Realty goes tech-savvy

Leading real estate players are realising strategic value of information technology and need to step up hosting capabilities, with resources to support it

For the real estate sector, which remained unorganied till sometime ago, use of information technology (IT) was somewhat alien. Not any longer. All leading players in the country are increasingly realising strategic value of IT for better business insight and outcome. In today’s dynamic business scenario, companies are moving towards zero-tolerance to downtime, ensuring business continuity for sustaining in a tough market.

For them, it’s imperative that virtually every aspect of a business operation continues without disruption because any failure could lead to serious business and financial liabilities. Also, with business operations expanding, clients are facing the need to step up hosting capabilities, with IT resources to support it.

Pike Research predicts that the period between 2011 and 2020 could see $108 billion investment in smart cities and their infrastructure, with the attention of high-tech giants like Cisco Systems and IBM, and by extension, their channel partners.

Not just developers, but property broking and consulting companies are also increasingly embracing technology.

IndiaHomes, a professionally-managed property broking company, is probably the only company in the real estate segment in India using technology to enable customers make informed decisions. As a part of its new initiative called ‘genie’, every sales agent is being armed with an android-based tablet for delivering better sales experience to customers. Sales executives will be able to provide services that would include all property details integrated with Google Maps on the tablet for the customers to browse through before making a decision. It will also be possible to know whether a sales agent is available or busy at any point of time and the customer will get immediately connected to another available sales agent, thereby reducing the call waiting time.

Deepak Goel, chief product officer, In­diaHomes, said, “Internet, today, is an important platform for information dissemination. Our customer support team provides customer care right from the date of booking till the date of possession. The entire range of services is offered free-of-cost to the customer.”

Ireo, a fully integrated real estate company with projects in national capital region (NCR), Haryana, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and Mah­arashtra, has got business continuity and disaster recovery packages implemented by IBM. For the company, any prolonged downtime could have a huge business impact in terms of being able to access document management – a very important aspect for the real estate industry, and key e-business applications needed for the company’s sales process. In addition, key areas such as daily price management, order management, sales process and documentation, would be impacted by any downtime. The business continuity and disaster recovery solutions will enable undisrupted operation at Ireo, ensuring better customer service.

“We needed to ensure that our data centre was always up and running because it was becoming increasingly necessary for us to have a reliable, resilient and secure IT infrastructure to support the growing needs of our business operations. We were looking for a partner who could manage our disaster recovery needs, enabling us to focus on our core business area of real estate. By leveraging the IBM disaster recovery solution, we were not only able to reduce our capital expenditure by 30 per cent, but we also have access to reliable and scalable enterprise class infrastructure being managed by skilled personnel,” says Rajesh Garg, vice-president, business development and technology, Ireo.

K Raheja, one of the leading realty companies, is also implementing IBM’s comprehensive enterprise content management (ECM) solution in order to manage different aspects of single and multi-location data. The company was looking for a solution to help them create a secured and digitised repository for all paper, electronic documents and emails. It was in need of applications for web-based access of documents to give them instant access to information with no delay in searching, decision-making or streamlining document centric workflow. This also aims at plugging delays in the paper-intensive processes. IBM’s ECM solutions – Datacap, FileNet business process manager and content collector will help the company create a road to good governance, compliance driven processes and documentation.

“Over the years, we have been looking to improve our management of multiple-format documents. We needed a solution that could put all the scattered documents and data in a secured and structured environment. These documents can be stored in archives or a point of reference for any future use,” said Manoj Sharma, senior vice-president and head-operations, K Raheja.

Pradeep Nair, director, software group, IBM India-South Asia, said, “Through IBM’s ECM solutions, we are helping companies realise the strategic value of content for better business insight and outcomes. We intend to help companies transform the way they do business by enabling them to put content in motion: capturing, activating, socialising, analysing and governing it throughout the entire lifecycle.”

But, is it only the large realty players who are adopting and embracing technology or mid-sized developers are also coming forward?

KS Raghunandan, director, integrated te­chnology services, global technology services, IBM India-South Asia, said, “IBM brings its experience to companies of all sizes that want to be prepared for any kind of risk or disaster, better utilise their existing manpower, increase reliability, flexibility, and set up a right kind of infrastructure to reduce their time-to-market. Choosing the right infrastructure recovery service provides real estate companies with a secure, risk-free environment avoiding the complexity associated with hiring highly skilled resources. It also equips them with an alternate work environment to minimise loss of employee productivity, thus meeting their needs for continuous operations.”

But it is not just for administrative purposes or at the corporate office level that real estate companies are embracing information technology. Abus Security Center, a wholly owned subsidiary of Abus group of Germany, a leading player in mechanical and electronic security technology, is bullish about the Indian real estate market. Philippe Bremicker, managing director, Abus Security Center, said, “We are particularly upbeat over the way India’s realty (both residential and commercial) and hospitality sectors are growing. Our advantage is that we are both product-driven and service-driven and, therefore, we can offer integrated solutions. We can also look at possible synergies with Indian software companies in order to emerge as a more holistic security solutions provider.”

Abus offers Eyseo (video cameras and IP cameras), Eytron (digital recorders and PCI monitoring cards), Secvest (wireless alarm systems), Terxon (wired alarm systems) from its stable. Kolkata-based Bengal Peerless Ho­using Development Company has teamed up with Abus for these integrated solutions. Zicom Electronic Security Systems (Zicom), India’s leading electronic security solutions provider has also come up with colour video door phone with touch pad technology and fingerprints locks. Real estate developers are lapping them up as a value-addition to smart homes that they sell.

“With daily advancements in technology, the definition of security is in a state of rapid transition. We believe that innovating in this category is a limitless opportunity for us to serve the customers better and help them protect what they value the most using the latest technology,” said Anand Swaminathan, director of product, solution and CEO, Zicom group, said.

ritwikmukherjee@mydigitalfc.com

Source: wrd.mydigitalfc.com