I see a trend coming back. And it’s not necessarily a good thing. I hear it at conferences, see it in comment threads, and quoted in media outlets. It usually goes something like this..
“We are a legacy MLS Vendor….”, “our legacy system….”, “the legacy software provides…”
Stop this practice immediately. This phrase came from the old hardware days of “big iron”, with room size computer hardware systems that soon became outdated. Software never sleeps. Legacy means “old”, it means “tired”. I think “traditional” also falls in to this same trap.
I was talking to Dave Rifkin, VP of Sales at Flexmls at the last CMLS Conference. He told me that at FBS they don’t use the phrase “legacy” to describe their MLS System, they say “Flagship”. Which I thought was brilliant. Words matters. The internal diagloue we have with ourselves matter. The words we use to describe others, ourselves, our company, our products matter.
Here are a few phrases to help you get started.
- Battle-tested
- World-class
- Industry leading
- Proven
- Innovative
- Popular
- Respected
Keep your head up.
Amen!!
Absolutely on point, Greg! I completely agree with this. Using that type of terminology only brings us all down, instead of rising us up.
On the other hand, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck. It’s not “flagship” if it’s basically a retread of the same tired early 2000s UI. Yeah maybe some of the underlying code has been tweaked a bit, but it’s still tired. So to me, the “flagship” MLS providers are every bit legacy software. Quack!! By the way, I do not include W+R in this group. 🙂 I’m very glad that W+R “Thinks Different”, to borrow from and old Apple ad campaign.
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