Online Services

Case Study: Model for a prototype of a Web site to enable the secure delivery of sophisticated, highly interactive online real estate services.

Pressure for lower cost products and customer demand for integrated products are driving the real estate services industry towards consolidation. Mortgage companies and other real estate businesses are reducing the number of suppliers they do business with and selecting suppliers that provide multiple products, including title insurance, closing services, credit checks, flood determination, and appraisals.

The drive toward lower cost products is pushing the real estate service industry toward a commodity business model. In order to compete successfully, businesses in this industry must find new ways to differentiate themselves. Considering these business issues, real estate companies need to recognize the need to implement a business infrastructure to electronically sell and deliver multiple real estate services through a fully integrated interface to their diversified client base.

How do you get started ? This case study can help to you understand the architecture, design, build, test and install cycles of a succesful electronic business infrastructure for real estate services.

The proposed model highlights the following Business Objectives of the Electronic Infrastructure:
Create new business opportunities by delivering innovative product offerings, including product and service suites packaged from existing products.
Enable selling and delivery of products through multiple electronic channels to facilitate a commodity business model.
Provide the ability to offer a proactive customer service capability to differentiate product offerings from competitors' offerings.
Reduce costs by supporting electronic delivery of all products.
Objectives of the Infrastructure and the Business Process Systems

The model solution infrastructure integrates and streamlines enterprise-wide processes which are organized into three major systems. In addition to creating the infrastructure, the system creates custom built Order Management, Customer Care and ability to interface with external systems.

This design helps integrate multiple producers on the client's back-end, while supporting multiple product ordering and delivery channels on the client's front-end.

Order Management-receives and routes orders and products to and from customers based on customer and producer profiles
Customer Care-provides status information, tracks orders, and notifies the customer and business unit of delays
Consolidated Billing-provides a single bill for all products ordered

With implementation of the new business infrastructure, customers will be able to place orders through an integrated interface. The system will then process the orders and route them to the appropriate business units for production and the results of the order. Completed orders will be delivered electronically back to the customers' systems along with any requested documents and data. Finally, the infrastructure supports electronic consolidated billing for these transactions.

The business infrastructure supports the client's objective to offer a full suite of real estate services by enabling a customer to place orders for multiple products from different business units through a single interface. Customers will also be able to receive delivery and check the status of multiple orders via the single interface. The client's customer service centers can offer a higher level of service with advanced capabilities to proactively track each transaction to its conclusion. With increased and integrated access to customer order information, the Customer Care system will enable the client's service representatives to offer a more responsive and complete level of service.

The infrastructure also provides the client with the technology to connect directly with many of its key customers. This part of the initiative involves tailoring the client's infrastructure to its customers' various systems, including integration with customers' proprietary and off-the-shelf real estate software programs, and expanding the technology on both ends. By extending electronic connectivity to its customers, streamlining its processes, and enhancing customer service, the client can meet its goal to cut its operational costs.

The Role of Architecture
Aaramb's architecture-driven software delivery process creates the foundation of the architectural framework for such projects. These processes, along with the supporting architectural deliverables, enables Aaramb to define the components of the target system, as well as the technologies, tools, and development work necessary to build and integrate these components. The System Architecture ensures that the client and Aaramb have the same understanding of the necessary work and the phases required to reach the target state, while providing the client with a clear understanding of their position in the process at any given point.