OfficeBroker.com Case Study
OfficeBroker.com Uses Virtual Earth to Build Custom Applications for Sales Managers
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READING, UK — 10 May 2007 — “Virtual Earth has enabled us to develop a tool that allows the sales manager and the sales director to zoom in to a specific area, select a radius from within the area they’ve zoomed in to, and then provide information such as the number of offices, the number of sales in the area and the level of profit. The visual aid that Virtual Earth provides is very beneficial in helping us develop additional business,” Neil Cadman, IT director for OfficeBroker.
OfficeBroker.com, the UK’s largest online provider of commercial office space, recently deployed Virtual Earth to replace another online mapping technology.
Business Needs
According to Neil Cadman, the company’s IT director, OfficeBroker was looking for a mapping solution that provided customers with a rich, dynamic user experience, that served as a flexible platform upon which they could build custom applications. The deployment of Virtual Earth is part of an overall effort by OfficeBroker to improve the efficiency of its operations and provide better services for its customers.
Solution
Cadman’s team created a tool that allows members of the sales team to select an area from the Virtual Earth application, and then identify all the commercial spaces within that area that meet a customer’s parameters, and then, directly from Virtual Earth, send the customer a report that includes a map with virtual drawing pins that represent each of those properties. The customer can then to click on a drawing pin using Virtual Earth to view images of the property and additional details.
Cadman notes that as a result of these improvements, customers are much more engaged in viewing the reports. And with the reports generated by Virtual Earth, clients can more effectively plan out what properties they want to view and in what order they want to view them based on their locations. In the future, OfficeBroker will also enable clients to get directions through their report that will help them navigate from property to property.
Benefits
Virtual Earth has played an important role in many subsequent improvements. One example is that OfficeBroker consultants can now respond to a client’s property inquiry in roughly half the time it took previously, thus freeing up their time to focus on other clients or providing additional services for the client.
Virtual Earth also increases the knowledge that OfficeBroker’s consultants have of a given area, despite sometimes working out of offices that are hundreds of miles away. “Being able to talk about specific locations and pin point areas has helped close numerous deals,” says UK sales manager, Dan Murphy. “The ability to follow road networks, tube lines and pick out points of interest using Virtual Earth has given our clients more of a visual idea of where potential offices are. For example, I recently directed a client to an office viewing in central London by picking out theatres, cinemas and other landmarks – yet he had no idea I was based in the Midlands.”
Customer Profile
Customer: OfficeBroker.com
Website: www.officebroker.com
Country or Region: UK
Industry: Property
OfficeBroker.com, the UK’s largest online provider of commercial office space, recently deployed Virtual Earth to replace another online mapping technology.
