E-business initiatives have faded from the media spotlight – but visionary companies can still make headlines by using the internet to revolutionise their service provision, says Andrew Waller
“When the internet ‘disappears’, you know it has arrived!” That was the prediction of Ed Zander, president and CEO of Sun Microsystems, nine months ago. It is rare to see articles about new services over the web these days and many of the dot.com firms that promised to change the property world have either dramatically restructured or closed.
Does this reduced visibility mean that the internet was a nine-day wonder that we can now forget, or has it disappeared because we all use it subconsciously?
The aftermath of 11 September affected companies’ spending on IT and emphasised the need for companies to show some return on investment. Many of the more successful e-business initiatives therefore centred on reducing long-established, traditional processes to their minimum and then gaining efficiency through automating them.
The savings from working in this way can be substantial. One of our clients implemented a web-based tool in its agency team and improved efficiency in one key process, resulting in 85% lower costs.
Has it disappeared?
This shows that much of the internet may well have disappeared. It has been absorbed into daily life in many companies. However, is this enough?
I recently read Gary Hamel’s last book, Leading the Revolution. Mr Hamel is scathing about companies’ attempts to merely improve business processes. This, he says, does not create market leaders. It is only by revolution within a marketplace that true growth and market leadership is possible.
There are examples of radical thinking within the property industry. The development of corporate property advisory teams and the subsequent birth of Mapeley and Trillium are examples. Similar radical thinking led to the creation of Regus and Stonemartin. However, the markets find these vehicles difficult to value, which proves a great disincentive to further creativity. Traditional market players appear to find such change difficult.
It is the reluctance to address the shortcomings of traditional property services which will ultimately limit radical changes. Here is an area in which the internet has shown the way for property consultancies to revolutionise the industry.
Online market data
Through the internet it is already possible to obtain 50-60% of the data you need to understand the market. In time, this will increase to 80-90%. In addition, a deal can be managed effectively using online collaboration tools such as extranets or “deal rooms”. The agent’s traditional role is diminishing and many clients are looking for ways to reduce agents’ fees in line with their own increasing knowledge.
However, by separating the component parts of an agent’s role, we find that there is a case for employing agents on most disposals and many acquisitions. If they have access to most of the market information online, most property companies will not want to keep full-time marketing teams on their books. But if agents can obtain equivalent fees for using their marketing knowledge, they will be able to add real value and perhaps give away the last 10-20% of market knowledge that they still own to key clients in order to deepen relationships.
Perhaps the internet will disappear, not through lack of interest, but as a result of an explosion of new ideas which bring about real industry change.
