About lisadowie

Earlier this week I had a jam packed 24 hours in the beautiful city of Adelaide, during which I had the chance to visit and chat to many of our PEXA members.  @danielroesler our Executive Manager of Practitioner Services SA whisked me around the streets of Adelaide in his small and speedy vehicle (its infamous, even got a mention at our recent roadshow event).  We started our Monday morning at Tuckfield Conveyancing, located in a beautiful part of town, Vale Park.  Tammy Edwards the owner welcomed us in with a warm smile and we sat around her meeting table to discuss how her business and the SA market are going with the transition to digital.  We all agreed that the regional area’s of SA are definitely taking up the adoption of PEXA at a greater rate than those in the metro areas, as the benefits are quickly realised for those in regional areas.  Tammy recently reached out to one of her peers who PEXA was celebrating for completing so many transfers.  Tammy wanted to know how they were doing it.  What a great example of peer to peer support, the industry helping one another.  Tammy has a number of strategies up her sleeve to create some real PEXA momentum within her office, stay tuned as we are going to follow up on Tuckfield’s progress in the coming weeks.  I also found out that Tammy has a great blog on her website, check out how their business name came about.  http://www.tuckfields.com.au/why-business-called-tuckfields/ We then got together with 7 PEXA members who really have lead the PEXA charge in South Australia, a great opportunity to show our appreciation for their support over the last 2 years.  As always, when we get our PEXA members together, the stories started to flow and everyone was sharing their tips and tricks.  Naomi from Boylan Lawyers who just loves PEXA quoted that she is often processing 70 to 80% of her files via PEXA.  Naomi travelled from Port Pirie to attend lunch and our roadshow the next day, love that PEXA passion! The afternoon took us to Johnston Withers Lawyers where PEXA enthusiast Gemma Wallace commenced opening the firms first development which will soon be uploaded to PEXA Projects.  Gemma who is passionate about conveyancing explained to us how important conveyancing is to their law firm and how it provided a consistent and reliable revenue stream which means the partners are keen to be progressive and ahead of the market when it comes to adopting PEXA.  Andrew Mitchard the Managing Director of Johnston Withers popped in to say hi and it was evident how supportive he was of Gemma driving their PEXA adoption.  Gemma has also kicked off an initiative to train their Settlement Agent on PEXA so she can begin monitoring and coordinating their PEXA settlements.  What a great idea, we will also report back on how this progresses over the coming months, @mkelly already has some training appointments booked in. 7:30am start on Tuesday morning at Adelaide Zoo for PEXA’s Your Network, Your Future industry event.  Close to 150 members in attendance.  Members heard from key industry participants such as Westpac, Land Services SA, Office of Registrar General, Revenue SA and AICSA.  My favourite session was the member panel where our members shared their PEXA stories, great job @BekHayes facilitating this insight session.  The vibe in the room was extremely positive, the key themes: Transformation taking place across the entire industry Feedback and collaboration was encouraged by all Member experience panel was insightful and powerful, no one says it better than our own members Key take away for attendees;  time to get on with it, 100% digital timelines are imminent, issue and accept all invites, Financial Institutions are working with us. The best part about my job is getting to meet so many people, building relationships and helping people transition their business to the digital era is such a pleasure.  A big thank-you to everyone I visited and to those who attended our events.  Your interest demonstrates your commitment to your network and your future.    Lisa Dowie PEXA, Chief Customer Officer ... View more

 The PEXA roadshow rolled on through northern NSW  last week.  We started our week on Monday evening with a Cohort dinner in the very picturesque Nelson Bay where 15 lovely ladies joined us to share a meal and to also share their PEXA experiences with one another.    It was great to hear that some firms are processing 80% of their files through PEXA, the number one take away from this evening was that our regional members have no doubt realised the benefits of settling online and they just want everyone else to get on board.                                                     Tuesday morning we kicked off Your Network Your Future roadshow in Newcastle where almost 200 PEXA members were in attendance to hear from David McDowell and Mark Smith about how the NSW ORG and SRO are driving their respective digital transformation agendas.  Based on members feedback regarding their interest in Cyber Security we included two guest speakers to ensure our members know how to protect themselves and their clients in this digital era.  Our very own @SBray Simon Bray shared what to expect from the platform in 2018 and it is fair to say our members interest peaked when hearing about PEXA Plus. We concluded our event with an interactive panel with representatives from across the network including our own members, Christine Thompson from Greater Bank and Dan Lynch from First State Conveyancing who shared their own PEXA stories.  A great turn out and a great vibe from our Newcastle PEXA members who by the way are some of our highest transactors in the country!  Great job @SallyKite, @RENELLEHIGGINS, @TheresaTing and @ceather for getting Newcastle up and running.   Newcastle Your Network Your Future First State Conveyancing team, top of the national leader board Next we boarded a very, very small plane to Ballina.  Whilst I had been warned about Pelican Air I don’t think I was prepared for the confined space on board or the fact that anyone could walk into the cockpit at any stage, but not to fear we all made it without incident.  Thursday morning we held our next roadshow event at the Ballina Jockey Club which overlooked the local racecourse, almost 100 PEXA members were in attendance an amazing turnout for a small regional area.  We had a similar line up of speakers to Newcastle however this time @GeorgePolus represented PEXA and Barry Goodwin from Lead Point and Amanda Edmonds from Edmonds Conveyancing joined us on the panel.  The Ballina members were so impressive with the practical questions they were asking, it was obvious we had an audience of super users on our hands.  Your members did you proud @SallyKite, @Morvanna, @TheresaTing and @Therese.   Thursday evening some of our Ballina members joined us on the banks of the river so we could thank them for all their PEXA support.  We shared a beverage, watched the sunset and listened to our members stories and feedback on using PEXA and our support services.   Ballina Roadshow Ballina Cohort Event Pelican Air It truly was a great week and a great opportunity to chat to so many of our members.  A big thank you to all our members who turned out last week, it was great to see how many of you are genuinely interested in your network and your future.  Thank you for your PEXA support!   Lisa Dowie PEXA, Chief Customer Officer ... View more

We had a fantastic industry day at the Your Network, Your Future Roadshow in Perth last week.  It was great to have such an engaging group of speakers to talk about not just the industry changes happening now, but also to give an idea of the technologies on the horizon and what the future of property might look like. Shout out to Sean Langton, Bankwest’s CTO who had everyone enthralled with a great presentation on future tech. With the industry in WA fast approaching the date for transfers to go digital it was a great chance to get an update from Landgate and PEXA’s Executive Manager Practitioner Services, @AngellaC, about the upcoming changes and the support services available for practitioners in WA. We ran plenary sessions where attendees had the opportunity to pick and choose what they wanted to know more about including hearing directly from our Chief Product Officer, @SBray on the enhancements planned for the PEXA platform and from a panel of members already using PEXA. The highlight of the day was having a panel of senior leaders from the major banks and Bankwest up on stage, fielding questions from the room about the challenges they’re facing and their readiness for May 1.   After answering the hard questions it was great to hear Jack Boyle from Challenge Settlements ask “Where can we improve to make life easier for you guys?” which really demonstrates the nature of collaboration this digital transformation has fostered. It’s not just practitioners helping practitioners learn PEXA or banks working with other banks to improve their processes it is an industry wide effort to adopt a better way of working together. And lastly, congratulations to @ValerieDeCosta6101 for winning our International Women’s Day themed prize, two tickets and an all-expenses paid trip to see Hilary Clinton in Melbourne this May. ... View more

"We want to start transacting online as soon as possible to ensure a seamless transition as it will soon be mandatory in WA" Perth-based Solomon Brothers’ Barristers, Solicitors & Attorneys have clocked in as the 4,000th firm signed to transact home sales on Property Exchange Australia’s (PEXA’s) digital platform. Solomon Brothers Partner, Michelle Hawksley, said the timing was perfect as the firm is keen to innovate by keeping ahead of the imminent wave of change that will shortly sweep across the settlement agent industry with mandatory timelines for taking property transactions online. “We want to start transacting online as soon as possible to ensure a seamless transition as it will soon be mandatory in WA,” she said. “PEXA offers a support service to help us adopt this new way of transacting. This will be a tremendous asset for our internal licensed settlement team who manage a high volume of transactions. Many are off-the-plan strata title developments. Caveats are another transaction that we expect to take online. "The earlier we adopt PEXA the better so that we can service our clients’ needs. A key benefit of transacting online is ensuring that our clients quickly receive their sale funds. We act for a number of property developers who require Solomon Brothers to settle a large number of unit sales at the one time. For example it’s not unusual to settle 40 units. Now, by plugging into PEXA, we can look forward to swiftly finalising settlements of large scale developments. "By contrast, if we settled those 40 units with traditional paper methods we would have to coordinate attendance by our staff at a large number of settlements taking place at different locations within a short period of time. We’re a truly independent WA firm celebrating our 30th anniversary this year so we’re delighted to be the 4,000th firm to sign up to PEXA.” PEXA has dedicated specialists trained to guide your practice to a digital future. Even better, it's a free service. Get started by emailing angella.chick@pexa.com.au Solomon Brothers clock in as the 4000th firm to join PEXA. Left to right: Shannon Davies, Michelle Hawksley and Mark Blundell   Lisa Dowie PEXA, Chief Customer Officer ... View more