A whole new way to look at your XSite
In our August 2008 issue of the Appraisal Press, we formally announced our new XSites Desktop application. (For full details and the article, be sure to click here.) In summary, the XSites Desktop makes features on your XSite a lot more convenient and adds a new level of interactivity with your XSite.
For example, the current XSites Desktop currently sports an "Energizer" plugin that analyzes your XSite and gives you a score on a scale of 0 to 850 based on the tools you're actively using. For the items you haven't quite implemented, it gives you a link to a video tutorial telling you how to correct the issue and thus improve your score. A lot of our beta testers found it quite addictive and just can't stop working on their sites so they can boast the highest score. Of course, the point isn't to have a high score as much as it is to recognize all the stuff an XSite can do for your business.
Another popular piece of the XSites Desktop is the Collaborator plugin. On the surface, it looks more or less like a chat program. Enterprise XSite owners can even add a "Click here to chat" button to their XSite that results in a popup on the appraiser's desktop when a visitor actually clicks it. In addition to this chatting, you're also notified when somone visits your site, and you can invite them to chat. And once you're in the chat, you can direct their browser to pages on your XSite and do things like help them enter an order or read your resume. Several of our early adopters claim they've already gotten extra business by using the chat feature.
So why "Collaborator" and not just "Chat"
This is where it gets fun. If you've been following us in the past, you know we've talked about this concept of "collaboration". A lot of appraisers have to work with people without working with them if you know what I mean. Most people who aren't on a network or use some sort of remote access solution do it these days by e-mailing files back and forth, but the XSites Desktop Collaborator plugin plans to make this process a lot cleaner.
The Collaborator plugin is more than idle chat because it also sports a file sharing system with the colleagues in your contacts list. Right now, if you try it, you'll find it's a little bit on the manual side, but there's definitely the beginnings of a tool that will let you and another person you work with have "shared" files that are automatically transferred to the other person when updated by the other.
So what if you had an area of your Aurora File Cabinet for files you shared with other people? That's what our future plans are for the XSites Desktop Collaborator. If everything goes according to plan, later this fall your Aurora File Cabinet may look something like this:
Notice under XSite Collaboration, you've got contact icons with names like "Chris Low" or "Paul Stansberry". Those are people you share files with. If you want to send a file over to them, just drag it from one of your regular working folders over their name, and a copy of it will be transferred to them behind the scenes. Likewise, to grab the latest copy of a file you've shared with them, just drag it out from their name into one of your folders. (WinTOTAL will smartly prompt you if you want to create a new copy of the file or overwrite what was on your system.)
The colleagues you share files with don't see all your files - just the ones you've drug over their name. And they also don't see who else you share with or those files.
Doesn't this sound a lot faster and more reliable than e-mail?
What about "collaborating with myself"?
While we expect a lot of people to share with other appraisers, we figure another common use of the Collaborator will be sharing files between your different PC's. For instance, you're out in the field with your tablet or laptop, and you need to grab a file from your desktop PC to clone for a new assignment. We've built in special functionality just for this: If you've got two PC's logged into XSites Desktop with the same XSite login name, the Collaborator will recognize that, and you'll have access to all the files in that system's file cabinet.
An example is in the image above with the "Me" item you see under XSite Collaboration. Those are all your files and folders. It's really just a list, too. They aren't actually downloaded until you drag one from that area into a regular folder.
Conclusion
So, in summary, your XSite is moving beyond being a marketing and order management machine. We're weaving it into your everyday workflow and attempting to take the some more of the hassles out of being a mobile professional.
Thanks,
Matt Krodel
Product Manager, Appraiser XSites
a la mode, inc.
