That's great, until it becomes popular and there's a single vulnerable implementation where your information is intercepted and can then be replayed electronically ad nauseum.
Biometrics are neat, but there's a great rule of thumb (no pun intended) in security - never use a key (cryptographic or physical) you can't change when it has been compromised.
Nov. 11, 2008 - The Multiple Listing Service Mission Statement
When Clareity Consulting facilitates Multiple Listing Service (MLS) strategic planning sessions, one agenda item is almost always to discuss the MLS Mission Statement. Sometimes the group just needs to be reminded of the Mission Statement, other times the group may want to discuss and change it, and sometimes the MLS doesn't have a Mission Statement at all and Clareity needs to work with them to develop it.
Mission Statements are very important for a complex company to have. These statements embody the organization’s purpose and values, define the stakeholders and what the organization will do for them. While some Mission Statements contain additional elements, those are the basics. Typically, a Mission Statement is both clear and brief. In the strategic planning context, it can serve as a guideline for evaluating the relevance and priority of both current and new initiatives. Without a clear understanding of the Mission Statement, it is much more difficult to discuss, frame, and gauge the relevance of strategies, let alone the specific lower level critical success factors, initiatives, tactics and action plans.
Let’s look at a few actual MLS Mission Statements as examples.
[MLS Name] is the recognized source for reliable, integrated Real Estate information services for the [MLS Geography] area.
In this example, the customer is not clear. Other than defining a specific service activity, neither the purpose nor values are made clear.
Here’s another one:
To facilitate cooperation and compensation among its members through a common database of real estate information.
This one defines the customer as “members” – this is good, but it doesn’t differentiate between agents and brokers as customers, and not being clear about that can cause tensions on a board. It’s also defined the specific purpose the company will engage in – “to facilitate cooperation and compensation” and how it will accomplish that “through a common database of real estate information”. This is a fairly complete mission statement, based on the definition provided at the beginning of this article, but is it a good mission statement for today’s MLS? It doesn’t address the service and support provided by the MLS, or provide any context for the MLS’s public property listings site or other initiatives undertaken by this MLS. It’s okay to have a limited mission statement – but maybe this one needs to be revisited to encompass what is now clearly a larger mission.
Here’s another one:
The function of [MLS Name] is to provide to the shareholder and customer associations a basic core of MLS services that are dependable, efficient, and cost-effective and to encourage vendors to introduce into the [MLS Name] marketplace optional products that REALTORS® may choose to purchase.
Maybe a bit longer than a typical mission statement, but a lot has been said here. The customer is clearly defined as the Association. I’m not sure what happens when Association, broker, and agent interests are not aligned – that’s a situation that should be considered. The basic purpose from the previous example, cooperation and compensation, is implied, though not explicitly stated in “core of MLS services”. But, this mission statement is especially interesting because it makes it very clear the method and business model that will be used for non “core” MLS services – that these will be optional, for REALTOR® purchase. The site licenses many MLSs purchase for transaction management, digital document management, and other information products and services would clearly be out of bounds for this MLS – the Mission Statement has truly focused the activities of this group.
Let’s look at the next three Mission Statements together:
To develop, promote and provide the highest quality of real estate information, products and services to our members at a reasonable cost.
To provide our members the highest quality real estate information, products and services at a reasonable cost, so they may better serve the consumer.
The mission of [the MLS] is to provide state-of-the-art, cost effective and superior multiple listing services, information and programs to advance the professionalism and success of its customers.
The first one clearly identifies the customer again as the “member” as well as what is being provided “real estate information, products and services”. The business model made so clear in the previous example is not so clarified in this one. The “reasonable cost” is a nice touch – providing a condition that generates discussion and evaluation of cost (and value) for each initiative. The second example expands on the first, by adding a consumer-centric purpose that reflects the modern consumer-focused position that has started to gain favor in real estate industry discussion. The third example is in many ways very similar to the first, but worded very differently. The addition of advancing member professionalism and success is admirable.
Here’s another one:
To empower, support and educate our members to achieve their goals by providing cutting edge resources that improve and enhance their business and personal lives.
Since most MLS subscribers don’t use the range of tools provided by the MLS organization, there is value in the addition of support and education to this mission statement – this MLS clearly is focused not just on providing tools, but having them used. Improving and enhancing member business is a fine goal, though somewhat vague. I must admit to not understanding how or why the MLS is getting involved in the “personal lives” - I wish I had been at the meeting where this mission was developed! Most MLSs shy away from the term “cutting edge” because of the risk that is often associated with “cutting edge technology” and steer toward “excellent”, “best”, or as in previous examples, “highest quality”.
Let’s look at a very different Mission Statement:
[MLS Name] is a real estate information and technology company that creates value for our shareholders by providing premier business solutions to real estate professionals.
This one has many of the previous elements, but adds a corporate touch, with its primary purpose to provide shareholder value.
One last example:
To preserve a REALTOR® owned information service that serves, always the good of the brokerage community at large. To continue to provide the most effective, user-friendly MLS system available to our community of agents, by constantly working toward improving and expanding our services and system, while always controlling the cost to the individual agent.
Slightly longer than most Mission Statements, this is somewhat unusual in its explicit nod to REALTOR® ownership, the bigger picture of the “good of the brokerage community at large”, and the need for a “user-friendly” MLS system. It is also explicit in defining the direction of the organization as providing services beyond the core. This is all good and useful guidance for a group trying to make decisions about MLS initiatives.
What is the mission of MLS organizations? Clearly, from the examples above, it varies. There isn’t really a right or wrong. Each organization can define its customers and the balance between customer subsets as it wishes. Some organizations see the mission as evolving, while others are focused on the core function of the MLS system. Different organizations strive for different amounts of greatness. Some focus on just systems, while others expand the mission to education and other services. Prioritizing operational parameters such as cost control, user-friendliness, and dependability in the Mission Statement are all fine choices as well.
It's always interesting to assist in the facilitation of MLS strategic planning sessions and review the Mission Statement for relevance to MLS present and planned future activities. When the mission statement is aligned with those activities, there tends to be less arguing about the strategies, tactics and action plans that reflect the mission - and MLS management and decision-making benefits.
As part of a thorough MLS selection process, I facilitate a number of MLS demonstrations every year for MLS clients. I'm always shocked when professional salespeople make basic mistakes and knock their company out of the running.
While it's part of my job to make sure that the decision makers account for all of the information gathered throughout the selection process rather than just how good the demo was, if a salesperson has thoroughly embarrassed themselves and made demo attendees ask the MLS staff, "Why was this vendor was even asked to present?" there's little I can do for the vendor when the final decision is being made.
Sometimes vendors have me come in to evaluate why their demos are not meeting with better response, and presentations can always be fine-tuned - but here are some helpful hints for a successful presentation:
Prepare for your visit - know what integrations they want, public record availability and quality, mapping data layer availability and quality. Preparation shows you care and that your company is professional. Being able to say, "I researched this and found out..." always beats, "I'll have to look into that and get back to you".
Another preparation tip - run through the demo before you go before the group. If you put in a few price ranges and keep getting a "No results found" or have to call someone to ask for a URL you can use for your demo, it looks bad.
Never talk about how much successful your company is, unless you can relate it directly to customer benefits.
Show the core system - the "post login" screen, searches, reports, hotsheets, CMA, listing maintenance. Show additional functions, from calculators to roster. If they have an interest, be prepared to show the mobile product, PC/Mac based product, and your IDX/VOW solutions, as well as key functions for MLS staff ... and whatever else is applicable to their interest. Time your demonstration so you can get to everything and still have some time for questions. Going the right speed - not to fast or too slow - can be difficult, but if the other vendors were able to do it, you should also be able to do so.
Don't get buried in typing - or worse, just talk about features without showing them.
Talk about each feature in terms of the benefits to the users - don't do a dry presentation of technology in terms of functions.
That's a starting point. I could probably go on all day - if you've been through enough demos I bet you could too!
As a part of the ongoing effort it takes to be a real estate IT and management consultant, I keep track of the competitive features of the many MLS systems, RETS servers, transaction management systems, compliance systems, membership systems, broker back-office systems, real estate listings web sites and various other systems that make up the universe of real estate industry IT.
Yesterday I performed some maintenance on my MLS list:
Starting Number of Features:
539
Features Removed (obsolete / less useful to track):
12
New Features Added:
26
Total Features:
553
Then I went through the list and updated all (at least most) of the vendors and systems, tracking which features each system has.
I still have another list of 'lesser' MLS system feature additions to merge into the big list, but that's going to have to wait until things quiet down again as the winter holidays approach. For now, the list will be good enough for my upcoming MLS Selection / RFP projects.
Matt Cohen has consulted to MLSs, Associations, franchises, brokerages, and many real estate industry software companies for over 12 years. Matt is a well-regarded real estate industry expert on industry trends, software design, product management, project management, and information security. Matt speaks at conferences, workshops and leadership retreats around the country on a wide variety of MLS-related topics.
RSS Blog Feed