Todd Cassie, Harcourts International’s Head of Technology, has been featured by CIO magazine as a member of the CIO100 list. The list annually honours the most innovative technology leaders across all industries who are at the forefront of decision-making and strategic change.
Mr Cassie said that it was an honour to be included in the list and credited the recognition to the team members at Harcourts for their dedication to excellence and unrelenting focus on leading the way in the industry. “It’s always great to be recognised for the work you do, but it’s a team effort,” he said. “For Harcourts it’s recognition as a potential place to work for those that are considering a change and recognition that we have a dedicated tech function that is reasonably large and is working hard to deliver great customer outcomes.”
"The success of Harcourts International's technology projects greatly influence the South African business prerogatives. Technology development and the evolution of the real estate market to include modern technological feats is of utmost importance to us. Our key strategic departments work non-stop researching ways to greatly improve client experience, product delivery to target markets and office/agent communication. Mr Cassie has certainly been a pillar of leadership in these advancements," said Harcourts South Africa CEO, Richard Gray.
Harcourts International Managing Director Mike Green said, “Starting with examining how Harcourts delivers technology throughout the business to its internal team, the business owners, sales consultants, property managers and leadership, Todd’s vision has seen tremendous strides over the past year.”
Since joining Harcourts one year ago, Mr Cassie has led the process of change in the way the Tech Team operates, with team members in Australia and New Zealand, noting that efficiencies and capabilities were enhanced and streamlined.
“For me the greatest accomplishment this past year has been the Tech Team accepting the need for change and getting on with it. Our greatest challenge now is to keep up the momentum as we continue to make changes because it’s not always evident without an instant return for your efforts.
“Harcourts has a proud history of using technology to deliver innovations to the industry that dates to the late 90s,” said Mr Cassie, noting that Harcourts was the first real estate brand to launch a website in New Zealand in 1997.
“Although that concept seems obvious, at the time it was revolutionary, and you can imagine the difference in the technology 20 years ago.
“Our focus is and continues to be on our clients. By maintaining this focus, we have a perfect yardstick to measure ourselves against as we continue our development lifecycle.”
Mr Cassie has worked in technology for over 20 years across a broad range of industries in New Zealand, Australia, the UK & Canada, and is a member of ISACA and Deloitte CIO Roundtable. Most recently he spent the 12 years working with the Christchurch International Airport where, in 2016, he was named to the CIO100 list.
It was the draw of working with New Zealand’s #1 real estate franchise network that brought him to Harcourts, where he now oversees robust technology team servicing 10 countries across over 900 offices and 10,000 team members.
He noted that Harcourts was one of the first real estate brands worldwide to partner with Facebook and launch its enterprise employee engagement application Workplace by Facebook. By supporting initiatives and involving outside developers, the company has seen success in the early stages of the project.
“Finding new and unique ways to do things that gives us a competitive advantage, especially ones that other real estate brands aren’t doing and being first to the market is a different way of thinking,” said Mr Cassie.