In response to my previous article Yet Another Stuff Up!!! Where is Our Data Going? I was contacted directly by the CEO of RPData – Graham Mirabito to clarify who was responsible for the data error.
I invited Graham to comment directly on B2 or have me post the explanation of events for them.
Here is the CEO’s response…
“We have read your blog entry about the CommBank Property Guide iPhone App (the “iPhone App”) and understand your concerns. rpdata.com is contacting you directly as the error was a result of our code – neither Commonwealth Bank nor REA were responsible. The data error to which you refer was in fact discovered by our team at rpdata.com and rectified immediately.
You would appreciate that the creativity and time necessary to develop this technology was extensive. Inevitably bugs have been discovered and in this instance rpdata.com is extremely embarrassed that the data field from which the iPhone App sourced its data was cross referenced incorrectly.
While in this instance we had discovered the error ourselves your blog, and others like it, can provide us with useful feedback that allows us to improve our products including the protection of data.
rpdata.com is also the largest provider of property data and analytics to the finance sector and have invested heavily in enterprise grade technology and security platforms to service this sector and the real estate industry providing benefits for all customers.
Please accept that we have the best of intentions, in that our goal is to provide the industry and our mutual clients with the very best in innovative tools necessary to enhance their prospects of securing and completing sales to the benefit of themselves and their customers.
Thank you for your honest feedback.”
Regards
Graham Mirabito
Chief Executive Officer
Whilst I acknowledge that Augmented Reality and the use of data across multiple platforms is the direction that our industry is heading, the Property Data debate will continue to be an extremely contentious issue throughout the real estate industry and as such, it is important that all data providers learn from this that whilst speed to market is important, getting the bugs out first is extremely vital. (especially if the mistake reveals content that is normally hidden).
8 Comments
Peter Ricci
Large organisations like RPData really have no excuses for making these mistakes. With big budgets from development and tresting, it is a little embarrassing for them to have these kinds of errors.
Mistakes in any development occur and this sometimes pushes out development timelines, so I assume this was a rush to market problem.
Too often marketing departments have set dates to begin the push and this puts unnecessary pressure on development teams.
That said, the app is pretty solid now!
Leigh
I am trying to get some support from RP DATA If you know the CEO’s details please send to me as I am getting no where and it is costing me time and money
I only want a small job done PLEASE HELP somebody, anybody
Nick
It took a month to send that email? Thats a bit odd.
You do get slip ups of course, however why dont they have a checklist of certain things that could be missed? Or Unit Testing? I’ve got my own little checklist in my head and hiding the price is definitely on it.
Ryan O'Grady
Web developers from large to small can relate with this. It happened to Domain with their interactive search, REA with their site upgrade and I’m sure it’s happened to Google with their products.
All companies make mistakes. Software issues which happen in the past tend to stay there as long as they don’t crop again in the future. Although I hadn’t forgot about this blunder, I’ve certainly looked past it and accepted that it comes with running a web business. However, the vendors and agents who’s marketing campaigns were affected may share a different opinion.
Greg Vincent
Nick, in Graham Mirabito’s defence, I received the OK to post the above statement via email on Fri 27/8 at 7.44pm.
I had a hectic few days that weekend/early that week & I submitted the article for review in Business2 on the Tues or Wed but unfortunately it looks like it got delayed in the system (probably due to the level of interest from the other articles posted).
I could have posted it as a comment but then the announcement would have appeared somewhere around comment #27 on the previous article. As I mentioned in the article, I had invited Graham Mirabito to comment directly onto B2.
This could be a good lesson for the CEO’s, PR Managers, etc from these larger real estate companies that the contributors and the administrators are also extremely busy people and if they want their PR message/responses to go out in the most timely manner possible then they may be better off posting the comments directly onto B2 and/or consider becoming contributors themselves.
John
I struggle with the concept that we pay to be on REA, clearly a commercial value then as an extra Income source, REA sell it to RPdata who charge the Commonwealth Bank in this instance to collate & format the data.
It would be hard to calculate the damage to various marketing campaigns that this (intended to be private) price guide being released has cost by influencing potential buyers and I feel the press release doesn’t cut it.
It just seems to be an error made in the rush to find another way to make money from the data collected off agents going about their business, its not a community service. The fact it took a month to respond, reflects the level of respect they have for the industry.
Peter D'Arcy
There are 2 points I would like to make
1 – Good on you B2 for bring this situation to the fore and creating an opportunity to keep a large company accountable – this rarely happens & they get away with blue murder every day of the week – well done.
2 – Good on you RPData for owning up to the problem. You should have come out without prompting from B2 and taking the blame for such a monumental mistake. I agree with a couple of the other comments – you guys have the budget to make sure no mistakes occur. In RPData defense I very much doubt neither the CBA or Real Estate.com would have done what RPData did. They would have ducked & weaved blaming everyone else except themselves so you guys – RPData are one run up from these entities who aren’t accountable to anyone
Thank you B2 for the opportunity to comment
Ryan O'Grady
B2 articles are released every 3 to 4 days depending on the level of conversation across existing articles. The Lawyers Real Estate post with its 150+ comments had the spotlight for around 2 weeks. So our apologies for not releasing the post earlier than this.
It’s best if replies are posted directly to the article as a comment.