The commercial real estate industry has lagged behind in technology, in comparison to the residential industry. Within the past few years, many new technological advances have been made available to the commercial industry for increasing productivity and revenue. Many experts believe that if the commercial industry does not embrace this technical revolution that it will be at a greater disadvantage in years to come. Like a lot of established industries, real estate will need to modernize to keep pace. Check out some of these big trends in the commercial real estate industry.
Information Technology Competition
Some of the technological changes that are coming forth are websites that assist commercial real estate owners in locating contractors, websites that track possible lessees or building occupants, and the outsourcing of IT related matters. Speakers at the Working Smarter in Commercial Real Estate Conference said these technological interfaces have the ability to make companies operate more efficiently and increase their bottom line. Unfortunately, the companies that do not embrace these technological advances will struggle to compete with the companies that do embrace it.
According to Jonathan Schultz, president of Onyx Equities of Woodbridge, the biggest problem for commercial real estate companies is having the necessary information to do the job more efficiently. Chris Mangano, the vice president of Mercadien Technologies, discussed the increase in companies moving their IT files in the cloud, allowing companies to have the flexibility to work whenever they want and from any location in the world. However, with greater efficiency comes greater risk to cyber breaches. These types of system changes need to be planned out very thoroughly to avoid adding any risk to your company.
Better Commercial Real Estate Systems
This new era in commercial real estate technology has brought about sites like Honest Buildings. Honest Buildings is making an impact on the commercial real estate industry by aiming to ease the process in which building owners can hire contractors such as engineers, architects, or electricians. In the past, commercial real estate owners would solicit estimates from three contractors. Utilizing the Honest Buildings platform, commercial real estate owners can solicit numerous bids by posting the project and receiving multiple offers from various contractors. Combining the use of better systems and streamlining the processes that get contractors up and running on the job can have an immediate effect on the bottom line and productivity.
As with any other industry, the companies that embrace technology will see an increase in their productivity rate and experience greater success in terms of its finances and growth. For more information on how you can improve your commercial real estate company without unforeseen risks, please contact the experts here at Alliance.