasia Cloud permits the use of video communications between customers and agency staff and between agency offices. This is conducted via the Internet, is entirely free and has the potential for significant cost savings over traditional telephonic communication. Naturally it is designed to work alongside traditional telephones, not as a replacement, and depends on both parties using a laptop or desktop with an inbuilt camera facility. In the short term it is likely that this technology will be principally used between branch offices or with customers who are more comfortable with this form of communication like the current younger generation. |
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Aspasia Cloud In Depth > What is Different? >
Communications |