Celebrating 20 years and unveiling Real Estate Connect

If you’re not on our mailing list, following us on twitter or connected with us on LinkedIn, you may have missed the fact that we recently turned 20 years old.

I think that makes us—or at least our Managing Director, Kyri Striftombolas—an official #PropTech veteran.

When we decided to mark the occasion with an event for our clients, we knew we needed to put Kyri on stage to present TopUp’s journey. We figured that Kyri would pull out a few golden stories to impress our newer clients, while our older clients would enjoy reminiscing over some shared experience.

However, we didn’t just want to look backwards.

As a company that helps real estate businesses to keep pace with continued technology changes, we decided that we should also look forward. At this point, it became clear that it was the perfect time to unveil our latest real estate software product: Real Estate Connect.

So, that’s just what we did.

Connect your property systems, data and people—in just one place!

• Consolidate your existing systems and data sources
• Add new functionality with codefree apps
• Brand each solution with a look, feel and functionality to suit your business

The venue

We welcomed guests to the Orangery at No11 Cavendish Square, just around the corner from our Central London HQ, with a glass of sparkly, free-flowing canapes and some smooth jazz.

Aware that our brand complemented the venues lovely green courtyard, we had unashamedly decorated the interior with our branding and topped it off with some atmospheric green lighting.

It all served as the perfect backdrop for the evening’s presentations.

The journey

Kyri first took to the stage to welcome guests before delivering a potted history of TopUp’s journey from our first real estate consultancy contract through to our present status as the industry’s leading independent software consultancy.

You can flick through the history on the slide share below to see pivotal moments in our continued growth, but I’m afraid you’ll have to ask Kyri to share some of the amusing stories when you see him.

Unveiling Real Estate Connect

Dean Nixon, Technical Director and product visionary, took his turn at the lectern to explain the rationale behind Real Estate Connect.

As he explained so succinctly, I’ll include his words verbatim:

“Over our years of working closely with real estate companies all shapes and sizes, we’ve found that most businesses in the sector use multiple systems for different parts of their operation—even when they often have the same functionality.

For example, we often see businesses using different portals for their retail, residential and commercial operations, even though they complete similar tasks. Each system has a variety of integrations—some open with API, some closed, and most using manual CSV import to upload data. It’s all unnecessarily complex.

So, we thought:
• how can we take this complexity away?
• how can we put flexibility in the hands of the software users?
• how can we give users the functionality that they need without having to wait for the software manufacturer to release the next integration of next set of features?”

The answer? Create a solution that enables users to consolidate their systems in a single place, while also providing the ability to add missing functionality natively through a number of code-free apps.

In a special preview, Dean then demonstrated the speed with which Real Estate Connect will enable you to create an entirely unique portal and the ease with which you can add functionality through using one of 25+ code-free apps, with more on the way.

It certainly whetted the appetite, with several attendees committing to the early adopter programme to help us refine new apps and test new connections in advance of the official launch in 2018.

Don’t worry if you missed out. You can register now for an exclusive demonstration, but be quick to avoid disappointment!

The close

Kyri wrapped up the presentation by thanking everyone for coming and with the suggestion that we should enjoy the open bar, food and company until closing time. The suggestion was universally acknowledged as excellent and we all did as instructed.

While Kyri & Dean cut the obligatory birthday cake, I took the opportunity to catch up with clients and colleagues away from the office and, in some cases, to meet people in person for the first time. (Shout out to Saminder Pahal from UKPA!)

Although I didn’t manage to make acquaintance with everyone this time, it was nice to see that we really do work with a great bunch of people. I was particularly pleased to meet representatives from our first ever real estate client— and still a client to this today—McArthurGlen Group.

There is a definite theme that once people start working with TopUp, they tend to stay working with TopUp. So, when we throw the 40th birthday in 2037, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few more familiar faces.