IT Can Lead to Competitive Advantage

As chief technology officer of Ahdut Development Inc. it is my job to seek out methods that best suit our company and its goals. As described above, much of the IT available to the real estate industry has benefited companies in a similar fashion to ours. A lot of hard work must go into the different steps of the development process. Coordination of information is required from the blueprint phase all the way through to the leasing phase. Heavy research is conducted to find a location our company can thrive in. Demographics, location, prices, styles, etc. are all part of the necessary information we must gather. For example, since our current project is located in the business area of Washington DC, many of our apartments will offer a large bedroom with a smaller room that can be used as a den or office. As for the contractor, although we have a contractor lined up, our research team will use bidding sites to find going rates for comparable work. Throughout the development stages, engineers and layout technicians will frequently visit the site with laptops and handheld devices to stay updated and make necessary changes on location. Rather than undergoing the hectic back and forth of visiting the property and then going back to an office, people can now bring the office to the work site. This enables greater flexibility and accuracy at all ends. Once we are ready to lease out the spaces in the building, there are a few marketing strategies our company will utilize. Firstly, we will make use of an online program called www.rentmineonline.com. This site allows for the exploitation of all the social networks that usually are a waste of time. (That can be a discussion for another time.) Friends can refer other friends or family to the building for a slight commission. It is a win-win situation as the owner spends less time worrying about getting spaces off hand, while residents get more of a community feel with people they know. More so, important IT programs we use include an intranet, along with property owner and financial software that keep track of all our companies’ properties, residents, and financials. This reduces the need for a property manager allowing cost cutting in the area. More marketing strategies include YouTube, listing sites such as Craigslist.com, and even text messaging. People will be able to drive by the property and see a number they can text free that will send a listing of the spaces to their phone. This makes great use of IT, as a text message will do the work instead of actual human labor. Information technology continuously improves our companies operations in efforts to create the best environment possible wherever we go.