Economic uncertainty is keeping the real estate industry up at night. Gemdale USA is doubling down with Salesforce to stay nimble and come out on top. We sat down with Josh Goldman, Managing Director of Development, to understand how his firm is embracing a digital future. Here is a summary of the fire side chat, straight from Josh himself:
What’s the role of technology in your Real Estate Investment Firm?
Our business isn’t terribly complicated, it’s not rocket science, and it’s usually driven by experience that leads to sound intuitive decisions. What we’re really trying to do is figure out a method to the madness and how we can use technology to help make better intuitive decisions.
By utilizing technology to analyze the various data points we have within our business, we are able to make the best possible business decisions and have more focused information for the next go-round.
What was the Trigger that started the search to upgrade platforms?
Even the largest REIT organizations are still siloed. Value for us is having a setup that allows for a treasure trove of information. We wanted a way to connect the systems we were already using to make our process more efficient and to get a full view of our available data, rather than depend on individuals who have the knowledge in their head or in their own spreadsheets.
As real estate developers, we have an enormous amount of business and consumer data but historically it has been a struggle to utilize all the information we have access to across all our business units. We want to be able to leverage that data to provide a better holistic experience for our clients (from commercial spaces to apartments). We can take business examples from companies like Facebook. They’re so successful because they are effectively the largest consumer database in the world and allow those that partner with them access to that data.
What are the main components that you and your team find the most value in?
- For right now, the budget and task management
- Process and approval workflow
- “Hit by a bus” philosophy
- Avoid “fat-finger” excel errors
- Possibilities are endless, but must walk before run
What kind of real estate data services do you utilize, and how do you integrate that data into Salesforce?
- Utilize a lot of online data subscriptions
- Looking to walk before we run
- Long term, looking forward, we’d like to integrate data from co-star into Salesforce
You can watch the full webinar here!
Or if you’re ready to make a change, get in touch today!
