Navantis revolutionises Canadian real estate market with Windows Phone 7

Mobile application puts finding the perfect home in the palm of your hand

Founded in 1998 in Toronto, Navantis is an award winning end to end systems integrator and software solution provider.

Navantis is one of the first Microsoft Gold Certified Partners worldwide and maintains its credibility as a highly respected Microsoft Partner in the community.

In 2004, Navantis Inc. expanded its presence to Sri Lanka by establishing the Sri Lankan operation which only started in 2004 has grown into a company which has a staff of 90+.

Navantis, in partnership with the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), has developed an exciting new mobile feature on the Windows Phone 7 application which brings the full REALTOR.ca experience plus some exciting new mobile features to users taking advantage of the capabilities of the new device.

Using the handheld’s location-based services, users can search and locate close-by properties on sale, get driving directions and even interact with the agents associated with realtors.ca, in real time.

By using this rich user experience and collaboration capabilities provided by the Windows Phone 7, powered by geospatial services in Bing maps, and connectivity to the vast property database in CREA, this new application makes house hunting so much easier.

“The REALTOR.ca. MLS to Windows Phone 7 was made possible thanks to the strong partnership and the collaboration between CREA, Microsoft and Navantis,” said Indaka Raigama, CEO of the Navantis Sri Lankan Operations. “Our teams in Sri Lanka and Canada did an amazing job with technology and maintained very high collaboration with CREA and Microsoft during this implementation.”

Navantis maintains very close ties with Microsoft Canada, Microsoft Sri Lanka and the Head office at United States. Being one of the initial Gold Partners in the world, Navantis thrives to be the ‘Microsoft One Stop Shop from Infrastructure to Applications’ while its long lasting partnership has provided enormous benefits not only to Navantis and Microsoft, but across all clients.

“Microsoft has created a very good mobile platform. The “Metro” User Interface in the Windows Phone 7 is very usable and practical and provides a high quality set of development tools, simulators and a test infrastructure to the application developers and interface designers. Developers can easily use the same tool set, Visual Studio they are familiar with to build powerful applications in incredible fast turnaround times,” said Raigama.

The application was developed in partnership with The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) which is one of the largest single-industry trade associations. More than 96,000 real estate Brokers/ Agents have registered with CREA and works through more than 100 Real Estate Boards and Associations. CREA also focuses on developing the professionalism of its members and their ability to succeed and promote and advocate policies to ensure real estate property rights and ownership.

John Kvasnic, CEO, Chief Architect and Co-founder, Navantis Inc said, “This represents an exciting new dimension to finding a property or home and is part of our vision to bring the power and pervasiveness of the Microsoft platform i.e.; Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Dynamics CRM and others to Windows Phone 7, iPhone and the Android based mobile devices.”

“The application incorporates the full listing detail; including descriptions and photos, and contact information in order for consumers to easily manage their home search and agents and brokers to have instant access to the information they need to service their clients in the field.”

Currently Navantis is working with a top-notch clientele in Canada, United States and Europe, those including Bell Canada, Direct Energy, Government of Ontario, Fairmont Hotels, Honda, Microsoft, MSN, NBC, Subaru, etc.  Navantis prides itself on its customer focus, consistently delivering quality solutions and superior systems integration.

The focus is on custom software development and integration for portals, communication and collaboration, content management, relationship management and business intelligence solutions. Navantis has been awarded with numerous industry awards from leading international and Canadian technology firms, including Microsoft, Branham Group, CDN, IDC, and CRN.

“Windows Phone 7 Application for CREA was a testimonial for achieving the unthinkable, when you have the correct mix of people, technology and desire,” said Raigama. “It was a near impossible mission, but I was really excited to see how our team in Sri Lanka and Canada worked with CREA and Microsoft to build it on time. It met the schedule, passed the certification tests and published on the marketplace on the expected date.”