IT for agents who are never at their desk and always on the phone.
An estate agency runs on the phone, the website and the CRM, and the people using them are out on viewings half the day. Add AML and Right to Rent checks, tenancy agreements, deposit records and the odd branch, and there's a lot of technology holding up a business nobody thinks of as technical. Foundry runs it.
Sound familiar?
The things we hear from estate agents before they work with us. If more than one of these is your week, keep reading.
- The office phone rings out when the broadband drops, and that was a vendor calling to instruct us.
- A negotiator's laptop has every viewing photo, ID scan and tenancy agreement from the last year on it. It's not encrypted.
- The website was built by an agency we can't get hold of, and the domain renews in someone's personal email.
- Right to Rent documents are in an inbox, a shared drive and two phones.
- The branch printer has been the biggest IT topic of the quarter.
Your environment
What the business actually depends on.
- Agency CRM and property portal feeds at the centre of the business
- A phone system that is the business's main sales channel
- A public website that generates instructions and enquiries
- Microsoft 365 for email and documents across one or more branches
- Negotiators on phones and laptops, rarely at a desk
- AML, Right to Rent and tenancy documents with retention obligations
Your risks
Security, compliance, availability and data.
- Missed calls and lost instructions when the phones fail
- Email compromise redirecting deposits or completion funds
- ID and tenancy documents leaking from unmanaged laptops and phones
- AML and GDPR obligations around identity and financial records
- A website that's slow, insecure or held hostage by a former supplier
- Losing the domain, and with it the email and the website, to a missed renewal
Your problems
The IT frustrations we hear most.
- The branch manager is the IT department between valuations
- Nobody owns the website, the domain or the DNS
- Phones, broadband, CRM and IT all come from different suppliers who blame each other
- Devices are bought ad hoc and never secured or tracked
- Leavers walk out with the client list on their phone
The Foundry solution
Foundry runs the technology behind the agency: a cloud phone system that keeps ringing on mobiles when the office is offline, the domain and website registered in your name and run properly, Microsoft 365 administered, every laptop and phone managed and encrypted so a lost device is an inconvenience rather than a data breach, and documents with legal retention kept somewhere findable and backed up. One team, one monthly cost, and no more chasing suppliers between viewings.
Your Foundry stack
The capabilities of the platform that matter most for estate agents, and what each one is for. Take what you need.
Foundry Connect
→ Cloud phones with mobile failover, Microsoft 365, email, identity
Foundry Web
→ Domain in your name, DNS, website hosting, CDN, certificates, WAF
Foundry Support
→ Laptops, phones and branch PCs managed and patched, helpdesk, starters and leavers
Foundry Secure
→ Device encryption, MFA, EDR, email security, Cyber Essentials
Foundry Cloud
→ Cloud hosting where the CRM needs it, Microsoft 365 backup, tested recovery
Foundry Growth
→ Local search and Google Business Profile for each branch