Case Studies

The Client

Property Portfolio Softwarewas founded by experienced landlord, author and public speaker Amer Siddiq, owner of Tax Portal Ltd. and creator of the Property Tax Portal website.

Amer has been investing in property since 1999. As his own property portfolio expanded, he began to search for a software solution that would assist him in managing his properties. Soon realising there was no software that offered a single suitable solution for managing a complete portfolio of properties, Amer, a very successful software designer himself, designed his own tool. Property Portfolio Software - “Landlords Property Manager” would enable landlords to overcome five of the biggest property management challenges faced by growing portfolios:

1. Getting better organised: cutting the time spent handling paperwork
2. Staying legal: keeping track of safety certificates and legal documents
3. Tenant Management:making sure tenants get the information they need
4. Income Tax Management:knowing what is due and when
5. Maintaining and growing a positive cash-flow

The Challenge

With over one million private landlords in the UK, Property Portfolio Software were very aware of an outstanding opportunity to dramatically grow their existing software sales and significantly increase the recurrent revenues from these sales.

In 2008 the software was already selling well through Google advertising and e-marketing to a database of 28,000 subscribers of the Property Tax Portal.

The challenge was to drive increased sales of software by improved marketing activity beyond the internet, combining this activity with developing and releasing new products. This would take the business to another level and offer significant potential for growth.

In 2008 Property Portfolio Software contacted Terry for his help in exploring and overcoming the challenges of business growth and success.

The Solution

Working with Property Portfolio Software, Terry developed a 2008 Strategic Support Programme that would achieve the following objectives:

1. Understand the marketing opportunity for Property Portfolio Software
2. Develop a strategic marketing plan to take advantage of the identified opportunity.

Activities within this Strategic Support Programme included;

1. Face to face meetings to gather information and understand the team’s view of the opportunity,
2. market research to clarify the target profile and determine the market potential,
3. identification of product developments,
4. recommendation of alternative pricing model and
5. recommendation of an annual marketing plan

The results were documented within a UK strategic plan and agreed with Amer. After three months of activity on this plan the outcome was formally reviewed and refinements were made to this plan.

After successfully executing the Strategic Support Programme, Amer Siddiq, Managing Director of Property Portfolio Software said of Terry,

“He works hard for your business and makes you work hard. He has helped us to successfully re-brand our business and understand what our real target market is. Terry helped us to put together a challenging marketing plan which has delivered excellent results"

Over the course of 2088, Property Portfolio Software experienced good business growth. Software sales increased by over 25%, a new website was launched, they ranked number one in Google search engine results for their primary key words and successfully developed some very valuable landlord and on-line partnerships with key landlord and legal associations.

The Next Steps

Property Portfolio Software have continued to work with Terry Forsey and, by the end of 2009, they were clearly recognised as the market leader in Landlords Software in the UK. Specifically this included:

1. The only recognised supplier of the National Landlords Association
2. The Official landlord software supplier of the Residential Landlords Association
3. Strategic online partners with Landlord Zone and Lawpack

Despite tough market conditions in 2010, Property Portfolio Software continued to grow.  New product developments continued to increase customer choice and market penetration, and new strategic partnerships were developed to consolidate the market leading position of Property Portfolio Software.

This was reflected at the end 2010 when Property Portfolio were awarded Software Winner at the “Landlord and Letting Awards” and came runner up in the Customer Service Category.

“Quite an achievement, given the huge number of nominations that were put forward for both categories. I want to personally thank all of our software users who nominated us for the award for your communications and feedback to date. We wouldn’t be the market leaders we are today without your continued input and suggestions!” enthused Amer Siddiq.

Amer Siddiq, Managing Director went on to say, “Terry has helped us think and behave like the market leader so it’s no surprise that this is what we have become!”