Which Brokerage Intranet Solution is Right for You? (Part 1)

Gone are the days when the brokerage itself was the physical hub of agents' activities. Thanks to mobile apps and cloud-based solutions, agents are able to access everything they need from the field or their home office.

That said, if the various apps your firm offers are unconnected from each other, it can result in both disorganization and low agent adoption of your solutions.

One of the best ways to cure this mess is by setting up an office intranet—accessible from anywhere—that your agents can use to download files, access software, and see announcements and other communications.

But which intranet solution is right for your company? Well, we highlighted two big intranet players in our 2017-18 Technology Guide, and today we'll take a closer look at one, DASH! for Brokers from Clareity. (Stay tuned tomorrow when we look at the second solution, WOLFconnect!)

What is DASH! by Clareity?

DASH! is the broker version of Clareity's Single Sign-On Dashboard, a popular solution used by over 200 MLSs and associations. Like the MLS version, DASH! offers a single, centralized location that agents can use to access the various apps offered by their MLS and brokerage.

Each dashboard can be fully branded to your brokerage, and the layout and modules are completely customizable. For brokerages within MLSs or associations where Clareity's SSO dashboard is already offered, your firm's dash is hosted as a tab or page extension off of their MLS's or association's dashboard. If your market doesn't offer an existing dashboard, Clareity can create a standalone broker dashboard just for you.

DASH! also sports an internal messaging component that is akin to a company-wide bulletin board. Brokers can use this module to post announcements, upcoming training opportunities, news, open houses, blog posts, and more. This content can be ported in from elsewhere, or created right from DASH! Itself. Brokers can restrict messages to certain groups, as well, thanks to a built-in tagging system.

Why Should Your Brokerage Use DASH?

DASH! solves two major problems for brokers: lackluster tech adoption and poor intra-office communication.

A big factor in low adoption of your tools is agent frustration. According to WAV Group satisfaction research, a major pain point for agents is having to run around the web to access the dozen or more tools that they use—as well as having to remember log-in information for each. By consolidating all of these tools in one place under one log-in, brokers can vastly increase adoption of the tools they offer agents.

As we mentioned above, DASH! offers an internal communications module. According to Clareity, agents use their dashboard an average of 3.4 times a day, making it the ideal place to get important messages in front of your agents.

To boost read rates of messages even more, brokers can choose to send them as push notifications to agents' mobile phones. Clareity tells us these have a much higher read rate than old-fashioned email: 90 percent compared to email's 20 percent.

To sweeten the deal, brokers can offset the cost of their dashboard via a built-in Vendors and Affiliates module that offers ad space for your partners to promote themselves to your agents. Clareity says that this can improve adoption and capture rates for a brokerage's preferred service providers.

How to Determine if DASH! is Right for Your Brokerage

Like we said, DASH! is the first of two intranet solutions we'll be comparing over the next couple of days. WOLFconnect, the second solution, operates as an extension of your back office platform, and grants agents access to commission disbursement and other related information. Users of Lone Wolf's back office solution brokerWOLF may want to look into WOLFconnect as their platform of choice.

If you don't use brokerWOLF, or if connecting to your back office/accounting solution isn't a priority, DASH! is an excellent choice. It not only offers single sign-on with over 250 technology partners (including RE Technology!)—by far the most of any intranet—but it's highly visible to agents, thanks to its connection to the solution agents use most, the MLS.

Next Steps

• Visit Clareity's website to learn more
• Download your free copy of the Technology Guide to explore more technology solutions