Accelerate Your Digitalisation Journey through Tapping on Chief Technology Officer-as-a-Service

January 2023 - 3 min read

Are you a Key Executive Officer of an estate agent (EA) who wants to: 

• Know how to kickstart your EA’s digital journey?

• Understand the type of solutions you can adopt for a specific business challenge?

• Select a digital solution that best meets your needs?     

If you are considering how you can help your EA level up with technology, do explore Chief Technology Officer-as-a-Service (CTO-as-a-Service), a programme rolled out by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA). It aims to help small and medium-sized EAs to self-assess their digital readiness, access market-proven and cost-effective digital solutions, and receive complimentary in-depth digital advisory and project management services from qualified consultants.

How your EA can benefit

Through CTO-as-a-Service, EAs can: 

• Perform a self-assessment of their digital readiness and identify their digitalisation needs and gaps.

• Learn from other Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that have successfully implemented digitalisation projects.

• Receive recommendations of digital solutions based on their profile and business needs..

• Browse and compare digital solutions, by functions and costs     

Eligible EAs can also engage digital consultants from IMDA’s appointed operators, Accenture and Stone Forest IT, for digital advisory to help: 

• Gain deeper understanding of their business needs and priorities.

• Tailor digital solutions and training roadmaps for their businesses.

• Incorporate essential cybersecurity risks, basic data usage and protection requirements into their digitalisation.   

To find out more about how your EA can benefit, visit the CTO-as-a-Service webpage.

Free first-time usage of digital advisory and project management services

Under CTO-as-a-Service, first-time usage of the digital advisory and project management services is available at no cost to your EA. Subsequent usage or enhancement of services will be based on commercial agreements, should you wish to continue to engage the digital consultants.

EAs that meet the following requirements will be eligible for first-time usage of digital advisory and project management services at no cost: 

• Registered and operating in Singapore.

• Have at least 30% local shareholding.

• Company’s Group annual sales turnover must not be more than S$100 million, or Company’s Group employment size must not be more than 200 employees [Note: This employee criterion does not refer to real estate salespersons (RESs) who are associates of the company].

• Have not used CTO-as-a-Service digital consultancy services previously.     

Technology use plays a pivotal role in industry transformation

CTO-as-a-Service is one of the initiatives under the Real Estate Industry Transformation Map (ITM) 2025. Digitalising property transaction processes and promoting technology adoption by EAs are among the key strategies to realise the vision of the Real Estate ITM 2025: a real estate agency industry that is professional, productive and resilient. 

Technology use will continue to play a key role in the transformation of the real estate agency industry, enabling the industry to raise productivity and improve business processes. Findings from CEA’s 2021 Public Perception Survey also show that the use of technological tools in property transactions has a direct, positive impact on consumer satisfaction of RESs’ services. 

CEA has been partnering the industry to roll out enablers that will help EAs and RESs be more productive and improve professionalism through digitalisation. EAs can get more information on digital enablers for the real estate agency industry here. 

Information accurate as at 27 January 2023