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Wow, people still don’t know FlexMLS is coming to ARMLS
By: Craig Frooninckx,
Posted: Wednesday, February 13th, 2008, 12:07 pm MST
Category: Conversion
At the end of last week, I found myself in conversation with some members of the ARMLS user community and as I usually do, I talk about the things that are happening in my world, which includes real estate, new status as a father, politics and my role on the ARMLS committee. I mentioned that we’re moving along and that we’ve since a delay in the rollout of FlexMLS, nothing that sent up a red flag or anything. Their response was, “What’s FlexMLS?” Okay, then I realized that until I get really deep into ARMLS, I didn’t know we were switching either.
So being a good ARMLS committee member I started explaining the situation to them and the benefits of the new system and I even explained that the transition would be a bit challenging. I referred them to this site for threads and discussion on the matter.
Later as I was reflecting on the discussion and realized that I really didn’t give them that much to work with. I think that we missing a nice project page (blog) that gives updates as to how the transition is progressing and a FAQ, what to expect type page. I for one would like to know how I can prepare my website to work with the new system (if there is anything that I will have to do).
What do you think, do you have enough information or are you looking for more?
February 13th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
I am excited about the change, Tempo is so backward and restricting.
I am concerned, however, with how the transition is handled. I have particular concerns with Gateway data, and saved custom searches and reports.
I have seen nothing yet about how these will be handled, nor have I seen screen shots etc.
The short answer is more info, and maybe changes to the ARMLS input sheets, I am sure some things need to be dropped, others added while we are at it.
February 13th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Delay in the rollout?
When? Why? Impact? New timeline?
February 13th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Hi Jay,
I don’t have the notes in front of me, so from memory, it was like a 30 day delay, nothing that I wouldn’t expect from a complex conversion like this and the reasons provided to me were also as expected. There are a lot of attributes to map over to a new system and it’s like taking a 100 car train and moving it on to another set of tracks 12 feet apart. It takes a lot of work and there are lots of things to consider. The team at ARMLS are working very hard with Tempo and FlexMLS to get this project done and done correctly.
February 13th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
The actual go live date is now July 28. The date was changed only because the earlier date conflicted with the ARMLS annual billing cycle, following which the ARMLS staff is insanely busy helping members, making the cutover during that same time period ill-advised.
Overall, the conversion is going quite well. We have the data loaded and are now working on using RETS to auto-update the data on a regular basis. We are investigating whether we’ll be able to convert the client gateway data (favorites, etc.) and saved searches (but not custom report formats of individual users).
Importantly, converting saved searches is not typical in an MLS conversion, and we make no promises in that regard, but we’re going to try because we know the client gateway feature is heavily used and migrating those e-mail links would be very helpful. Of course, there are pros and cons to everything, and the question arises of how many of the gateway links are stale and shouldn’t be converted. Anyway, we’ll provide more info as we learn more about what’s possible.
ARMLS also will be sending out a variety of notices in the coming months. Of course, only a tiny percentage of the membership reads this or any blog and so they’ll be using many ways to notify everyone (mail, e-mail, etc.). These notices will come more in the April/May time-frame, when the cut-over date is closer.
February 13th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Also, Craig, regarding your web site, you shouldn’t have to change anything as all the current IDX vendors will simply be switching to the data feed from flexmls Web instead of Marketlinx. We’ll be making test feeds available to vendors in April, so they’ll have time to integrate and test the new feed.
February 13th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
As Craig points out, there are hundreds of moving parts to an MLS conversion. I’ve been through two of them and they are an ugly, protracted nightmare where we expect the best and plan for the worst. If the planning is up to the expectations, then the results usually fall somewhere in the middle. But the technical side of a conversion is usually the easy part (if there is an easy part). Mapping data, converting fields, duplicating business rules, and getting the forms (both input and output) to look somewhat like you’re used to is fairly mechanical. Luckily databases don’t argue with you. They do what you tell them to do, literally, so you’ve got to be certain what you tell them is really what you want them to do.
Not so with people. You can tell them what you are going to do, tell them what you expect of them, explain the process to the best of your ability and instead of doing what they’re told – they argue with you. They question your judgment. They offer multiple opinions about how they think YOU, ARMLS should have done something – either better, sooner, later, more in-depth, not so deep, and occasionally not at all. If experience has taught me anything it’s that communication is the key to success in a conversion. It’s not sufficient to provide a top-notch system that meets the needs of the agent population. We must tell them what we are going to do – teach them, show them, guide them, lead them, help them, and support them. And then the hard part – we have to DO it. And do it well.
The best system in the world fails in the eyes of the agents if we can’t teach them to use it and then support them throughout the transition process. But it stands a bigger chance to fail if we don’t know the answers before we are asked the questions. A great communications plan anticipates the questions and stands ready to provide the answers, preferably before the questions are asked. That’s what we are trying to do right now. Put together that great communications plan.
We could have broadcast to the world our plans to change MLS systems shortly after the contract was signed last October. But we would not have had all the answers to all the questions that would have immediately followed. (Jay T hit us with four good questions in one post to this blog. Imagine what we would have been hit with if we had blurted out to nearly 40 thousand agents last October that a new system was coming.) All our attention and energies would have been spent firing back incomplete answers to a Gatling gun loaded with bullet questions. And we never would have properly communicated the plan, the reasons, the timelines, the training, and the impact.
I cringed when this blog site was started, not because I thought it was a bad idea (it is a great idea) but because I was afraid it would trigger the flood of questions for which, frankly, we didn’t have answers yet. Luckily, all of you have been very patient and we intend to reward that patience with the best information we can provide, here and on other venues.
That plan will be rolled out pretty soon. Mary Toberman, our MLS Director, has been working with Michael and his team at FBS for months, getting the technical details attended to. We have recently added a new Support Services Director, Barbara Hoffman, to our staff. Barb is charting the training program with her counterparts at FBS. She not only has to get all of our subscribers trained, she also has to make sure the ARMLS training and support staffs are trained beyond good, to be ready to man the phones, the email boxes, the chat lines, and answer the blog posts (Whoa?, Did he say ARMLS was going to start a blog???). The three of us are putting the communications plan together and you’ll start to see the announcements rolling out in about a month or so. First a newsletter, then email updates, along with posts on the website, and finishing up with a nifty DVD bound with a quick start guide. We’re planning to put 30,000 agents in classroom seats over a two week period in June and July and supplement those events with virtual training (both live, interactive, and recorded self-paced video learning modules). And throughout it all we will try to anticipate your questions and answer them before you ask. If we do that, we will have communicated. If we don’t, I’m sure you won’t be shy in pointing out that failing. I trust we will exceed your expectations.
Bob Bemis
CEO - ARMLS
February 13th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Michael, Bob -
THANK YOU!
Wow, what fabulous answers. Could we ask for anything more?
Looking forward to the ARMLS blog!
February 18th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Micheal and Bob,
Thanks for contributing, sorry for letting the secert out of the bag, but it’s exciting to have some positive change and for what’s it worth, so far everyone that has had the discussion with me has been very postive about it as well. (well, except Jay, who is just worried, I can tell he is pretty excited about it as well).
February 18th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
“Pretty excited” may be the biggest understament ever Craig.
I can’t freaking wait!!