Yesterday, Kevin from Prudential Tropical posted a comment to the Google Premier Post. That lead to a brief email discussion about email and voicemail requirements within a brokerage, which then lead me to remember some thoughts I had on that topic, which, in this very wordy explanation, lead me (and ultimatey you) to this post!
Now that you don’t really know what you are reading, let me begin. There are many paths that you can take to end up at any technological solution for yourself (or organization). You can custom build something inhouse, you can use a third party package, you can use a hosted solution, or you can cheat and rely on other services to do your dirty work for you. Each have their merits, pros and cons, and dependant on the application some have more leverage (or make more sense) than others. Email is a great example of how any of these can be used, and what direct benefits come with the path chosen.
Custom Inhouse: - in todays world, this almost makes no sense. There are so many services/packages/hosted solutions out there that maintaining a homebrew solution is very burdensome. It adds a large amount of IT infrastructure/developement and cost to the bottom line. However, having complete control of this, you can do a lot of amazing things - thinking off the top of my head:
- Archive attachments to a document repository.
- Integrate CRM into the interface.
- Heirarchal client management
- Analyze client search trends proportionally to email campaigns
- Provide a single sign-on access permission with the rest of your organization.
As you can see, it is more about the handshake with a CRM and some ‘legal’ obligations with documents maintenance. They are kind of the dreamlist of what some Agent CRM’s could do. But like I said, the cost/benefit probably isnt there on a per company level.
Third Party: Bringing a system such as Exchange, Notes, Merak Mail is the next step. You don’t add the overhead of maintaining custom development, but there is IT infrastructure and support costs. Total Cost of Ownership winds up being the cost for the software, hardware, licensing, as well as IT support. I recall reading that the yearly cost per user on exchange was about $120, which seems logical seeing that a one time license cost (very 3-4 years) is $80 per person. A quick search found this which supports my memory to a degree. As always comparative reviews should be well digested and researched.
You get the warm fuzzy feeling that its your system and its your control, and you can find support if you need it. You have the issue of, if it goes down, its your problem as well. making sure you have a team member that is well versed in the system is critical. Having a bunch of people that are decent with it probably wont cut it.
Hosted: Next is you can take all the headaches out from under your roof and just let someone that is good at what they do, host the service for you. There is usually a monthly or yearly subscription, setup fees, and maybe ever per user fees.
You need to be secure that the host you have chosen wont pack their bags overnight and leave you high and dry. You have to research them and have complete faith that this service you are putting into someone elses hands is going into able hands. Finally, you have to bite the bullet that you lose all control. In the case of email, emails may only be archived for a certain amount of time, deleted email may only be recoverable for a finite period. A bell-and-whistle that makes complete sense for you, may not make any sense to them or the rest of their client base. Its a great option, there are just a few factors you need to take into account.
Getting Clever: This option primarily applies to Real Estate and the independant contractor model. First, you need to determine if most of the agents are simply forwarding their mail to a personal account - I have found that many do this to keep things all in one place. If thats the case, why pay a license or hosting fee for them to not use the service? Just let them advertise whatever email they want?
You may have the same answer as me, ‘because we find it very unprofessional to market emails like janedoesrealestate@something.com’ or simpy, ‘keeping a uniform appearance is good for branding and name recognition’. Well, thats the beauty of email, you can just forward the mail from the moment it reaches your server without the need of any extra service or software fee. In fact, CRT promotes a solution for just this need, Jamm. But in general, most (umm all?) mail server software can do email aliasing with a simple config file (see Postfix)
Ok, finally, to the point that got me started on all this…
This forwarding concept can even (aggressively) be applied to voicemail. In general, I have a strong opinion that most agents (who deal with clients at all hours of the day) probably dont want to check multiple email or voicemail accounts. Actually, many of them turn on the phone system find-me/follow-me feature - which rings into their cell phone. Again, finding oneself paying for systems, resources and support, which aren’t being used to their full extent. Extension or Direct Dial forwarding can be handled from the telecom and/or Phone Switch level. Saving you money and getting the same end result desired by an agent.
So each of these paths gets you to the same end result. Like I said, some make more sense than others, and are very end-result specific. Its always fun to explore the pros and cons of the solutions, because the sad fact is that one application will never be 100% perfect to each user, these is always the wish list. Getting a solution to mold to your needs, now that is what keeps you on the top of your game.
Its lunch time - signing off.
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