The New Real Estate Database of Robinson Realty - Case Study Example

The new Real E database is required to serve the expanded interests of Robinson Realty” Faculty Executive Summary The case is about Robinson Realty. Information in the present world is most important factor. The success and failure of any business is depends on the way its utilising the information available. Business information management is integral part of any business today. The paper is analysis of the business information management in the Real Estate organisation. It explains the customer service, data management, data integration, information sharing and other related aspects. Table of Contents I. Introduction One of the growing industries in Australian Economy is building and construction industry. It has great influence on Australian economy. There are various units and services of this sector. These are residential, commercial building and other infrastructural constructions. In 2002–03, the industry accounted for 6.3% of GDP ($46 billion) and over 7% of the workforce, employing about 730,000 people. 1 The housing sector is a growing sector. It is attracting lots of new players and competitors. The real estate services require low investment. The entry of barrier is low for the consultancy services. The demand of own houses is increasing every day. In this competitive and profitable environment every company operating has to provide best services to its customers. It has to serve the customer in such a way that it will be a repeat and loyal customer forever and advocate the services of the company. To strengthen its position companies need to have a strong information management system and a good human resource capital. The report is prepared for the understanding of the business environment of real estate business. Real Estate business is a competitive business. It has to work in a regulatory framework and provide customers the best services. There are three main factors of Real Estate business. Property Seeker/Buyer: This is the group which creates demand in the market. There are various kind of requirement related to property. People need property for housing or business purposes. They can buy properties according to their requirement or take it on rental basis for specific period of time. This group contacts good real estate service provider. Property Owner: These are the supply side of the Real Estate industry. They offer their property on rental or sale for housing or business purposes. This group again register themselves with some real estate industry for their properties. Legal/ Regulatory Body: Legal framework and regulatory bodies for various services are required to be consulted or inform about any new sale or purchase of the property. There are certain rules and regulations in this regard which need to be fulfilled. The regulatory and legal framework should be always taken care of for any deal. These can change time to time. The real estate service provider needs to be updated for these changes. Figure 1.1: Real Estate Business Frame Work Real Estate Business: The Robinson Realty is into real estate business. Various services are offered are related to rent, sale/purchase and lease of properties. These all services are within the regulatory framework. The company follows standard rules and policies. In the current scenario it purchased two more Real Estate Agencies. The objective of Robinson reality is integration of all three agencies to improve efficiency and effectiveness of the operating systems to provide customer best services. Business Environment: The real estate industry is one of the vital segments of Australian economy. This is a growing sector. The factors affecting its growth are growing population, increasing purchasing power of population, demand of the residential and non residential sector is increasing, volume of construction work is increasing due to the increased demand, significant increase in migrating population, technology, government policy and regulations and others2. The growth and prospective growth have attracted many players in the same sector and at the same time the existing players keep on reviving their strategies and policies to leverage on the growth of the sector. Customer have become more demanding and need of speedy information sharing has increased in the current scenario. The paper will discuss the business information requirements of the Robinson’s Realty. It would discuss various data required at various operations, data security issues, integration aspects and other issues of importance. II. Discussion II.i. Data Requirement in Real Estate Business Operations As per the studies conducted various forms of data used come under the followings: Registered Plan Data Trust Account Data Property Listings Rental Listings Buyers Listings Users of all these data are employees of the company. Some of the data would be available to the customers. The data available on the internet should be accurate, short and have clear messages in it. It should be based on the customer requirements. Customer should have flexibility for the search options according to the specifications of their property requirements. The company needs a proper integrated system so that employees at various locations can access the information. II.ii. Information Requirement at Various Department Various business departments require information for decision making, deals, presentation, offering services to customer, legal and regulatory information. Sales: This department would require information to match it with the requirements of the buyers, commissions and expenses lists and other requirements to be fulfilled for the deal. Marketing: This department would require the information for various communication and promotional purposes. Operations: Once the deal is done the operations team would be handling the case. They will check, process and store various data. They will take care of the information required to send to various parties. Financial This department would be handling all the expense related data. Information Technology Information technology department would be supporting various departments to effectively utilize the databases. It will assign rights and restrictions depending on nature of work and data sharing rules among various division and employees. Consultancy This is the group which provides consultancy services to the seller and buyers for their specific needs. They would require data to provide proper consultancy to them. II.iii. Data Security Data security is one of the main concerns of the organizations today. There are various motives of hackers to attack on the database of any company. These motives can be gaming, profit or revenge or ego of the hackers. More formally attack methods are classified as “passive” and “active”. Passive attacks include eavesdropping. Active attacks are subdivided into “forgery”, message modification”, and denial of service.” 3 Robinson Realty needs to have a secured system for its database management. This data theft means theft of identity of the registered members. The confidential information, general information and other information related to company policies and strategies also face threat. These issues can be tackled in various ways. Firewalls can be placed within the organisation. These firewalls keep check on the IP packets from the disruptive or unidentified hosts. II.iv. Data Management Issues Database management would include all the issues related to the data. It will define various data, data sharing policies and data storage. In the case of Robinson Realty they should establish proper intranet system before implementing the extranet. Intranet is a local network that covers the premises of one Firm/Organisation with the objective of speeding up working procedures and production process.4 Intranet facilitates information sharing in the same location. Different information can be shared among various departments of the organisation. It increases the efficiency of the employees and helps in standardisation of various processes. Extranet is the connection, over public network, of two or more Intranet systems that facilitates the communication among areas far located (same Company or different Firms & Organisations); the system can expand the activity of one Firm/Organisation to other Entities which support the same production/research process.5 As clear from the above paragraph, extranet also facilitates the information sharing. It is an extended form of intranet. It is done through internet facility. Extranet increases efficiency of the organisation. It has positive impact on employees. It helps in reducing time. It minimises errors while documenting or processing any case. II.v. New System of Robinson Realty and Customer Service Robinson realty should develop a new system which will support all its department and operations for the proper utilisation of information and information management. The system should have following features: Proper Information Management Data Security Intranet/Extranet The advantages Robinson will have in establishing new database are standardisation of information shares, easy data management, support to the employees and increased efficiency of the organisation. All the centres would be able to share information in a faster pace. Customer will also get the latest information. The customer service would increase. The challenges at this point of time would be management of change within the organisation. The new purchased offices and the staff there will undergo tremendous pressure of change. Implementing a new database means change in the operations of all the centres. It is a major change and if not managed properly, the staff and end users are not given proper training to handle new system the overall efforts will be vain. The advantages of Real Estate Systems will be as follows: 1. It will be user friendly. 2. Data will be defined and available to the relevant departments. 3. It will integrate all the three offices and interdepartmental connectivity will increase. 4. The organisation will be connected through a common platform to its various departments, locations and other services. 5. Employees can be provided proper training and their inputs can be considered while developing the system. 6. Customer will be provided updated information. Information related to property specifications, taxes, rules and regulations and various options would be available on hand. 7. Time, efforts and economically the new system will benefit the organisation in long run. 8. Standard information will be available and change at one place will be required. Customer Service: When we think about service, service marketing triangle or rather pyramid comes to our mind which has following components in it6. Company Customer Providers Technology (Zeithaml & Bitner pg 17) The company has to focus on each of these factors to ensure the best services delivered to the customer. Reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibles are dimensions of service quality to the customer. These can be ensured when all the components of services marketing pyramid function properly. The employees in the case of Robinson Realty work on the basis of data available to them. The relevant, clear and timely information can support them in service delivery process. III. Recommendations Robison Realty should have a comprehensive and robust business information system based on the customer requirements and information requirement of the organisation. The database would serve the needs of expanded operations of the organisations by providing low cost, relevant, accurate, hassle free and timely information. The standard information available will make it easier for the employees to provide standard and better services to the customers. This is a service based organisation. The information can be segregated based on the customer requirements and employees should be trained to handle new software. The new system should be user friendly. It should support the customer service in the organisation. Security issues should be taken care of. The customer provides its information trusting the organisation. The information used without the concerns of customer leads to the customer dissatisfaction. IV. Conclusion The report is based on the study conducted in the organisation and its new acquired offices. Due to the growth in economy and demand of housing facilities Robinson Realty has bought new offices. It has to place a information management system so that all the branches can share standard information. This will improve the employee efficiency and help them serve customer in a better way. Customer will be satisfied if he gets accurate information on time. This is a service based industry. The technology will help in improving the service by supporting the employees. A comprehensive, robust information system will support the services delivery to the customers. V. References BUILDING FOR GROWTH, An Analysis of the Australian, Building and Construction :1999, retrieved on 28 Jan 2006 from Industrieshttp://www.industry.gov.au/assets/documents/itrinternet/Building_for_Growth_Industry_Analysis20050808135954.pdf Edney J and Arbaugh W A: 2004, Real 802.11 Security Wi-Fi Protected Access and 802.11i, Boston: Addison-Wesley, Pearson Education Inc. Pg23 Kotler, Philip: 2000 Marketing Management, Prentice-Hall Inc. New Jersey, 10th Edition May PO: 2000, The Business of Ecommerce, From Corporate Strategy to Technology, New York: Cambridge University Press Piercy, Nigel F, Market Led Strategic Change, Butterworth Heinemann, 3 e, Charted Institute of Marketing http://wireless.ictp.trieste.it/school_2004/lectures/repici/lecture1.doc accessed on 27 Jan 2006. http://oss.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/26/12/1851 accessed on 27 Jan 2006 Zeithaml Valarie A. and Mary Jo Bitner, 2002 ‘Services Marketing-Integrating Customer Focus Across the Firm’. 2nd Ed., New York: Tata McGraw-Hill http://www.myfuture.edu.au/services/default.asp?FunctionID=5104&IndustryGroupID=200 accessed on 28 Jan 2006 http://www.reiaustralia.com.au/documents/REIA_Update_Issue2005_23.pdf accessed on 28 Jan 2006 Read More