Some software systems are inflexible in their options and necessitate you to alter your business practices to fit the demands of the software. Things you can look for include: - Flexibility in the design of your website. Do you need to alter your site to support data integration? This will clearly also have cost implications.
- Flexibility in the design of property detail sheets. Is there a set format in the software and thus you can only use the templates provided within the software, or can you decide what data is input into your own templates? This can have a considerable impact on any investment you have made in branding and corporate identity and also staff morale, all of which must be taken into consideration.
- Integration of virtual tours and floor plans. Do you have choice of providers or methods or are you restricted to the ones the system can support?
- Ability for you to modify reports. All software will have the key performance reports expected by any agency, however there will be other reports that are specific to your business needs. Can you modify these yourself using queries from the database, or do you need to go back to the provider to design them for you – usually incurring a cost!
The Aspasia route: The aim of Aspasia is to support and not mandate so we aim to give the highest degree of flexibility possible. The advantage of this is that you decide how you want Aspasia to work for you. The downside is that it will take you longer to get the system set up the way you want it to. - Web sites.... For more details on how we support websites, please see above.
- Property details sheets – Aspasia allows you to have any design for your web based detail sheets – if it can be done in HTML, it can be done in Aspasia. It is also possible to store property details in PDF format for downloading by interested applicants
- Virtual tours…. Any type of virtual tour can be used with Aspasia. Tours which are hosted on the internet by various service providers are most common but some agents use their own equipment to create tours which are then downloaded and stored in the Aspasia database.
- Floor plans…. Any type of floor plan can be used in Aspasia provided the images are web compatible (normally jpeg or gifs). They can then be placed within the details sheets or can be called from a specific link.
- Maps…. Aspasia based customer web sites can use the embedded options for Google maps, multi map or Streetmap. There is no cost associated with these services. Other links provided include Up My Street for the provision of local information such as schools etc.
- Reports…The list of reports that Aspasia can provide is extensive. If there are any you need that are not provided then they can invariably be created for you provided they don't already exist albeit in a slightly different form.
Like many companies, Curchods feared culture change and lost revenue during the implementation. These have never materialised – since the roll out there have been no resignations, and no people being unable to achieve what they wanted to. “My oldest member of staff is 66 and said he would retire the day he had to use a computer. He is still here and I can’t get him off it!” Andrew Dewar, Managing Director, Cuchods. | 
