Independent board firms and openmoove bring free, automated board management to 5,000 estate agency offices
Estate agents across the UK can now order, move and remove For Sale boards automatically from their CRM, at no cost. The change comes through a partnership between National Independent Board Services (NIBS), a newly formed national group of independent board companies, and fast scaling Cardiff-based proptech company openmoove.
The system is live today with Alto, Street, Rex, Loop and Apex27, with further CRMs to follow. It removes one of the last manual jobs in the estate agency office. Once an agent connects their CRM, board management runs itself. The system reads each change in the property’s status and acts on it. Nobody has to update an order, send an email or chase a movement, because the board simply follows the sale from start to finish.
NIBS members put up hundreds of thousands of boards a year. Until now, every one of those boards has relied on someone in the agent’s office remembering to order it, update it and have it taken down. Boards left up long after a sale are a familiar sight on UK streets. They frustrate buyers and neighbours, draw complaints to councils, and often end up in a skip rather than back in stock. Linking collection to completion means boards come down when the sale is done and go straight back into use.
Sue Low, Director of NIBS, said: “Independent board companies have always given agents a better service, with local teams, our own print and our own vans. What held us back was not having the systems to work as one nationwide. Now, an agent updates their CRM and NIBS takes care of the board, from the day it goes up to the day it comes down, wherever they are in the country.”
NIBS brings the UK’s leading independent board companies together as one national network, combining the local service of an independent with the reach of a group serving more than 5,000 estate agency offices. Members include Cannell Signs, SD Boards, The Board Guy, The Boardman, CH Signs, Signsense and The Board Company. An agency in London can have a board put up in Scotland through a single process. Every board is photographed as soon as it is up, and agents get live reports, stock control and group invoicing across all their branches.
Agents who connect their CRM also receive free material information from openmoove for every property at the point of instruction, helping them meet their legal duty to disclose it from day one, with no extra work.
Ross McKenzie, co-founder and CEO of openmoove, said: “Every home sale in the country starts with a board, yet ordering one has always meant keying the same details twice and logging in to another system. We’ve made it automatic, inside the CRM agents already use, and it costs them nothing. The board is the first step. Our aim is a home move where nobody has to chase anybody for an update.”
Agents can connect through their existing NIBS board company or at www.nibsuk.com.