Upcoming digital transformation trends in real estate

  • Sundew
    Sundew
  • sundew
    8 min.read
  • sundew
    March 24th, 2023
  • Real Estate
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The global real estate market is estimated to have reached US$ 7,063 billion in 2022, and the IMARC Group predicts that this market will exhibit a CAGR of 1.8% from 2023 to 2028, reaching US$ 7,954 billion by 2028.

The advent of spring marks the beginning of the busiest season in real estate. Most buyers initiate their search by going through the listings available online. Consequently, despite being slow to adopt digitization, real estate is currently poised for a massive technological transformation. This is predicted to help this industry overcome upcoming cyclical headwinds and steer it toward long-term growth with profitability.

The need to stay relevant and aligned with changing market trends drives the real estate sector to evolve and adapt to new paradigms. Staying ahead of the competition is imperative. Adopting disruptive digital technologies and leveraging data analytics are the only ways to achieve it. Other reasons that justify the need for digital transformation in real estate include increasing global audience outreach, changing customer demands, improving operational efficiency, streamlining organization structure, and achieving cost efficiency.

The inroads made by AI technology into real estate have already made this sector lucrative for investors and customers. It has also increased the productivity of people associated with it, like real estate employees, agents, and brokers. Enhanced adoption of the latest transformative technologies will amplify them and add on a few more.

Deloitte's latest report on real estate lists six key expected outcomes of real-estate digital transformation. They are:

  • Elevated, frictionless customer experience
  • Empowered employees
  • Unique personalized relationships
  • Data analytics-based decisions
  • Tech-enabled processes
  • On-demand deliveries

These key outcomes, once accomplished, will help foster growth through meaningful interactions and collaborations.

Data Analytics

User activities online leave a digital footprint or data trail. With an exponentially growing customer base looking for online convenience in real estate, Big Data generation is an obvious outcome. Traditionally, the real estate industry has only used data for transactional purposes and to determine the value of a property.

Now data is analyzed to help buyers, realtors, brokers, and agents optimize their operations by gaining better market insights into trends capable of influencing future consumer behavior. Further, Data Analytics can streamline associated workflows for property listings and help people make informed decisions on critical real estate metrics like property value, its physical attributes, and rental rates.

It can also enhance real estate investment portfolio management by identifying niche audience segments and targeting potential customers with concentrated sales and marketing efforts. Buyers can now calculate investment ROI to understand the feasibility of their real-estate investment. This enhances buyer confidence. 

Other benefits include proactive implementation of risk management efforts by identifying potential vulnerabilities from the data analysis of past transactions.

Data Analytics will have a significant influence on current and future real estate transactions. From lead generation to workflow efficiency and reporting, data analytics will help unlock new potential levels for all aspects of the real estate industry. 

Virtual Tours

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Typically, buyers visit at least 5 to 7 houses before zeroing in on one. While physical tours are time-consuming, virtual tours are time-efficient. 

A virtual tour is a comprehensive “3D walk” through a property put up for sale. Accomplished with just a few clicks by using technologies like AR and VR, potential buyers can view properties irrespective of their location, making the whole process convenient and easy.

A Goldman Sachs research predicts that the market for VR in real estate alone will generate approximately $2.6 billion by 2025. 

Real estate virtual tours typically start with giving buyers virtual directions to reach the property. They unlock the front doors virtually and walk through the property to better understand its layout, size, and features. No agents or appointments are required. Buyers can even decorate the homes virtually.

Virtual tours make for an interactive and engaging experience. Buyers can make immediate decisions, and realtors and brokers can capitalize on this to enhance cost-effective conversions.

Real-time tracking software

Conventional legacy systems cannot cater to the growing demands of this sector. Several aspects of real estate need real-time tracking, like agent output, transactions, and customer relations. Implementing ERP or Enterprise Resource Planning software is already driving real estate digitization in a big way.

Real-time tracking will enhance its significance by improving transactional data management and streamlining deal closing with smart contracts and eSignatures. The resultant seamlessness achieved will augment the buyer-seller relationship. Other benefits include improved efficiency in monitoring property listings, generating leads, and augmenting transactional accuracy.

Blockchain

Traditionally, the real estate industry has been plagued by transactional fraud. Adopting disruptive blockchain technology can reduce instances of fraud by providing a host of safe options like better data accessibility, zero intermediaries, enhanced process transparency, reduced business costs and risks. In addition, it will empower buyers and realtors to close deals quickly and securely. 

Statista reports forecast the worldwide spending on blockchain solutions to grow from $4.5 billion in 2020 to about $1.9 billion by 2024.

The viability of this forecast is evident from the benefits that blockchain technology usage will bring to the real estate industry. For example, by creating an immutable ledger of all transactions, blockchain technology makes it easy to track property ownership and transfers. Encryption and decentralized record-keeping make this technology resistant to tampering and fraud. This will further help to enhance the security of these transactions. 

Intelligent chatbots

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Real estate witnesses a relatively higher number of customer interactions and can benefit significantly from integrating this technology. AI-powered chatbots can augment the efforts of live agents by enhancing lead generation, building customer profiles, answering customer queries, resolving customer issues, and scheduling virtual property viewing.

Automating repetitive tasks will help free-up live real estate agents so they can focus on other complex and important tasks like formulating marketing and sales strategies. The need for customer service staff is also greatly reduced, leading to a decrease in the company’s operational cost.

Additionally, Chatbots can add value to real estate customer service with their round-the-clock availability, real-time, ultra-fast, personalized customer engagement, and excellent time management.

Proptech

Short for property technology, proptechs are touted to be real estate technology drivers and disruption power centers. They rely on information technology to help buyers and realtors research properties, match buyer needs with available listings, and buy, sell, rent, and manage real estate.

Even though a relatively new development in real estate, its rapid acceptability is powered by the convergence of technologies associated with digital transformation and the cloud. Proptechs will benefit this industry by minimizing individual transaction costs and resources, maximizing efficiency and accessibility, saving time, and customizing property management.  

Space-as-a-concept(SpaaS)

At its core, SpaaS deals with helping corporates create upgradable and adaptable office spaces aligned with their evolving needs. It proactively enhances productivity by transforming experiences within an organization’s real estate portfolio. 

This concept challenges the norm of conventional asset ownership by offering physical space access monetization as a service. Corporates save on operational costs by paying only for the area currently in use. 

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Conclusion

With technology playing an integral role in enhancing the efficiency of the real estate industry, all processes from property search to financing will become streamlined and frictionless. Taking advantage of the trends mentioned above will be a major competitive differentiator.

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Developing a mobile app for business? Factors to look at, before doing so

Android and IOS applications serve nearly all purposes for consumers today. Businesses from all over the world are now bidding adieu to the offline promotion like printing advertisement, handing out leaflets, and billboards. If you foresee the massive benefit out of your business, you must set your footsteps into mobile apps.If you think business mobile apps are only for technology giants and major brands, you live many years back. More and more SMEs are realizing the effectiveness of having a dedicated mobile app to take their marketing strategy up a notch.What is Mobile Application DevelopmentMobile application development is the process of creating software applications that run on a mobile device, and a typical mobile application utilizes a network connection to work with remote computing resources. Like web application development, mobile application development has its roots in more traditional software development.Things to consider when developing a mobile applicationMarket ResearchMarket Research is always advisable before starting the app development process which will help you to understand your requirements, analyse the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors. Check the customer reviews that you receive and try to understand what your audience is expecting from you.Selecting the Right PlatformChoosing the right platform from Android to iOS is very important in the application development process alongside the UI to design it. This will impact the scope of adaptability of an application. Find out on which platform the app will be able to make the maximum impact and which one can provide your maximum security and flexibility.Prioritize your Target AudienceUser is king. If you develop an outstanding application with no user to use it, then the purpose of owning it will go in vain. You should know your target audience to aim at and understand the expectation and requirement of your target audience. It is essential that you understand what your customers want from you and their needs to align your application goals with their requirements for the success of your app. User Interface and User ExperienceNo matter how informative your content is, if your UI and UX is not able to influence your clients and your user does not like the UI and UX of your app, then it is bound to fail. The reason why top mobile application development companies spend a great deal of time from scratch in developing UI and UX.User Security and Privacy PolicyApp Security is one of the key factors that must be taken care of at the beginning of the development as you are collecting sensitive data from the users. You also need to put a privacy policy in place on what data you are collecting and how you will be using it. if your app is related to a monetary transaction, you must assure the user that none of the information will be misused and they will be protected from intrusion by any third party.Benefits of building a mobile app you must consider for getting success sooner or laterBranding and RecognitionA mobile app for your business is a true winner in two aspects, building a brand and its recognition. But you need to create an app that has features your customers need, while at the same time it should be well branded and tactfully designed.The more often you can get your potential customers involved with your app, the sooner they will be inclined to buy your products and avail of your services. In advertising, the term is labelled as “effective frequency” which suggests the more people hear or see your brand, the more it gets noticed.Boost Customer EngagementNo matter whether you are selling beauty products or providing internet services, your customers need a way to reach you. Having a one-on-one chat section (or help desk) feature on your app can make a difference to communicate with your customers.There are a few restaurant table booking apps going round in the market. They built their entire business model based on this principle. Instead of calling a restaurant for a table, you can book it in a hassle-free way in a few clicks on their platforms.Initiate your own Direct Marketing ChannelA dedicated mobile app for your business works as a convincing platform where the customers can get general information like user accounts, messengers, booking forms, search features, a news feed, and more.One of the greatest benefits of having a mobile app for your business is that you can provide buckets of information to your customers only through a single channel.  Through push notifications, you can also send special sales and promotional offers to them. Direct or indirect conversations with your customers are right at their fingertips.  Whenever it is needed, you can remind customers about our services and products and also initiate a direct interaction.Digitalize the loyalty programWhile talking about on-hand information, it is important to consider providing value to your customers. You have to think about digitalizing the loyalty program. Instead of the old point-collection card, you can initiate the process where the customers can collect the rewards via your company’s mobile app. What will you get as an outcome from this smartphone-based loyalty program? More downloads, more customers, and more engagement!Always be visible to the customersAccording to recent statistics, the millennials, and the zoomers spend more than 4 hours a day on their phones on average. A handful of applications may take up a total space, but each time users unlock, scroll, and scan their devices to open an app they need to access. Our mind unconsciously records every image and text when they are always visible. In that way, the well-designed app icon of your company may come across to the sight and mind of your customers.Foster Customer LoyaltyBuilding a mobile app for your company is the benchmark of customer loyalty. Billboards, flyers, coupons, roadside banners, billboards, email marketing - these advertising strategies are everywhere to create a long-lasting impact on the customer’s mind. With all the noise out there, it is important to build a sincere connection with the users as well as followers of your products and services. It's not like a mobile app can save a business overnight or a rocket science app to bring a huge amount of profit to the table within a couple of days. But a mobile app can be a way of staying connected to your customers. There is hardly any doubt that in this digitally-driven world, a mobile app is going to be a standard component of any business now or in the future. The choice you make today is going to set the foundation for the future of your business. If you need any assistance regarding the implementation of bespoke mobile app features from scratch. We are developing successful iOS and Android mobile app solutions that will drive your sales process.  

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Revolutionizing Business Workflow Automation with RPA

Imagine a workplace where tedious, repetitive tasks are no longer a drain on your team’s time and energy. With business workflow automation, this vision becomes a reality. But how does it work?Often implemented through Robotic Process Automation (RPA), this technology has revolutionized the way organizations operate. By automating routine processes, RPA empowers businesses to optimize workflows, reduce errors, and maximize productivity without overburdening employees.This enables businesses to redirect valuable human resources toward strategic, high-value initiatives.Curious about how your enterprise can unlock this potential? Keep reading to discover the key processes that can be automated with RPA, the steps to implement, and the benefits it brings.The Role of RPA in Business Workflow AutomationRobotic Process Automation (RPA) applies artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to automate repetitive, rule-based tasks previously handled by humans. These software robots, or “bots,” interact with systems and applications as humans do, retrieving data, processing information, and completing tasks with precision and speed.Think of RPA as your organization's tireless digital workforce, operating 24/7 accurately. It is becoming a critical weapon for companies seeking to boost efficiency and stay ahead of the competition.Powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), it transcends simple automation to create secure and scalable workflows. It also acts as a guardrail for practical AI usage within larger orchestration platforms.Why RPA Matters: Key Advantages in Business OperationsSo, why are businesses increasingly adopting RPA? The answer is simple: the significant advantages it offers.For companies looking to stay competitive, RPA has become an indispensable asset. It is gaining a lot of momentum across modern organizations and diverse industries, simplifying the way they approach their business processes in the following ways: Enhanced Productivity and Resource AllocationAutomating repetitive business processes frees employees from mundane responsibilities, allowing them to concentrate on more valuable work. This shift not only boosts overall productivity but also increases job satisfaction and employee engagement while ensuring optimal use of resources.Improved Accuracy Manual processes are often prone to human error. RPA minimizes these mistakes by executing tasks consistently and precisely, enhancing data accuracy, compliance, and quality control across the board.Cost Optimization and Increased EfficiencyRPA minimizes the need for manual work, leading to reduced operational costs. Organizations can redirect resources toward strategic initiatives, streamline workflows, and realize substantial efficiency gains.Scalability and FlexibilityRPA equips businesses to scale operations swiftly, adapting to fluctuating workloads, seasonal demands, and evolving market conditions. This technology offers the agility to respond to changing business needs, ensuring a competitive edge.Enhanced Customer ExperienceEnterprises relying on RPA can provide superior customer experiences with faster response times, personalized interactions, and streamlined processes. Automating customer service tasks, such as email replies and chatbot interactions, enables businesses to deliver prompt and efficient support.Where can RPA be used to automate business workflows?Organizations across all industries stand to gain from the transformative power of workflow automation, streamlining operations, and driving efficiency. To highlight its versatility, here are some business workflow automation examples showcasing how workflow automation can be applied across various industries and departments:HealthcareWorkflow automation is significantly impacting the healthcare industry by simplifying complex, time-consuming tasks. Medical providers can leverage RPA tools to create staff schedules and manage on-call rotations seamlessly. They also streamline critical processes like patient admissions, discharges, and the transfer of electronic health records. By automating these routine tasks, healthcare workers can dedicate more time and energy to focus on their core responsibility, delivering high-quality patient care.Human ResourcesAutomation is revolutionizing HR by simplifying processes like timesheet approvals, personnel management, and employee onboarding. Processes like onboarding, often bogged down by repetitive administrative tasks, become seamless with Robotic Process Automation (RPA).RPA can generate and send offer letters, trigger workflows when new accounts are created, and digitize employee paperwork with electronic capture systems. This eliminates manual effort, significantly reducing onboarding time—sometimes by as much as tenfold—while improving efficiency and making life easier for HR teams.Similarly, payroll processing, a traditionally tedious task, benefits greatly from automation. RPA bots can standardize and automate tasks such as calculating salaries, overtime, commissions, bonuses, deductions, and expenses. Instead of manually reviewing spreadsheets or writing checks, a well-designed bot handles payments with accuracy and speed.Finance and BankingIn the finance and banking sector, workflow automation is a powerful tool for streamlining operations and improving accuracy. Financial institutions and enterprise finance teams use automation to handle tasks like data entry and account approvals effortlessly. It also simplifies internal processes such as managing paid time off requests and processing salary adjustments, saving time and reducing errors while enhancing efficiency across the board.Insurance and Home WarrantyInsurance involves a lot of paperwork that can be unloaded from the human workforce and sped up using RPA, riding on the trend of hyper-automation in the industry.When paired with AI and ML, RPA streamlines several complex and repetitive processes in the insurance and home warranty sector, such as:Policy Management: RPA automates contract generation, policy updates, renewals, and reminders, offering a smoother experience for policyholders while reducing administrative tasks.Claims Management: Insurers can handle policy claims faster with automated data extraction with OCR, aggregating information, verifying claims, and detecting fraud. Underwriting: RPA pulls and verifies customer data, flags suspicious applications, and calculates policy rates for standard cases, speeding up the underwriting process and improving accuracy.Information TechnologyIn IT, automation is a key enabler that supports DevOps teams and streamlines various processes. From automating software development pipelines and code testing to managing data collection, service requests, and new account setups, automation boosts efficiency across the board. Workflow automation examples in IT include using RPA to automate the testing of a new e-commerce app. This accelerates development cycles and ensures faster, more reliable product launches.Customer ServiceBusiness workflow automation in customer service speeds up ticket resolution and repetitive tasks like data entry, freeing up the workforce while improving customer experience.For example, instead of manually filling out customer profiles, businesses now use RPA to automatically gather and update data, ensuring accuracy and saving time.When launching an e-commerce website, for instance, businesses can integrate RPA to automate tasks like order tracking, processing returns, and handling customer inquiries. By instantly updating order statuses, addressing customer concerns, and managing returns, RPA enables faster response times. This leads to more efficient operations and significantly enhances the overall customer experience.Sales and MarketingSales and marketing teams can use RPA to automate proposal approvals, connect salespeople with website leads, and generate task lists for scheduled meetings.Another crucial part of sales workflows is invoice processing, which can also be automated with RPA. Manual invoice handling involves dealing with various file formats and attachments and can be time-consuming. With RPA, invoices are processed automatically, extracting and organizing data without human input. This streamlines the process, reducing errors and freeing up resources for more strategic tasks.7 Key Steps to Automate Business Workflows Successfully Implementing business workflow automation is a strategic process that can transform your business operations. But, success lies in following a structured approach. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you navigate the journey:1. Pinpoint Automation OpportunitiesTake a closer look at your operations to identify bottlenecks. Focus on repetitive, manual tasks prone to errors or inefficiency. Prioritize high-impact processes that consume significant time and resources.2. Break Down the ProcessMap out every step of the process you plan to automate. Understand how tasks flow, where delays occur, and how information is transferred. This clarity is essential for designing an efficient automated workflow.3. Set Business GoalsWhat does success look like for your organization? Define clear goals, whether it’s:reducing costsboosting productivityeliminating errors improving speedThese objectives will shape your automation strategy.4. 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Focus on Continuous ImprovementAutomation isn’t a one-and-done process. Regularly review workflows, gather feedback from employees, and make adjustments to enhance efficiency. Stay agile to adapt to new challenges and evolving business needs.Future OutlookRPA has come a long way. It is here to stay and, more so, within the wider scope of AI and combined with other complementary emerging technologies, like Gen AI. According to a recent Statista report, the robotic process automation software market was valued at $3.7 billion in 2022. With a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 36.6% over the next decade, the market is set to surge to an impressive $81.8 billion by 2032. This rapid growth highlights the increasing demand for automation technologies as businesses look for more efficient ways to streamline operations and improve productivity.Partnering with Sundew for your business workflow automation journey sets you up for success. With our RPA expertise and a forward-thinking mindset, we offer comprehensive services, from initial consultation to workflow design, implementation, thorough testing, and ongoing support.Schedule a consultation today, and let us help you drive your enterprise toward innovation and achieve sustainable growth. 

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Why do you need a ‘bespoke’ website for your Company Brand?

In the present context of digital transformation, every company needs a robust online presence in order to reach their target customers and markets. A poorly built website could result in losing out on conversions and opportunities for the business. It’s very important to have a synchronized and an incredibly captivating digital presence through the web and mobile platforms.A recent case study of BIA/Kelsey indicated that 97% of consumers will go on the internet to search products and services in the vicinity. Whether your revenue comes through your website or not, customers expect to find you online. This essentially means having a fully bespoke website that speaks to the target audience on behalf of the brand, communicates its products and services in a simple and faster way. 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This helps you to position your Brand in the way you want it to be and conveys the DNA and the culture of the organization.Making it secure, less vulnerable to cyber attacksMost of the Content Management Systems are free and are developed through codes and plugins contributed by various people across the globe. On one hand they work as expected but you are never sure what vulnerabilities may exist there.  So, one must not depend on these open sources platforms totally for complete security. Anybody familiar with markup language and relevant coding architecture can easily make changes to the existing codes and plugins, resulting in data leakage or a compromised web presence. By having a custom designed website, one can optimize and raise the level of security and prevent their site from cyber-attacks.Tailored to your businessWith a tailor-made website development approach, one can use a very creative and innovative approach to design a great web experience representing the Brand’s core competencies and the services they provide. This helps their customers to find them easily and navigate through segments and contents that matters most. A faster communication effectively gets the customer attention and thus the conversion rates become higher.A tailored design can be carefully crafted with modern typography and more creative formatting with bright colors and bolder gradients with more white space. The main essence is to make your web presence simple, compact and precise so that your customers love the ease and accessibility of the same. It also helps you to enjoy all cutting-edge features that you can have to make it an insanely great experience for your customers.Performance TrackingWith a bespoke website, businesses can integrate SEO and social media features at length on the website as well. This will help you to get information regarding your website traffic, new leads, social media analytics, bounce rate and performance, which becomes a key factor in measuring your online success and optimizing resources time to time as per business needs.Low maintenance costIn the beginning, the cost is more to develop a bespoke website but considering its benefits, it is one of the most important investments that a business would make. A website that has been wisely planned out, personalized to fit your requirements and attract your TGs will be far more likely to deliver the right traffic and ultimately convert that into sales. Investing in a bespoke site has proved to be more rewarding in the long run.Building a user-friendly website that is built on the cutting-edge technologies and innovative design formats will always deliver a great user experience. A bespoke development further ensures to be fluid responsive, i.e. seamlessly accessible through devices of any form factor, better secured, more customer focused, that enables you to shape your brand identity. In the end, you will find that a bespoke website is a perfect fit for your business and much more cost-efficient.Sun Dew Solutions was born with the passion and love of creating great web and mobile experiences. Our motto for the past decade has been to make the web more simple, clean, accessible and most importantly lovable for millions of users across the globe. We ensure hand crafted designs that suits your Brand’s identity and stands out in bold amongst your competitors.Let your new website take you to the next high. Connect with us for a free consultation!

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