Vik Tara has over three decades of experience in the PropTech world. A Property professional with a string of Residential Lettings and Property Management businesses and a growing Property and development portfolio, Vik also created, owns and runs technology companies involved in the digital transformation of the property industry.
Vik holds multiple C-level positions including MD/CTO of Technology Blueprint, the developer and marketer of PropCo, a market-leading property management solution which is extensively used by companies like Countrywide. Vik is also the Managing Director and founder of Tech Blue Software, a fast growth Indian software company offering consultancy and support to companies based in UK, USA, Europe, Middle East and Asia.
In addition to this, he founded the highly innovative and groundbreaking PropTech mobile app Rentr, a comprehensive lettings app designed for both landlords and tenants and CheckDocs, a simple tool to help landlords conduct ‘right-to-rent’ checks on prospective tenants.
Other noteworthy projects that Vik has worked on include:
– The architecture, planning and initial delivery of CRL PropCo Enterprise.
– The architecture and sponsorship of Homelet Referencing.
Vik regularly provides media commentary, some recent examples include The Metro, Estate Agent Today and Estate Agency Networking UK.
Nominees three achievements
Achievement 1 – Powering CountryWide
~Novel Serialisation: Heavens Fire~
Technology Blueprint’s enterprise software platform, PropCo, (an online property rental management and lettings software platform) sits at the heart of Countrywide’s operational offering. Countrywide is the UK’s largest property services group, serving customers in over 850 branches across the UK. It has the largest network of estate and lettings agents across the UK, and one of Vik’s greatest achievements is developing the technology platform that provides the entire cradle to grave operational infrastructure. Through PropCo’s cutting edge technology CountryWide can make lettings more efficient and compliant and save every stakeholder time and money whilst creating good customer experiences. This is why PropCo is at the heart of the Countrywide growth strategy.
Achievement 2 – Philanthropic works
Despite running a number of successful organisations, and having a young family, Vik has a great belief in giving back to his community: Vik has taken his extensive experience in property and technology and utilised that. Vik has also been involved in many philanthropic, not for profit ventures that utilise his unique skill set. One is the Hamara Project that he founded last year. Hamara is an open source software Operating system that enables the exchange of skills, knowledge and ideas. The aim is to empower the world through technology at no cost. It is inspired by the old barter tradition of people exchanging skills, knowledge and ideas: the Hamara Linux Project was created to do just that.
The Hamara Project caters firstly to the Indian market encouraging young developers to collaborate to create new technical solutions to local problems at no cost. When developing the software Vik ensured its styling would be culturally acceptable to Indian users. Second, he looked at language, translation and the naming of the applications to make sure it made sense to the native user. All these factors combined helped Vik establish more engagement..
With the Hamara Linux project Vik wants to build a community committed to adopting the open source approach in aspects of their daily life. This is not just about being open about software, but also being open about electronics, knowledge and information.
The Hamara community works to achieve its goals by connecting us all. By intertwining the needs of commercial organisations and individuals the Hamara project can help develop anything that the community wants to create, share and distribute, all based on the principles of open source.
Vik’s philanthropic aims are to empower the world by using a combination of democracy, commerce, social responsibility and technology: https://www.hamaralinux.org/.
Achievement 3 – Industry and local recognition
Vik is at heart a technologist and naturally avoids the spotlight but his colleagues feel he should get the industry recognition he deserves. Recently in 2018 Vik won the Lifetime Achievement award at the UK PropTech Association awards. The UKPA represents and assists companies and individuals in the UK’s PropTech world, by encouraging and promoting engagement between technology businesses and the property sector. The UKPA awards ceremony was established to recognise the achievements of individuals and organisations, in both the property and property technology sectors. Vik was recognised for his clear dedication and passion in the development and growth of the UK PropTech world.
Also in 2018 Vik was recognised in his local area winning the ‘Outstanding Achievement of the Year’ award at the 2018 Leamington Spa Business Awards that recognises and celebrates significant achievements from businesses and individuals in the area.
Jonathan Smith, from The Leamington Spa Business Awards, commented:
“The judging panel were uniquely impressed by Vik Tara’s passion for the local community and its businesses. Vik has demonstrated a consistent and highly successful track record for delivering innovation after innovation, and for investing a great deal of time, energy and resources into the local economy. Vik has also successfully positioned Leamington Spa on the ‘PropTech’ map in the UK.”
This award recognised that Vik has dedicated his work towards creating something much more meaningful than just a series of commercial enterprises. Vik has channeled his energy and passion into creating a series of businesses which have truly integrated themselves into the local community. For example all of Vik’s businesses have employed multiple streams of Leamington Spa talent, including employing interns and training placements from local schools, colleges, and regional universities.
