The past, present, and future of appraisal formfillers
Written by a la mode on June 18, 2019
From CD-ROM software to per-user subscriptions — here’s everything you need to know about the evolution of formfilling-delivery topped with a little nostalgia.
If you’ve been with a la mode long enough, you remember calling into sales to order software, waiting for it to be delivered via mail, and then installing it onto your computer. And when an update was released, you’d rinse and repeat.
You probably had to call into tech support a time or two for help when your computer couldn’t read the disc, or it was scratched upon delivery and you needed a new one. (We all needed help with software at this time.) Whether it was AOL, Microsoft Office, or everyone’s guilty pleasure — The Sims, something somewhere was going wrong. Software CDs were flimsy, easily damaged, and a pain to keep up with.
Yet, with great trial and tribulation, we made it through the disc era and arrived at the digital download age. (Hello, TOTAL 2013.) Remember how revolutionary it was to not be held up by shipping delays or bogged down by 100-page user-guides that walked you through the setup process?
All you had to do was browse to a website, click on an instructional link to download software to your computer (it was usually something blatant like “CLICK THIS UNDERLINED BLUE LINK TO DOWNLOAD XYZ TO YOUR COMPUTER”), and within minutes — or hours depending on your Internet — you were up and running, as opposed to waiting days. It was fast, glorious even. But like any other new tech, it brought an onslaught of questions, doubt, and troubleshooting.
Where does this download to? What if I want to download the software to a different drive? How do I get these files on another computer? I hit ‘ok’ without reading the message, where’d this save to on my computer? (We’re all guilty of that one.)
It was an adjustment, to say the least. Suddenly you needed an “IT guy”, or your nephew was upgraded to your pseudo-tech-guru and helping you set things up. But one thing’s for sure — getting an update became instant. No more waiting on the shipment of new discs, or needing help installing it. That was a win for everyone.
Fast forward to the mid-twenty-teens where cloud-based everything is all the rage.
Whether you think about it or not, you store your photos, read books, stream music, and watch movies all from the cloud. Everything is instant. No downloading software, no getting updates, just easy-to-log-in-and-use platforms at the click of a button.
Take Google for example. What started as a simple search engine site, quickly grew to be one of the most widely used SaaS providers in the world. G Suite lets its users connect through email, video call, share calendars and more. It’s also easy to create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations while collaborating with others. This type of interaction has trained us to expect it with whatever program or app we’re using.
And though many of their basic platforms are free, their G Suite has three options in which they charge on a per-user basis. This makes bundling more affordable based on your office type. The same can be said for our new Titan Appraisal model. No matter how big or small your office is, you only pay for what you need. And if all you want is access to a few of your reports while away from the office — it’s free.
How can Titan work for your business?
Titan is a cloud-based ecosystem that stores all your reports, gives you online formfilling to access and edit them, and provides back-office integration to handle your billing, scheduling, and order management.
Like Google’s G Suite, Titan takes all the essential appraisal tools you have scattered around the office and hosts them in one centralized hub. It provides instant collaboration between you and the appraisers you work with no matter your location. This is all possible for anyone with a Titan Seat.
Fun Fact: “Shipper Dave” – The same guy that used to ship your software is now shipping you Titan — no postage necessary.
Titan Seats create flexibility in yours and your employees’ lives by granting users role-based permissions to edit reports, share files, maintain admin duties, etc. With Titan Seats, you can work from home, the coffee shop, the golf clubhouse (no judgment here), even vacation (though we’d never wish this upon our worst enemies). Point is, you no longer need to be tethered to your desk for 50-60 hours a week.
Now you can resolve an issue by simply logging into a browser and making a revision, sharing a report with a partner, or double-checking something before going out to an inspection.
You’re a person first, appraiser second. There’s no reason to keep missing out on life when it’s possible to be just a browser away from your business.
Titan offers a variety of bundles that are unique to your office size. Learn more about Titan Seats and get a quote now.
Elite customers have access to Titan now. Log in to titanappraisals.com to use Titan Reports, Titan Drive, or Titan Office.
New to a la mode? Get a free 30-day TOTAL trial. Or call 1-800-ALAMODE for more information.