When it comes to Real Estate, technology isn’t really the first thing that comes to mind. While other industries have been actively trying to keep track of all the new IT trends and implementing them in their businesses, Real Estate is still finding it hard to embrace change and keep up. With a new generation of Real Estate companies, consisting of younger employees, extensively using technology to progress their business strategy, older companies are starting to face serious competition.
To remain relevant RE companies are trying to get on the IT train and have started spending huge sums on new solutions and IT consultants. However, most still do not understand the necessity of a technology revolution, find it challenging to take risks and don’t have the agility needed. This leads to a loss of investments, as essentially investors today are opting for newer tech-enabled ecosystems.
But why is there such a big imbalance in the Real Estate market? What should a modern Real Estate company focus on? In a nutshell, everything evolves around mindset. Younger companies are more ready to explore new innovative tools that can change and improve user experience. And while most Real Estate executives recognise that technology is the answer to the complexity of the industry, they are simply not ready to leave their comfort zones.
According to a study by Deloitte, 97% of surveyed executives plan to increase their capital commitment to CRE over the next 18 months and plan to diversify their portfolios through higher investments in newer and emerging business models. More than 80 % also believe that CRE companies should prioritize the use of predictive analytics and business intelligence.
This shows us that while RE companies are finding it hard to embrace change, investors are actually expecting just that. That’s why creating an enterprise-wide IT strategy is one of the first steps a competitive RE company should focus on if they aim to effectively integrate technology into their business. With the use of technology, companies can harvest large amounts of data, analyse the market, build a much more powerful business strategy and enhance management reporting. Shockingly, according to Deloitte’s 2018 Global CIO Survey only one-fourth of organizations globally, across industries, have an enterprise-wide digital vision and strategy.
But like any strategy, an IT strategy must be based on strategic thinking. A mistake that is often made by RE companies is investing in individual technologies solving a specific business need, rather than trying to find a solution that would cover the majority of them. This leads to a number of problems that result in wasted time and resources.
Modern core technology systems offer multiple integrations with new solutions, enhance data harvesting and analytics, automate business procedures maximising effectivity and allow managers to take out valuable insights. Automation software such as CRM Systems, help increase operational efficiencies and increase onboarding, essentially making the life of employees much easier. Introducing new channels for potential customers, existing clients and agents to interact with a real-estate company, exponentially increases the opportunity to bring on more clients and up-sell existing ones. These channels also drastically increase operational efficiency as customers and agents have access to information 24/7.
As we can see from the above, technology greatly affects every aspect of a Real Estate business. To remain relevant companies are forced to move away from set guidelines and constantly improve and upgrade. Opting for new tools and services can allow companies to speed up operational processes, develop a more customer-focused approach, and find the weak spots in their strategies. One thing that is certain, thanks to technology, the Real Estate market will keep on evolving at a rapid pace.
