Cincinnati MLS - Public website

Challenge
The Cincinnati Multiple Listing Service is always looking for new and innovative ideas that could help their member brokers and agents. Cincinnati MLS was already an established MFM client at the time interest in the Internet was beginning to boom. The question was asked, "Is there a way to use this to the members' advantage?

Strategy
MFM, proposed the idea to provide a public website that would capture the interest of this rapidly growing consumer base and help drive business to the membership. Strong communication conduits had to be established to address the many policy and technology issues as well as overcome any preconceived opinions that often follow change.

Tactics
A series of discussions were held to work through the many technology, policy and organizational issues involved. Risk assessments, data transfer and hosting issues, changes to internal and external policy for data usage, and costing structures were reviewed. MFM designed the database structure; developed the web site, search engines, data transfer procedures, and hosting infrastructure.

Result
The Cincinnati MLS had one of the first public web sites of its kind in the Real Estate industry. Anyone with access to the Internet could look online for a home in Cincinnati. The original website, which was housed on a single server and connected to the Internet through a single ISDN line, has grown to be one of the most active web sites in the region. It currently requires 10 high-end Internet servers and multiple high-speed connections to handle the daily traffic.