FOR BROKERS: Office technology

BY CHRISTOPHER WRIGHT

The right devices
Ramp up with research
Does it work for you?
Smart shopping
Pitfalls to avoid
Setting up a wireless office
What associates pay

Unplug sales

In real estate, sales associates who are faster than their competitors at meeting prospects’ needs are the ones who get the business. That makes it alluring for your associates to carry wireless devices that link them to resources at your office—MLS listings, e-mail, documents, property photos, their calendar.

But figuring out which devices to recommend to your associates is a challenge. To avoid costly mistakes, real estate technology specialists say you should

• Assess what functions your associates need in a cell phone, notebook, or personal digital assistant (PDA).
• Research which products to recommend to your associates. Talk with colleagues at companies who’ve already made the move to wireless, and run your plans by tech professionals.
• Test for usability.

 The right devices
If you’re helping your associates choose the wireless devices they’ll carry, one maxim to follow is: “Buy for where your business is today. Don’t try to predict your technology needs three years from now, because the devices change every two years anyway,” says Mark Lesswing, vice president of the National Association of REALTORS® Center for REALTOR® Technology. CRT offers IT professionals at REALTOR® organizations free advice on technology selection and implementation.

Lesswing and Bill Hartung, director of technology for John L. Scott Real Estate in Bellevue, Wash., which made wireless devices available to its associates beginning in 2001, recently shared their collective wisdom on choosing products.

• Cell phones. Look for products that accept both analog- and digital-transmission signals. These are known as dual-mode phones. Analog lets you send and receive voice transmissions; digital lets you send and receive data or text transmissions. It’s important to have analog capability in your phone so that you can take calls in areas that are difficult for digital signals to reach, says Hartung. Check with cellular service providers in your area to identify which offer both analog and digital coverage.
  
• Notebooks. Look for a notebook with either wireless networking (Wi-Fi) capability or a wireless modem built in, or make sure these are available options. If your notebook doesn’t come with built-in Wi-Fi capability, it should come with a PCMCIA expansion slot to accommodate a wireless adaptor. The next level of wireless technology is already rolling out in some parts of the country. This third-generation (3G) technology will enable always-on access to the Internet and e-mail from your notebook using a special card. The technology also promises to extend the reach of other wireless devices.
  
• Wireless-enabled PDAs and smartphones. These devices can provide your associates access to voice, e-mail, Web, task list, calendar, and contact-management functions. Among the products that offer these capabilities: Samsung’s i500 and PalmOne’s Treo 600. If you live in an area that offers live MLS access, check with your local MLS provider to see which hardware platforms it supports for wireless access.

A Palm or Pocket PC or any multifunction handheld device with the right software allows associates to edit, compose, and send documents from the field. “It’s really impressive for an associate on the road to be able to send a document or call up a spreadsheet while simultaneously talking to a customer,” says Hartung.

• Synchronization. If associates will be using a PDA as an extension of their primary computer system, they’ll need to understand the importance of data synchronization. It allows them to update information between PDA and computer so that they’ll have access to the same data.

 Ramp up with research
Once you outline your basic needs, how do you winnow your choices?

• Reviews. For free reviews or discussion-board postings, type the name of the product or product category (“PDA comparison”) into an Internet search engine such as Google. But make sure you check several reviews on the same product. “Never rely on any one opinion, because it could be biased,” says Hartung.
  
• Peer groups. Hartung’s company belongs to an alliance of real estate companies. He surveys members of the alliance regularly with regard to his options for technology implementation and troubleshooting. Experts also recommend that you ask vendors for customer referrals and talk to those customers about the process and results.
  
• NAR’s Center for REALTOR® Technology. CRT’s Outreach Initiative provides advice on technology selection and implementation. Learn more at REALTOR.org/CRT.

 Does it work for you?
After you’ve narrowed your equipment choices, it’s time to test the alternatives. Whenever possible, use demo models at the store. Vendor-owned stores—such as Sprint and AT&T Wireless outlets—sometimes allow you to use a phone for a trial period. During that time, if you’re not satisfied, you can return the phone and service and only pay for service charges.

If a consultant is helping you select technology products, ask for a demo model so that you can “beat up” the system, says Hartung. That is, take the phone or PDA to the outer reaches of your service area to see how well it works, test its synchronization with your primary PC, assess Javascript support. Also view associates’ most frequently visited Web pages to see whether the pages format correctly for the small screen. Test the ability of the device to access the Web, not simply by accessing Google or some other common site, says Lesswing, but by trying the sites that are key to you, including your local MLS.

“If you demo it, you’ll be assured of getting a device that works in your business,” Lesswing says.

Smart shopping
Hartung’s associates usually buy equipment from the vendor who provides the company’s test equipment. “Vendors are eager to do corporate programs and give group discounts,” he says.

But he also looks at comparison-shopping Web sites, such as www.Froogle.com,a Google site, and www.PriceWatch.com. This research gives him and his associates a good idea of what devices should cost, he says.

Part of the trick in buying is knowing your suppliers’ product-introduction cycle, Lesswing says. “The best time to buy is late summer or March,” he says, because vendors clear out the previous year’s models in August and get rid of remaining holiday inventory in March. “You’ll pay a huge premium if you try to buy next year’s model in the holiday season,” he says.

Pitfalls to avoid

• Coverage gaps. Thirty percent to 40 percent of the country still doesn’t have 3G digital-wireless coverage, but this is changing. Lesswing expects national 3G networks to be completed by 2006. For now, buy a dual-mode phone that flips between analog and digital coverage. As 3G technology rolls out, wireless access by phone, PDA, and notebook will become more ubiquitous and reliable.
  
• E-mail access issues. Don’t set up mobile e-mail on a POP (post office protocol) basis, Lesswing says. If associates access e-mail from a handheld device (BlackBerry, PDA, smartphone, notebook), the e-mail disappears from the primary PC, so they’ll have no backup copies. Instead, use an IMAP server in your office, which keeps associates’ mail in a central place until they’re ready to download it to their primary PC.
  
• Lost data.Getting synchronization to work is the No. 1 problem with wireless technology, Lesswing says. It’s not uncommon for a contact list to be lost from both a PDA and a PC if both pieces of equipment become infected with a virus. To protect yourself, at least once a week back up your PC’s hard drive to a CD-ROM. That way, if your data gets zapped from both the PC and the PDA, you have up-to-date information from the PC.
  
• Faulty equipment. Wireless technology is less than perfect, say Hartung and Lesswing. Cell phone coverage gets dropped when there are sunspots or you drive through a tunnel. One out of every five devices doesn’t work properly, Hartung estimates. Battery life is a constant irritant. “Some of the technology still has flaws. It’s not all tried and true,” he says. On top of all that, obsolescence is a fact of life.

Despite potential drawbacks, Hartung says, if you close just one deal with the help of your PDA,
it’s paid for itself.

 Setting up a wireless office

Are you planning to set up or upgrade your office network? Thinking of recommending wireless devices to your associates? Both occasions are good times to consider installing a wireless network.

With wireless, you eliminate the cables that connect the computer server with your associates’ workstations, making it easy to rearrange your office, add new associates, or move to a new location. Thanks to growing demand for wireless networks, costs for equipment won’t break the bank, and much of the latest equipment can now be purchased with built-in wireless functionality.

If you’re starting from scratch, you can figure your equipment and setup costs will at least be comparable to that of a wired system—you won’t have cabling costs but you’ll need to invest in other wireless equipment. If you already have a wired system, the cost of conversion to wireless will depend on whether you buy all new wireless equipment or adapt your existing equipment to wireless use.

That’s the main downside to going wireless: The equipment you’ve been using for a couple of years probably isn’t equipped with wireless capabilities. Many vendors offer upgrade kits to retrofit older equipment but not for all versions of their products.

Here’s a basic wireless network setup estimate for an office with eight associates:

• Wireless router (a switch to control data flow from the Internet to the network): $120
• Wireless card ($90 for each computer to talk to the router): $720. A wireless card isn’t needed if you buy a wireless-ready notebook or desktop.
• Extension antenna (to expand the range of your Wi-Fi signal and get around impediments, such as a steel wall): around $100
• Server with networking software (the designated computer for storing documents and backup data): $1,400
• Setup labor (assuming four hours at $80 per hour): approximately $320
• Total: $2,660

 What associates pay

Instead of buying wireless devices in bulk to get discounts for your associates, try using your bulk-buying power with vendors to negotiate discounts that your associates can tap when they visit a vendor to buy their devices. (NAR has negotiated a variety of such discounts for its members. Visit REALTOR VIP home page for more information.)

At John L. Scott Real Estate in Bellevue, Wash., associates are free to use the cell phone of their choice, but they receive a 12 percent discount off the standard price on company-recommended phones, according to Bill Hartug, director of technology. For PDAs, associates receive a 12 percent discount through John L. Scott’s supplier, plus $100 off from the company itself, and another $50 incentive from the network provider. Those discounts are in addition to any special promotion the vendor is offering to the general public.

ONLINE EXCLUSIVES
Center for REALTOR® Technology Outreach Initiative
Wireless networking Q&A