Summary of the video:
Tell us about your business?
Inspect Real Estate is an online software business that specialises in the software for the property industry. We now have over 1,100 clients that use Inspect Real Estate here in Australia and New Zealand. Basically our product is, like, you would book a hotel online, or you would book like an inspection so that inspection is what we control on behalf of 6.5 thousand real estate agents. Their diaries are put online, and a particular property seeker can then go and book an inspection directly onto the online diary of the agency.
Why did you decide to outsource?
It’s a funny sort of term (outsourcing). I’d actually call it “insourcing” because if you are going to look at our organisation, yes we’re based in Brisbane, but we got 46 people all over Australia and New Zealand, and technically some in your office as well, which is, you may call it outsourcing but really it’s insourcing because they’re part of our team. Why we really contacted David for the second round of the business was to try and find some more people to meet deadlines and stuff that we needed done. So really, outsourcing or insourcing gave us a great capacity to have access to a lot more people fast; to be able to meet some objectives and deadlines that we need done.
Do you think it’s important to trust the business you choose and why?
Trust to me is that we are giving access to some of their information and data, and how do you know that they are going to look after it perfectly. That’s why knowing David for 10 years and this being the second business having David involved with, I trust him and I trust his team, and the people that you engage in your team.
Having seen your organisation, the way that you operate, we are very comfortable that you’ll protect our information.
Why did you choose us?
Definitely because of the fact that I knew you, but then again, right back at that first point I didn’t know you at the start.
I looked at it like buying an engagement ring. And as I was buying an engagement ring for my wife, I cruised up to every jeweller and I pretended that I didn’t know anything about diamonds. After you see 4 or 5 jewellers, you start to see a pattern and you start to see what’s true and what’s not. And by that process, we put the same thing in as when we are looking for someone to be a part of our organisation, because there are few companies that are out there. You can ask them similar questions, you’ll then start to understand what is being true, or what is being bent around. With yourself, through that process, we felt very comfortable and we gave you a little project to try, how that worked and then this next project, and the next.
It’s a bit like dating, you sort of tested the market, find out who would fit with your business, and then give them a go. Try your first date, second date, and we just continued on.
What limitations have you found with outsourcing?
Definitely the fear factor of the trust. We were under attack last year by scammers and phishers trying to gain access to our information. What I really liked about it is that when I hit the panic button around 7:30 or 8:00 that night, straight away you took my call, we discussed options and you were on it straightaway. Going back to it, you could never ultimately trust everybody because you are dealing with humans and employment, that sort of factor. But it’s when something goes wrong, how quick will that person who you’ve got that relationship with will assist you and help you, and that is a big thing. You were very fast, very proactive. Straightaway, I realised we’re not alone with this. This is something that’s going to happen often to us and possibly others, so how do we go about handling it? And your support through that process is outstanding.
What does your industry think about outsourcing?
The answer to that is two different thought processes. You’ve got the ones who are really the industry leaders, and property management is primarily what we look after. Rental Express, Queensland’s largest property manager business, are adopters of outsourcing, and they’ve then taken a lot of fear, and people who try to emulate their business, then sort of follow them. But then, of course, you get the others who are slow to understand the benefits of it. With a role such as property management, it is very repetitive and there’s a lot of task that happens every single day. If you can have someone take those and do those for you, then you have an even greater ability because often when you’re so busy, you’re not going to get into the repetitive task.
What would you say to a person looking at outsourcing?
It’s going through that process, more of like an interview process of who’s going to be in charge of outsourcing. You can go to the yellow pages, or go direct and try and outsource it through some sort of website. I still like the local contact; I think that that’s still important to us. That night that something happened, I rang David. I didn’t ring David’s team members, although I could have access to do that. I rang you to basically assist us. To me, you want to work with someone you are most comfortable with, you being local, being someone I can still talk to. But you also are handling your team, which helps our team. If you want to find something, you have to go through that process, you’ve got to ask that sort of question. And primarily to me, is who they are currently acting for and go talk to their clients, because that is the key. That’s why I’m here today, is because I’m happy to talk to you about how it’s assisted us, and how we’re able to trust David and his team, and we’ve got other mutual clients that you could talk to as well.
