Customer Stories – Ricacorp Properties Limited

Ricacorp Properties Limited is one of the largest real estate agency companies in Hong Kong, specializing in residential, industrial, commercial, retail and car-parking space properties. The company has over 2,800 employees and 210 branches. With a mission of providing real and verified property listings, Ricacorp Properties is committed to offer accurate and up-to-date real estate information to customers.

Adopting innovative technologies is a way Ricacorp Properties has adhered to over the years to address market changes and stay competitive.

“Like many other traditional industries, property sector has been greatly revolutionized with disruptive technologies in recent years. We have been active in developing advanced technologies and services, leading our company as one of the industry disruptors,” said Mike Wong, Associate Director (Information Technology) at Ricacorp Properties Limited.

Ricacorp Properties is the first local real estate agency that debuted VR-enabled (virtual reality) property viewing service. The company provides a wide array of property listings with VR videos on its website.

Apart from using new technologies for better customer services, Ricacorp Properties also strives to increase employee efficiency and satisfaction. HR management is one of the areas.

In the past, Ricacorp Properties used a manual method for employees to submit leave requests. “An agent filled out a leave request paper form in his branch office, put it in an envelope and submitted to his direct manager and district manager for sign off. The whole process took almost a week for completion,” said Wong.

The real estate agency company decided to look for an alternative solution and turned to FlexSystem Limited, one of the largest enterprise management software and services providers in Hong Kong.

FlexSystem’s Human Resources Management System (HRMS) is adopted, which has transformed the Ricacorp Properties’ workforce management particularly high-mobility agents.

“FlexSystem is able to tailor their solutions to meet our needs. The timely response and professional support from its consultants have made the project implementation go well,” he said.

Employee Self-Service (ESS) as part of the HRMS provides intuitive and easy self-service tools for the entire organization. It has changed leave request from paper to paperless process. The portal enables employees to submit leave requests and perform other HR functions online.

“The leave request process is now automated and can be done within two days. Department heads validate and approve leave requests online. It brings great convenience, higher efficiency and productivity to employees,” he said.

The top management of Ricacorp Properties has played an important role in the digitization journey. Regular meetings are held with top management to review different business processes and ways to accelerate their automation and efficiency.

“Our senior executives are not only willing to try new IT solutions and give valuable comments, but also eager to motivate employees to take part in the digitization journey,” he said.

The implementation of HR Solutions, for example, was met with resistance from employees who are less receptive to new technology in the beginning. They got used to leave request paper forms and were reluctant to use e-leave system. The company spent time to engage them, showed them the benefits and finally got their buy-in.

Moving forward, Ricacorp Properties will continue its digitization. Similar to leave requests, Wong sees automation opportunities in the distribution of circulars to agents.

Estate agents must comply with various practice regulations issued by regulatory authorities. Ricacorp Properties currently hands out practice circulars to each branch office for agents to sign to acknowledge those regulations. The company is planning to transition from manual to electronic circular distribution and continues to digitize its HR & Admin operations.