Australian-listed property technology company, Openn Negotiation Limited’s (ASX: OPN) company’s proprietary software is now live in the United States.
Usage will continue under pilot conditions during the December quarter. The first pilot listings occurred in Massachusetts.
Boston based real estate group RE/MAX Revolution entered a pilot programme with Openn in the December 2021 quarter. Prior to release of the live US production server, this pilot was conducted via focus- groups and beta testing in pre-production versions of the software.
Feedback from that process was used to test and evaluate Openn’s value proposition for the North American market and design the feature sets needed for commercial success.
The first pilot properties entered onto the Openn platform were sold within a week of listing to the first offer.
While impressive, we do not consider this a robust test of the platform. The limited scope of these transactions does not allow for feedback to confirm platform value to all stakeholders,” Duncan Anderson, President of Openn North America, said.
“However, the launch and transaction flow in the live environment is a significant milestone. Importantly, this event triggers a series of steps that de-risk and prepare the path for commercial launch.”
The company also reported the successful integration of Openn’s products and systems with CREA, including the ability for Openn’s software to become offered within the REALTOR.ca property sales website. The Canadian production server release candidate is complete and undergoing Quality Assurance testing.
REALTOR.ca, owned and operated by CREA, is the most popular and trusted real estate website in Canada. With more than 516 million visits each year and 1.9 billion unique property page views in 2021, REALTOR.ca provides up-to-date listing information for residential and commercial properties in Canada
With its software ready to manage live transactions in both Canada and the USA, the company says the previously announced pilot programmes are on track to expand agent participation and progress into live environment transactions during the December 2022 quarter.
Two provincial Canadian real estate boards and another two US based Multiple Listing Service (MLS) partners have committed to expanding current pilot programs in two waves, with the following planned activity:
1. Early November: One Canadian real estate board and one US MLS, in conjunction with 30 agents across multiple brokerages representing a combined total of 5,500 agents.
2. Late November: A second Canadian real estate board and second US MLS, in conjunction with an additional 60 agents across multiple brokerages representing a combined total of 51,000 agents.
Openn’s executive management team consider the product integration, training programs and support systems in the North American market are now approximately 85% complete and anticipate that a full commercial launch will occur in Q1 CY 2023. Current pilot partnerships give Openn the potential to roll-out the company’s technology via access to more than 210,000 realtors within North America.
“The transition in pilot profile from focus groups and beta testing to real world usage is a clear indication that the US and Canadian products are nearing commercial rollout. Our partners at MLS, real estate board, and peak body level have provided outstanding support in that process. It’s an encouraging sign that the North American real estate market is ready for transparency,” Eric Bryant, Director of Operations for Openn North America Inc, said.
