CHARLOTTE, NC—For brokers, owners and economic development firms, developing warm leads just got a lot easier—and more polished. Data provider Xceligent has totally upgraded its CDX Direct product to put a more easily navigable and professional look to end-users' space search. There is also an economic-development version of the new offering as well as concierge-style customer support.

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“It's taken us light years into the future,” says locally based Andrew Jenkins, EVP of product direction and business strategy for the Blue Springs, MO firm. Jenkins explains that the new product, dubbed Xceligent Direct, is a marketing tool for Xceligent's customer base—specifically brokers and owners. “We re-engineered the entire offering from the ground up,” says the EVP, “focusing in large part on the visual aspect of it.”

Property listings are typically provided by brokerage houses in either a table or an image format. Direct takes a “fully map-based approach,” he says. “We've taken all of the legwork out of custom-designing a map-based interface and we're providing, fully designed, all of the tools a client would need.”

The brokerage client need only imbed the Direct application into the company website and they're space-seeking clients in turn can access the firm's property portfolio--by address, city, state or zip code. “They'll be presented with two options,” says Jenkins, “to use either a map view or a list view.” Whatever option they choose, they will be able to access all of the necessary information on the chosen properties, including “sale price, lot size, parking ratios and, of course, rental rates.

“The goal is to develop a warm lead quickly and efficiently,” says Jenkins. “Once the prospective client finds something--a single property or multiple properties--that piques their interest, they can contact the broker through a simple, online form that's part of the program.”

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Another valuable aspect of the newly revised Direct—it launched about a month ago—is updates on listings. Jenkins explains that rather than “spending thousands” to maintain their own listings, Xceligent provides what he describes as a concierge service in which “they can use our research center to maintain their listings. They call our HQ and talk with a researcher who will make the updates.”

The listings will also get much wider marketing than simply the broker's website. They'll appear live on Xceligent's core CommercialSearch in addition to realtor.com and on the sites of any economic development agencies that are using their version of this product.

Which brings up a second iteration of the new Direct offering, this one being marketed to EDCs, chambers of commerce and city and state municipalities. Christened Market Direct, it provides a complete roster of listings in a given market or submarket, rendered across all of the brokerage houses working in that area. Both the broker and EDC versions of Direct will also provide small incremental system updates automatically, much like a mobile device would.

Initial reaction has been extremely positive, says Jenkins, who notes that while the functionality is, as he said, light years ahead of what had gone before, the real benefit of Xceligent Direct is the levelling of the playing field.

“The main thing we're trying to achieve, in addition to the simplicity and lead generation, is giving everybody at every brokerage a professional look and feel,” Jenkins comments. “Even if you're a one-person house, you now make your site look as professional as a larger firm—without the cost.”