An agent has hit out at the decision of a software company to makes its latest upgrade function properly on only one browser, Google Chrome.
Robert Mamuda, of Alexander May estate agents in Bristol, said that Expert Agent was dictating to its customers.
Mamuda said: “I have been told that unless I switch to Google Chrome by January, Expert Agent will withdraw support.
“Expert Agent has 16,000 users, of whom 30% are already on Google Chrome. But that means 10,000 are not, and they are being dictated to.
“I regard Google Chrome as being a very invasive tool – so much so, that I have banned my kids from using it.
“I was never told when I signed up to Expert Agent only last November that they would force all customers on to Google Chrome. I think it will cost them. It’s commercial suicide.”
Mamuda says staff in his office have already found significant compatibility issues and he points to various issues raised about Google Chrome on the internet – notably accusations that Google collects information about its users.
But Expert Agent chief executive Mike Griffiths defended the decision.
He said: “Expert Agent Touch is a free upgrade for the 2,000 branches that use the existing Expert Agent Touch. It has been very well received.
“It is correct that Expert Agent Touch has been optimised for Google’s Chrome browser.
“We’ve previously had to make Expert Agent work on 11 different browsers. The burden of extra programming, testing and support was slowing the development of the product.
“By recommending one browser, we can control the appearance, functionality and user experience.
“We’ve settled on Google Chrome because it is free and works the same on all platforms, including tablets and Macs.
“It also runs on older Windows machines that can’t run the latest Microsoft browsers and seems to bring them back to life.
“Our new product will work in other browsers but may not give the best customer experience.”
Griffiths added: “Expert Agent Touch works beautifully on an older PC with a mouse and keyboard but really comes alive on a touch screen device.
“Agents are spending less time behind their desks and we wanted to give them tools that they could make better use of whilst on valuations or presenting properties in a less formal office situation.”
Chrome isn't a bad browser so I think that argument is a bit over the top, but browser support is something that all developers have to get used to. Chrome v37 launched last week and that removed a bit of functionality that many enterprise systems use so there is no guarantee that even Chrome will always work. What's the point of being a web based system after all if you limit people to one browser. Surely one of their USPs was that people could login wherever they were on whichever device was available.
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It's not the fact of whether it's a good browser or not, it's the fact of lazyness and incompetence by the developers of Expert Agent. I can understand not supporting Internet Explorer but cutting off Firefox, Safari and Opera plus what I can only imagine is the mobile versions of all the above browsers is a smack in the face to everyone using their service.
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How did I guess?
Explain this- Sausages are full of fat, gristle, sawdust and connected tissue, people know that, know they aren't full of Fillet or Tenderloin and know they aren't the healthiest thing to eat but for some reason they still by Sausages, why?
With 50 + saas suppliers to the industry why does such a large percentage use Expert Agent? The answer to both question is- the customers like it!
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Being the best of a bad bunch isn't actually being the best is it. Nobody should have software dictated to them but the trouble is that it will cost each agency to much to move and retrain, this is something that Expert Agent know and exploit for their own gain.
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Actually they are not the best of a bad bunch and I haven't said it is the best or good but it is good enough and it does the job. The whole point about SAAS and portals for estate agency is that it only needs to provide the bare minimums of CRM. SalesForce and MS Dynamics are great mangement tools but are simply shocking for the sales teams who have them imposed from above.
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We used Expert Agent from 2004 to 2012 and it was great. Interesting to see a 'PortalPerson' be so against an internet cloud-based EA provider and referring to Mike and his team as not being experts. Mike indeed is an expert and Expert Agent is an excellent tool. Plus, when we used it, the training cost was included in the licence fee.
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What you call "Experts" I don't. I am lucky to have worked with true experts in the past and they've forgotten more about technology than Expert Agent and his team will ever know. What he and his team think is amazing and innovative has been done in many other industries 5-10 years ago so it's not really that innovative at all.
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Thanks, Dad – great quote. Lunch at your place on Sunday as usual? Seriously, yes, we're unique in offering unlimited, free, live training. We run 17 different one hour courses every week on everything from booking valuations to sorting HMRC end of year reports. We've trained just over 2000 users in the last year.
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We currently use EA and I have to say I personally looked at several other suppliers a couple of years ago – and most were surprisingly similar! Found the team at EA simply to be more committed and straightforward to deal with – I find it an excellent product with superb (free) training and they are particularly proactive with the software develment (really like the 'touch version' and don't mind at all the it's supported solely on Chrome). Bit confused about the 'not being experts' comments when the MD and guy in charge of sale were both estate agents as well – seemed a little ill-informed!
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We have used Expert agent for over 2 years and it certainly does the job of smoothly linking are 7 offices. Training and support is very good and the new 'touch' version is great progress. Not sure about the Chrome issues raised but can certainly see that a decision to use one platform will speed up development.
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“I regard Google Chrome as being a very invasive tool – so much so, that I have banned my kids from using it." – paranoid!
"It’s commercial suicide." – nonsense, 99.9% of users will not care.
It makes total sense for both provider/developer and user for the product to be optimised for one browser.
"Being the best of a bad bunch isn't actually being the best is it" – well, yes it is.
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Expert Agent Touch is brilliant and a massive leap forward, it works on tablets and mobiles really well and so what if it only works with Chrome, I'd rather have one browser it's rock solid reliable on, than ten that may work in slightly different ways.
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Expert agent could be good but they are very slow to sort out the hundreds of bugs they always seem to have. They all sound rosey until you are signed up with them then the cracks appear. Being wholly online it is a nightmare when their servers crash on a regular basis and you cannot even access the diary.
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This has a massive impact on one's business and to be honest makes an agency look incompetent in the eyes of a vendor.
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You are spot on PP, coupled with the amount of times their help ticket system is slow and many times the help desk person hasn't a clue want you have a problem with. You cannot call them you have to type in the problem which doesn't work. The worse one is when a potential vendor calls in and the system is on one of the many 'go slows' it makes us look very unprofessional.
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This is a problem if you have too many customers, we prefer to limit the amount of agents on our books so we can handle everything easily, get too many and chaos will be on its way.
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Herb – we don't get slowdowns or crashes. The issues are certain to be with your connection or the various layers of software on your PC. If your connection fails or slows, stick a SIM card in your iPad and access EA on it. We it can be frustrating, though, if you can't gain access so that's why we send the Morning Meeting Email to every user at 5am with details of viewings to chase, the day's appointments, tasks, valuation referrals from other members etc. I'd be happy to look at your issues personally – just give me a ring – 01225 303511. Mike
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“I was never told when I signed up to Expert Agent only last November that they would force all customers on to Google Chrome. I think it will cost them. It’s commercial suicide.”
LOL – you couldn't write this stuff. I'll not even bother with the screaming comparisons…
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Hi Everyone. Not sure where this story has come from. There's no insistence that Expert Agent members have to use Chrome. Users can choose their own browser. However, they'll get a better experience in Chrome and we've added some Chrome specific tools such as our Visual Property Presenter.
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Anyone with privacy concerns regarding Chrome can use a browser called 'SRWare Iron' instead. It's exactly the same as Chrome with the Google integration stripped out.
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Thanks Steve, trusted colleague. You showed me this browser and I've downloaded it – EA works great in it. Here's the link if anyone else is interested… http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron.php
PS interesting choice of nom de plume. A great Bob quote "When the inventor of the drawing board messed things up, what did he go back to?". Also, I remembered that he faced trial over intellectual property theft (though Wikipedia helped me remember that a judge ruled there was no case to answer).
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My Multi Branch Estate Agency have been using Expert Agent for many years and I have found the software and support from Mike and his team to be fantastic, I have never had issues with servers going down and highly recommend Expert Agent to any Estate Agency looking to work with a decent cloud based EA software company. Winning the ESTA's for supplier of the year for the past 2 years is testiment enough that Expert Agent are a customer focussed software provider who provide excellent support and training to their members.
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Why the lies?
Erm never go down?
A couple of times lately
The last time was no software for over two hours-
A recent email from EA…
C4L, our main communications company were having problems talking to specific Internet Server Providers.
Their status page is:
http://noc.c4l.co.uk/
Everything came back on again a few minutes ago..
We couldn't swap to our backup servers as many customers were working perfectly and would lose data if we changed over. Also, it would have affected the portal feeds.
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You accuse davids of being a liar but what he is saying is consistent with the fact that specific ISPs were affected. You also don't mention that the incident happened on the day when half the internet was down, including ebay which didn't work all day. EA sent out a follow up email explaining that which I'm sure you received too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/512k_day
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expert agent go down on a weekly basis, mostly blaming isps even though all other websites are fine, even update seems to fix some and break new stuff
their staff treat you like idiots
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Interesting thread … servers do slow down … being an it support for one agency I have been told to log off and login on another rack by EA? So if their servers never slow down/ drop off why do they advocate this?
Same goes for browser compatibility … people have choices and some will / won't like google chrome (personally hate it but my kids love it)
Why is compatibility not being given to FF, safari etc both much safer browsers. The free argument doesn't make sense to me .. there are loads of free browsers out there!
Is there a list anywhere of compatible browsers and a check list of functionality the have ?? i.e. needs flash , needs java, needs ?? with a tick box next to them … hate the script x thats needed to print why isn't it a straight download?
Sorry loads of questions about this that probably can't be answered here!
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