Search Acumen, the conveyancing search provider, has marked its second anniversary by achieving its target of doubling its residential market share in just 12 months.
The company, which was delivering 2.5% of all searches on residential property in October 2014, is now the data supplier of choice for 5% of the market.
It has also laid out ambitious plans to secure a 5% share of commercial property searches by October 2016, as well as delivering 7.5% of all residential searches.
To support this aim, Search Acumen this week unveiled its new-look brand – focused on the promise of ‘essential data, simply delivered’ – and is already planning a series of new products and services for 2016.
The business’ aim is to design and deliver property and land searches for conveyancers and commercial property lawyers that support greater efficiency, risk management and productivity. Its rapid growth has come from bringing new technology and proactive client service to the search industry.
Search Acumen’s IntelliSearch approach uses in-depth conveyancing knowledge and emerging technology to re-engineer the search process. It set an industry benchmark earlier this year when it launched ‘Title Intelligence’: the first use of real-time Land Registry data to digitally map properties and titles, giving users more control over their search orders and improving their accuracy by reducing the risk of common mistakes.
Its latest product ‘Portfolio Cloud’ was launched last month and allows users to easily order and manage searches for entire property portfolios through a single interface.
Search Acumen’s year-end figures also show the benefits of its Customer Support Coordinators acting as a virtual in-house team for clients. Of almost 20,000 support cases in the last six months, just four (0.0002%) have resulted from clients calling up to chase an overdue order.
In contrast, Search Acumen has initiated almost 10,000 chases on clients’ behalf, or one every seven minutes, to minimise delays and disruptions to the conveyancing process. ¹
Its founders – Mark Riddick, Andrew Lloyd and Andy Sommerville – share a combined 70 years of industry experience, and have attracted a wealth of talent to the business.
New hires over the last 12 months include Zoe Dobson, who joined as Client Relationship Manager from the Drainage and Water Searches Network (DWSN), and Caroline Robinson, who arrived as Commercial Real Estate Business Development Manager having previously worked for Argyll, part of the Landmark Information Group.
Mark Riddick, chairman of Search Acumen, said:
“We’ve shown for the second year running that there is an appetite for something new in the market, and we’re thinking ahead by offering conveyancers a simpler way to access essential data.
“Searches are only a small part of their workload, but that’s no reason to accept interruptions or incomplete results as a fact of life. For one in twenty residential searches across the entire market, we’re proving that’s no longer the case.
“It’s perfectly possible to consign these frustrations to the past, and our know-how means we can use the available technology and data in a way that gives conveyancers no more or less information than they need.
“By being proactive and keeping things simple, we can help them focus on what really matters to their businesses, which is greater efficiency, certainty and keeping their own clients happy.
“We’re excited to keep innovating in 2016 and pushing the boundaries with new ways to support the conveyancing process. There’s great potential for searches to function better than many have become used to over the years.
“Not everyone likes thinking about searches as much as we do, least of all a busy conveyancer! So when it comes to delivering property and land data, we’ve made it our mission to make sure everything is taken care of.”
