Press Release: Foxtons feels at home with Nokia Lumia

London, England and Espoo, Finland – Foxtons, London’s leading estate agent, has chosen the Nokia Lumia 820 as its business smartphone and has so far deployed around 900 to its employees.

With 35 offices throughout London and two in Surrey, Foxtons let and sell around 1,400 properties every month. In such a fast-paced, competitive environment, the need for Foxtons agents to receive, update and share information quickly while on the road is critical to its success.

An important reason for Foxtons’ switch to Nokia Lumia was its tight integration with the company’s existing Microsoft infrastructure. Foxtons uses Microsoft Outlook to ensure that employees are armed with complete property information for each calendar appointment, so that at the touch of a button they have all the material they need to close a deal. And easy synchronisation means that any appointments made at Foxtons head office can be quickly transferred to the agents’ smartphones.

Between viewings, agents can check emails, make targeted calls and prepare for their next appointment, maximising their time out of the office and keeping them one step ahead of the competition. The built-in Microsoft Office applications on Windows Phone 8 mean that they can also work on Excel spreadsheets and edit Word documents whilst away from their office PCs.

This competitive edge is vital for Foxtons, whose in-house development team was already familiar with developing applications in the Microsoft Windows environment and has now begun deploying its own apps for the Nokia Lumia 820.

As Dan Rafferty, IT Director of Foxtons, explains: “In a fast moving business with many staff movements across departments and locations, keeping an accurate, up-to-date contact list is a challenge for us. We’ve developed an app integrating our personnel system with our active directory and phone system so all the information is accurate and can be accessed directly from our agents’ Nokia Lumia 820s. It’s a great timesaver and asset for the team. The Nokia Lumia 820 aligns with our entire device strategy and allows us to fully integrate our current Microsoft systems throughout the company.”

With agents covering large areas, the mobile navigation features of the Nokia Lumia 820 were also an important factor in the switch to Lumia. Nokia Drive offers free turn-by-turn navigation with live traffic updates and offline maps, removing the need for separate satnavs or an A-Z. When showing prospective clients around a property, agents can use Nokia City Lens to show live information on the local area, showcasing points of interest and amenities including leisure centres, cinemas, restaurants and shops. Foxtons agents can now have everything they need to know about the area in the palm of their hand.

Adrian Williams, director of Business Sales UK at Nokia, said: “Foxtons is a great example of how a company can empower its workforce to work effectively on the move, with their smartphones integrated with its existing Microsoft infrastructure. We are delighted that Nokia applications such as Nokia Drive and Nokia City Lens are making a real difference for Foxtons employees in the competitive real estate market.”

 

Category: Nokia