An interesting article from Businessinsider.com came across my view today, via my Facebook feed from a good friend Jono. In the article, Bill Curley, world famous VC, talks about Twitter and its potential to become world dominating, at least in terms of racking up ad revenue, not simply growing their user base. On the other end of the spectrum he talks about the Daily Deal companies, like Groupon and Facebook Deals. There is an argument against their super bright future because of low barriers of entry – competition is getting fierce in that arena.
What really caught my eye here, is Bill’s quote about cloud computing:
“We’ve spent the past 40 years putting technology inside the enterprise and we’re going to spend the next 20 years ripping it out.”
Some of us recognize that enterprise sized property management organizations will start moving to the cloud at some point within next 1-10 years. It takes a long time for these large organizations to move. They are burdened by legacy technologies, legacy vendor partnerships and conservative boards.
But we are small business! We are nimble, we are flexible and we are able to provide 10 times the level of service over these larger, institution sized companies. So if cloud technology levels the playing field and provides smaller property management companies with cutting edge technology to pair with the excellent service you already have – how much more business would you get?
Today, as a property manager, you can adopt cloud email/calendar/communication solutions for next to nothing, in terms of cost. Cutting edge property management operational software is available for few dollars/unit/month. The highly cost effective ways to employ social media will help establish you as a property management expert in your territory.
After all, when the 50 unit apartment building owner begins searching for a qualified property management company, will you be there? Will you have the capacity to take on the business? Will you have the infrastructure in place to scale and make your new owner happy, without reducing the quality of service to your existing customers?
With properly implemented cloud systems, you would! Going into the meeting with your iPad, showcasing your company, providing references and closing the deal!
What stops you from embracing cloud technologies today? Please share your thoughts.
