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An industry leader in property management software has shared how to source and evaluate the right technology for real estate businesses.
Rockend chief executive Alister Maple-Brown said tech investments are worth investigating when they make a business more efficient, improve its service, help attract customers or help retain customers.
The next step is for businesses to calculate what their return on investment would be, according to Mr Maple-Brown.
“If you have a rate of labour of, say, $50 per hour all inclusive, that’s $400 per day and $2,000 per week,” he said.
“If you can save an individual one week per year and it costs less than $2,000, then you should do it."
However, calculations are impossible unless a business understands its rate of labour as well as the approximate amount of time staff spend on individual tasks, Mr Maple-Brown said.
“If you saw a new piece of technology that you believe your customers would see value in and, as a result of that, they would pay you five per cent more than they’re currently paying you and the incremental cost of that technology is only one per cent greater relative to the revenue of that customer, then it’s a no-brainer,” he said.
Mr Maple-Brown said Google can be a good resource for finding new technology and relevant user reviews – but added that online searches should be as specific as possible.
“The other thing to do is go and talk to businesses that you respect and who you believe run really efficient operations, whether that be within your franchise, whether that be within a marketing group, or simply an industry leader that you respect,” he said.
Mr Maple-Brown also recommended that businesses consult their tech suppliers because they will be in a good position to suggest different products, even from other companies.
[Related: Cut through the techno white noise]
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