I read this blog post on the Small Business Trends website this morning:

Investing in Technology Helps Your Business Move Ahead, Benchmarking Shows

This article reveals how the recession has impacted capital expenditures for technology projects in SMBs (Small - Med businesses). I was discouraged to see the percentage of technology projects that are sidelined when money gets tight. I have worked for a couple of different software technology companies, and have seen how quickly an initial investment in the right technology can increase revenue for a company by:

• providing a comprehensive, Internet based contact database with a complete, archived communication history for prospects, customers, and partners.
• automating follow up communications so that no prospect or customer falls through the cracks
• automating processes to provide consistent experiences and reducing training time when there is staff turnover
• freeing up the existing staff to invest their time into business building activities rather than in repetitive, non-skilled activities
• increasing Internet exposure to bring in new business and to educate prospects and "warm" them before you invest your human resources in sales interactions
• reducing the number of staff members needed to grow a business
• technology requires up front "training" so that it can do what you want it to do, but then, it keeps doing it faithfully (no sick days, never leaves, always productive . . .) - making business processes consistent and efficient. and more . . .

Let's Talk . . .

Landlords and Property Managers: How has technology been a competitive differentiator for your company? What technologies have you found the most valuable?  

Property Management Software and Technology Providers: What are the key benefits of your specific technology in helping landlords and property managers run their businesses more efficiently and scale their businesses, growing their revenue at a rate that outpaces the related technology expenses?

Other SMB owners . . . Please share your perspective too!!!

Are you researching technology solutions for your property management company? Check out the LetsTalkPMVendors.com site. These vendors are all members of the Let's Talk Property Management community.