To say it’s been a tough year for Rapattoni is a massive understatement. Andy’s ongoing back issues and his unexpected death in April of this year have put a dark cloud of rumors over the company and its future.
 
But on a recent visit I made to Rapattoni’s company headquarters I found a lot of people who never thought of giving up and are ready to fight. Which makes sense. The company was founded in 1970, 45 years ago, and you don’t last that long without fighting the whole way.
 
At the center of that fight is Niki Rapattoni. Andy’s co-founder, wife, love of his life. And at an age where she should be enjoying the good life she has decided to push forward and take the company in a new direction for the future.
 
They are now rolling out Rapattoni Magic-Cloud AMS, a new cloud-based solution for their association management software (AMS) which frees the software from on-site hardware, as well as hosting of the current version of Rapattoni Magic AMS for customers that want to eliminate their in-house hardware. This, along with their Integrated Website Service, Single Sign-On (SSO), and Edge MLS mobile interface for iOS and Android, as well as their brand new corporate website, shows the company has been busy. Niki also gave me a tour of their newly renovated offices.  Ralph Hoover, Rapattoni’s EVP, mentioned that these product decisions were made under Niki’s direction, after Andy’s passing.
 
But that’s not what caught my attention.
 
One thing that was also clear to me is that everyone at Rapattoni was in tune with what was happening in the industry. And Upstream was at the top of that discussion. Niki said that the company had a lot of discussions about Project Upstream and what it meant to MLS vendors like Rapattoni. And she said that after a lot of thought they had decided strategically they needed to make a change. That change was to separate the front end of the Rapattoni MLS from the back-end database. This, she said, would give the company flexibility to compete in the future as the landscape of the MLS world changed.
 
Whoa! This was huge news to me. I know that many MLS providers had been looking for some leadership from MLS vendors regarding this, but none of them that I know of have made the declaration publicly.  
 
This is a huge undertaking. I was really impressed by Brian Tepfer, Rapattoni’s CTO, as he laid out the plan. Of course this will not happen overnight, he was quick to say, but the decision has been made, the work has started, and Rapattoni wants to lead the industry in this new direction.
 
On my drive back home to Huntington Beach I got to thinking. My stepmother lost my father a few years back, my mother-in-law lost her husband less than two years ago. Both strong women. But as strong as they are I can’t imagine how either of them could go on after such a great loss, to lead a company of over a 100 people and to make sure their families are taken care of. No break. Unimaginable. And yet Niki and her team are doing it. 
 
So if anybody is asking what’s happening at Rapattoni, I would just repeat what Niki said to me as I left, “We’re still here Greg.  And the sky’s the limit.”