Zoopla selects Birst to integrate data from all its brands and apps

Birst's Cloud BI is the 'flexible, agile platform' that can keep pace with our aims, claims Zoopla's Stephen Morana

Zoopla Property Group, which owns the British property website Zoopla.co.uk, has selected business intelligence provider Birst's cloud platform in a bid to bring together its sales, marketing and operations data.

Birst said that its Cloud BI platform will be used to integrate data from the property group's CRM system, marketing automation, web analytics and social platforms, as well as data from across the group's online property brands. These include Zoopla, PrimeLocation and HomesOverseas. In the process, the company hopes that it can improve its marketing campaigns by targeting the right audience more efficiently.

Stephen Morana, chief financial officer at Zoopla, said that data will play an increasingly important role in the firm's growth plans. "[Data] will support our employees in tailoring outreach, marketing and customer service campaigns for the right audiences at any given time," he said.

Morana added that Birst had been chosen to support the group's plans based on its requirements for a "flexible, agile BI platform that will keep pace with our aims".

Zoopla is involved in an increasingly competitive online estate and lettings agents market, where it enjoys a strong position just behind Rightmove. Together, both companies dominate the market for online listings, but there are also a number of players bidding to displace traditional estate agents.

These companies include Purplebricks, which was the first online estate agency in the UK to float on AIM in December, when it was valued at about £240m; and, Stelious Haji-Ioannou's easyProperty, which gained the backing of hedge fund Toscafund in December, valuing that company at more than £100m. Others include eMoov, Tepilo and Hatched.

The renewed popularity of online estate agencies comes around 15 years after one of the first, easier.co.uk, went out of business in the first dot-com bust.

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