Zoopla Makes Changes to Agent Software Division with Possible Redundancies

Estate agent industry publication The Negotiator is reporting that Zoopla is moving some of its agent software onto one platform and that there may well be redundancies among the British portal company's staff.

The changes are reportedly set to be made to the portal's Jupix and Expert Agent products which are set to be migrated to the company's flagship agent software title, Alto. It is being reported that as many as 12 positions within Zoopla's agent software sales team are under review.

Zoopla and its parent company ZPG are well known for using mergers and acquisitions to move into adjacent markets. Under founder Alex Chesterman, the company made its high profile entry into the world of agency software which included the £75m purchase of Property Software Holding, the operator of several agent software products including Alto, Jupix and MyPropertyFile.

Zoopla and ZPG Products

Since acquiring a range of software products, Zoopla has been moving them onto the Alto platform. The changes have already seen Zoopla shutter offices outside of London as the Silver Lake-owned company looks to consolidate its range of products.

The changes are part of the company's transformative 'vision' outlined last year which a company spokesperson made reference to in comments given to The Negotiator:

"When we launched our Vision last year, we outlined our goal to combine our unique market position and data-led intelligence to put agents firmly in control.

“This strategy involved a substantial investment into Alto as our hero software solution that delivers an enhanced customer experience.

“To date, we’ve implemented a series of new features and updates to Alto including customisable email templates, improved security features, a new API and a built-in AML tool – with more to come throughout the course of the year.

“As part of this approach, it’s been necessary to redefine the purpose of our software sales team to focus on the acquisition of new estate agent customers, and this has resulted in a small number of roles being put at risk of redundancy.”