Seriously.
Back in the day, those who watched real estate and technology
closely talked about little else. Especially during the post dot-com,
pre-Web 2.0 interregnum. "TMS" platforms were seen as drivers of the
paperless transaction, a vision the industry had been chasing for
years. The products promised efficiencies, security, and a more
satisfying customer experience.
Guru Networks
SureClose
TransactionPoint
Transaction Manager
Settlement Room
These were the Trulias and Zillows of their time.
They were subject to debate, fiercely competitive, and placed on a
pedestal.
Now? Transaction Management Systems are the microwave ovens of
online real estate: Still useful for some, but often timeworn and vaguely
disappointing.
These products rarely surface in conversation, online or off. The
last numbers I saw indicated that only about 10% of practitioners use
them. They have yet to find a place in the world of real estate 2.0.
Part of the problem may lie with the short attention spans of people
like me. But it’s also a marketing problem. For some of these products
remain viable.
But I think there’s a more important lesson to be learned here for
vendors and practitioners alike. Big proprietary systems are out;
nimble, flexible apps are in.
If you’re a small broker, why invest in a TMS when you can:
- Collaborate on deals using a wiki platform like wetpaint or pbwiki?
- Use lean, mean and dirt cheap project management platforms like Basecamp and actionthis?
- Leverage online office suites like Google Apps and Zoho?
- Back up docs using storage services like Box.net, DocumenTree and Carbonite?
If you’re a big broker, why spend a million dollars building your own platform when you can hitch a
ride on the one Salesforce.com recently released?
If you’re an agent, the number of free tools available to you is breathtaking.
Things are moving too quickly for massive code bases and long-term
contracts. The industry is too complex for rigid, overbuilt feature
sets. To the extent that there is a place for a category called
"Transaction Management" in the future, it will be owned by those who
embrace the mindset of the Taurine-fueled facebook app developer, not the
blue-blazered product VP.
Am I overstating the issue? Let me know. Maybe I’m too close to it. And I do often wear a blue
blazer myself.
– Brian Boero
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A mist of difference
Freaking...
I'm very nostalgic for those early days of transaction management – when we were pioneering the new paperless world. Back in early 2000, I relinquished my closing agency to my partner, returned to college to learn about the information superhighway (that's we called it back then) and hired some developers that were literally working in an attic to build a kick butt TMS – CloseTrak. We got an alpha version out in 2000 but the NASDAQ meltdown killed any funding chance, so we dumped the tachnology and transformed into a "tech savvy" closing agency (had to do something to make some money!). Since then, I've sampled every TMS platform and every web 2.0 platform that I thought could be turned into a TMS. These experiments are ongoing and conducted in the lab of the marketplace – I just created http://rebuildingrealty.ning.com where I'll post what we learn and I'd like to hear from others toiling in the space as well. My view is that TMS will serve as the backbone for the entire transaction and as such needs deep integration with lending partners and the brokerage. The TMSs which survived and purchased by the title companies still don't have the proper perspective and as such are just too complex and clumsy.
Sidenote: This would be easier if we didn't have to worry so much about potential RESPA issues – what a sticky mess to contend with!
Hey Brian- here's what happened…another first in, missed the boat. There is a product, maybe 2 years in operation that is the BEST THERE IS in this world. Why, because it is not another piece of the puzzle…it is the whole puzzle with all the pieces. the other solutions you are listing are cheap and fine and all…but unless they are based around digital signatures-contrasts-CRM and don't cost millions…they are just more peices to a complex…"how many pieces of software do we need" problem. If you want peole to use transaction management of ANY KIND. Then the brokers have to have the coolest, easiest and BEST contract software in the world. The best in the world, period!
1. Contracts and Forms
2. 100% digital signatures
3. Transaction Management
3. CRM
4. Document Storage
5. Back office management
etc,etc,etc…
It works because it is based on digital signatures and is tied into the hole "life Cycle" of the transaction….which maybe months before and months after. CTM eContracts. I should have had some money in their pool.
People are using are using TM, it's just that they are not using all all parts of it. Look at the items 1,2,3,4 on Mark Eibner's list. We supply all of those in one application. We have over 380,000 people licenced on one or all of those pieces. Forms, document managment, internet faxing are all being very heavily used. Way, way more than the 10% mentioned. What they are not using as much is the task management. And, guess what? Most people are not rigorous about using offline checklists either.
BTW, you forgot to mention our TransactionDesk. We now have over 230,000 licenced users – more than any other TM platform I know of. And, I'd say well over 50% use at least a couple of modules. Why? Because forms and other key components are built-in. Ease of access equals fewer barriers and better workflow resulting in better adoption.
Thanks,
Joe
Joe, thanks for the remarks. I should have mentioned Instanet. How many of the licensed users are actually paying you directly versus falling under blanket deals through associations? That's where I've seen numbers get a little out of wack.
Brian
Great post. I am all about the paperless transaction. At this moment I have a pile of meaningless paper on my desk that I wish would magically vanish instead of littering a landfill. One of the title companies here uses SureClose. They have gotten 80% of my business because of that. The only reason I use any other company is if another Realtor INSISTS on it. Thanks for posting and keep it comin'!
Brian,
Most of our licensed users are through enterprise agreements, but that does not mean they don't use it. We have clients with some very high usage numbers. In Florida, where we have an enterprise agreement that covers all the REALTORS® in the state, we've had over 75% of the members use the service and many use it on an on-going basis. And, we're seeing usage continue to increase around the country, despite market slow-downs in many places. Like I said, not all are using all features of TransactionDesk; however certain areas are getting heavily used. We have one brokerage with about 850 sales associates that started with us in January. They will have loaded over 300,000 pages into the system, just via the fax to PDF function, by the end of this month. That's a great example of going paperless!
Again, the majority may not be tracking every task on the system, but they are definitely using certain features heavily – document management is probably the top ‘module’ we see being adopted amongst our clientele.
What most (but, not all) of our new clients are doing today is buying InstanetForms and DocBox (online forms and contracts coupled with our document management and internet fax service) as a member/sales association benefit and then letting individuals and brokerages upgrade to full TransactionDesk on their own. We see that as people adopt the forms and doc management, they then are more ready to take the next step to full TM. We call it the crawl, walk, run approach. It seems to work better than trying to get people to adopt all modules of a TM system on day one.
Thanks,
Joe
Congrats, Joe. I like the walk, then run approach. Much better than the kitchen sink approach to application development we've seen often in this space.
Brian
People are using are using TM, it's just that they are not using all all parts of it. Look at the items 1,2,3,4 on Mark Eibner's list. We supply all of those in one application. We have over 380,000 people licenced on one or all of those pieces. Forms, document managment, internet faxing are all being very heavily used. Way, way more than the 10% mentioned. What they are not using as much is the task management. And, guess what? Most people are not rigorous about using offline checklists either.
BTW, you forgot to mention our TransactionDesk. We now have over 230,000 licenced users – more than any other TM platform I know of. And, I'd say well over 50% use at least a couple of modules. Why? Because forms and other key components are built-in. Ease of access equals fewer barriers and better workflow resulting in better adoption.
Thanks,
Joe