Products

08/02/07

Rollout schedule for Agent's 1st Choice.

Some may be wondering what we mean by a rollout out. We will try and shed some light on this here. Basically we have several different products available with Agent's 1st Choice. To try and answer some questions (and probably create some new ones we want to explain a little about what is coming and when you can expect it. With that let us tell you what is happing.

Agents 1st Choice

08/02/07

Howard & Friends Agents 1st Choice

Phase 1 & II which is ready now will operate much like the single agent Star Contact and HF 12.27 programs that you are used to now. With some major differences in the program itself.

The difference between the phase's is in how you access the programs data not the functions available in the program.

Phase 1 is designed for the true single agent user who mostly works from one location and only occasionally needs to place the data on a laptop or take the database home to work. If this is you then Phase 1 is going to work great and you save money.

So what's the difference? The data that is on one computer, to be used on the other computer you have to do a “backup” of the data and “restore” it to the other computer. This effectively places an exact copy of the database on the other computer. To use the program you operate it just like on the other computer.

The bad thing about this traditional method of getting data back and forth is that to get the changed data back to the 1 st computer you have to backup and restore to the other computer. If you add information on 1 computer and then “restore” that database you will end up wiping out your changes on Computer #2. .

This is ok for the user who always works from 1 computer and only occasionally needs to put the data on another computer but not so good for an agent with an assistant or who works at the office and then goes home and works and works on their laptop in between. This brings us to Phase 2

Phase Two- Client /Server

We are currently in Phase II

Phase 2 is our Client/Server version. In it the data is hosted on a server (ours or yours but we host it for the 1st year for FREE right now) and any changes to the database are reflected right away on the server.

Thus the user of Agent's 1 st Choice could be entering in data on their office, laptop, or home computers at the same time and not have to worry about the backup and restore anymore because the minute that you make a change on one computer the change is seen on the other computer. Pretty good.

This is the version most like the web versions of programs like Top Producer 7i, and like Top Producer 7i, it requires an internet connection to transfer or get the data. For instance if you don't have an internet connection then you can't get on your Top Producer 7i program until you make an internet connection. The same is true for phase 2 of Agent's 1 st Choice . If you don't have an internet connection you won't be able to use it either. Usually not a problem, since most of the time we are on the internet, but sometimes it could be.

So what's the difference between them? There are many many advantages so we will give you just a couple. The 1st advantage of the New Agent's 1 st Choice is SPEED. Because we are running on your desktop and connecting to the server via the internet we will have much much more speed, functions and capabilities than a web based product. (Actually Top Producer is not even a web based product; they are a Java application that uses a web browser .. ugh but more on that later)

For instance why is Microsoft Word not an Internet based application? Because to get the full feature functions of Word it needs the processing power of the computer. And what is a key component of any real estate contact management system ....a word processor.

Another example is have you ever tried to resize a screen (frame) on the web? You can't do it. Desktop no problem.

So Phase 2 will be a much better product for agents who have assistants and partners who are both entering in data into the same database and who both need the information at the same time but from different locations. Unlike TP we don't charge you for multiple users at the same time. In TP each additional user is $19.95 month so 2 users $40 month times 12 months plus the initial base fee of $40 month....that's almost $1,000 a year...How long are you going to be in real estate?

So what is the downfall here? It requires that you be on the internet or all computers have a connection to the serve (basically an internet connection) .

Even with advances in technology there are situations in which we just do not have an internet connection. This brings us to Phase 3.

06/02/07

Phase 3.

What everyone is talking about!!!!

Phase 3 is our Replicated Database. Phase 3 is kind of a combination of Phase 1 and 2 on steroids.

It allows you to enter in information to your database OFFLINE and when you make an internet connection it will then sync the changed data on your computer with the data on the server when you do go online. This gives you the best of both worlds. Total accessibility.( BTW most users will see no decrease in speed between the online and offline program. It's that fast.)

So this version is most like a combination of Top Producer and Agent Office or for those of you using Agent Office E-server.(Check out E-Server prices for Agent Office ....you have to have the base system and then it's about $35 month per user) The big difference with both other than Agent's 1st Choice being a newer and more sophisticated, easier to use, more functional program, is that you can host your own database. Then you don't need to pay for the monthly hosting fee, just the yearly subscription fee (currently $129 year)

You can host the data on your server and not have to pay a monthly fee for hosting. Last time we checked Top Producer 7i was $35-40 per month per user for just 7i and Agent Office was $35 per month per user for the E-Server version plus you had to pay for the Desktop version. Not only do we combine the best of both products but we give you the option to cut your monthly costs.

Howard & Friends was the 1st, yes the 1st Real Estate Contact Management System in the World. It was the 1st to use the Main/Remote sync concept. It was the first to employ the data merge and E-merge concepts. And a whole bunch of other 1st's.

Once again we are the 1st to develop this type of system for the Real Estate community. We think you're going to understand why we named it Agent's 1st Choice. !