Don’t you hate sitting at a meeting feeling completely lost just because someone is using excessive industry-specific buzzwords?

If you work within the real estate industry in 2018, It’s certain that you have heard the word ‘PropTech’ being slung around. Typically used to refer to anything technology and real estate based, the omnipresent word has left many property professionals scratching their head asking what exactly “PropTech” means.

There are hundreds of companies and businesses that can fit under the PropTech umbrella. With the majority of them all identifying as part of the “PropTech” wave it can become tricky to distinguish one from the other, or to understand it!

We aim to save you from feeling left out next time someone brings up the latest proptech solution and to help you decipher what it means precisely.

PropTech Glossary

With words like “Business Intelligence” and “Machine Learning,” It’s no wonder that Proptech has caused so much confusion within the industry. On top of that, PropTech terminology is often misused, or when it isn’t needed and lacks context.
Step one to getting your head around PropTech is to understand the various words commonly associated with it.

Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence refers to the collection, analysis, budgeting, and report presentation of your businesses data. The primary purpose business intelligence serves is to represent your companies current status visually operationally and financially

Data analytics

As the name suggests, data analytics or DA, is the process of gathering, inspecting and analyzing your business’s data to help guide or make operational decisions. In short, DA is looking at data and then using that data to come to conclusions.

Machine learning

Machine learning is a type of artificial intelligence which provides systems the ability to adapt, change and improve without the need for human input. As the name suggests, machine learning quite literally means the machine can learn, adapt and grow without any human intervention.

User Experience

User experience or UX refers to the end users emotions and attitude towards a product or service when engaging with it in its final form.

User Interface

User interface or UI is the visual side of a programme, app or software system. It is the aesthetic appearance of what you see on your screen when you engage with the product.

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is a must in 2018. Cloud computing means storing and accessing data and software over the internet as opposed to your computers hard drive. Sites like DropBox, Facebook, and Youtube all use cloud computing.

Fun Fact: Funnily enough, ‘the cloud’ is merely a metaphor that stems back from when the internet was often represented as a big cloud on flow charts and visual representations

API

Application Programming Interface or API is a group of protocols, tools, and routines for building and creating software. In simple terms, API specifies how software components should interact. A good application program interface makes it easier to develop and build a program by providing the building blocks. You just have to put the blocks together.

Big Data

The term ‘Big data’ is commonly used to describe the collections of data that are too large to be processed through standard or traditional systems like excel. Usually, these groups of data come from things like emails, mobile devices, user data information, and servers.

Hybrid app

As the name suggests, Hybrid apps are applications that can work on multiple platforms (computers, mobiles, tablets) and come with a native app, which means one that is downloaded and stored on your device, and a web app, which is accessed through a webpage browser online. Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon are all examples of hybrid apps.