The US property industry has gone cool on e-business.
Attendance at the PikeNet conference last week in San Francisco was down 20% on last year. The conference is the world’s biggest property e-business convention.
A series of high-profile troubles, including Zethus, the online property marketplace backed by Goldman Sachs that recently filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, have dampened enthusiasm.
A Gomez/PikeNet survey at the conference showed only 30% of US property professionals intended to adopt e-business transaction platforms. These enable companies to carry out business online. A third of respondents cited cost as a barrier. Only 30% believed more than half their clients will request net services.
At the conference, Octane – the e-business consortium backed by CB Richard Ellis, Jones Lang LaSalle, Insignia and Trammell Crow – announced that it had picked WorkplaceIQ as its transaction management platform. However, JLL’s chief innovation officer, Mark Rose said its implementation would be slow. “This is something we all misread,” he said.
EGi News 10/05/01
