Created by real-estate advisory company Colliers International, OfficeMAP enables companies to search for office space all over Poland, Czech Republic & Slovakia. Colliers has been in the country since 1997 and offers 14 services, including project and property management, leasing and sales advice. In Poland alone, Colliers employs nearly 240 people, has seven offices and is growing rapidly. What sets Colliers apart is the company’s proactive attitude to meeting client needs. This vision was behind the set-up of OfficeMAP.
What did OfficeMAP need to deliver?
Colliers needed a truly user-friendly property search tool for tenants of office buildings. The tool had to do more than just provide images of the property and information like lease terms. It had to highlight a property’s surroundings — its most important feature, and one which influences a potential tenant’s ultimate decision enormously.
What Colliers offered needed to easily enable users to see transport access, parking, green areas, shops and restaurants. In short, everything in the immediate area that might make it attractive.
As Iga Malinowska, Senior Coordinator of Online Projects at Colliers International explains, “In our client-oriented business, saving time and making life easier are the most important factors in clients making a decision on whether to cooperate with us. We create tools which are valuable to our clients and focus on their individual needs.”
This, of course, meant that whatever mapping solution powered OfficeMAP had to deliver. So, it’s perhaps not surprising that Google Maps provides the main functionality behind OfficeMAP.
Why Google Maps?
Quite simply, as Iga says, “Google Maps is the most user-friendly map tool available on the market. Implementation was really quick and easy and our developers didn’t encounter any technical issues. And OfficeMAP is amazingly quick. It used to take our brokers around two hours to create a comparison of five properties for a client. A map showing selected properties took an hour. Now both tasks can be done in five seconds. And just like our clients, our brokers are delighted with OfficeMAP.”
OfficeMAP is integrated with Colliers’ internal database of properties and brokers and presents more than 1,000 properties. Users can create their own area within which to search and then generate an A3 map showing their favorite properties.
The service is also accessible on mobile devices, which means clients and brokers can view properties on the move
Mapping a partnership with Globema
One of the reasons the implementation of OfficeMAP proceeded so smoothly is the involvement of authorized Google partner Globema. As Iga Malinowska says: “Globema is our advisor on the subject of maps. They suggest the most appropriate solutions for Colliers, both for internal and external use. They answer all our questions regarding the law, technical issues, and questions of functionality.” Globema plans to continue helping Colliers International with additional exciting developments based on Google Geo products.
The results
Since OfficeMAP went live, Colliers has seen an increase of 15 percent in email and phone enquiries. Leads are up 50 percent and initial property search times have been reduced by 90 percent. And because OfficeMAP answers most client questions right away, it’s perhaps not surprising client satisfaction is up 40 percent.
Best of all, Colliers can point to a 20 percent increase in new clients coming from their online channel and a 5 percent increase in revenue. Operating costs have been reduced by 5 percent, while costs associated with staff and resources have been consolidated by 10 percent.
OfficeMAP is now live in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Colliers has just launched a new service called warehouses. Colliers is also an owner of service called www.warehouses.pl., which also runs on Google Maps.
On top of all the impressive facts and figures, OfficeMAP reminds clients that Colliers is constantly raising standards for presenting properties and setting new trends online.
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