Cloud Hosting

The real estate sector has transformed over the past decade with a younger crowd looking to the internet to make the first step towards buying a home or property. In order to stay competent and relevant, it is important for the real estate sector to adopt new technologies. Cloud technology is the right path for those looking to build an online presence with the help of marketing. Thanks to the pandemic, as per latest research a massive 80% of top real estate companies have switched their operations to Cloud in one form or another. It could be lead management, customer relationship management and more.

Heres how Cloud Computing can help the Real estate Sector:

1. Cost-effective

Real estate sector is depending on IT more day by day. But having an in-house infrastructure can be highly expensive since it will involve hiring resources, maintaining server and infrastructure costs. But migrating to a cloud can keep the costs to a minimum. The infrastructure used for cloud is that of the service provider, it offers pay-as-you-go model.

2. Remote Accessibility

Cloud enables files to be accessible from anywhere and on any device as long as you have a working internet connection. This will certainly help in the real estate sector when you are carrying out a client visit which will help showcase your recent work or upcoming projects as reference. All the necessary information will be at your fingertips. Cloud also enables staff to be more productive by overcoming any disruptions that can happen when physical meet is not possible during the pandemic. In such situations, having cloud accessibility makes it faster to communicate to clients in real time.

3. Increased Security

IT security is a major concern for most businesses. Implementing a robust security can be both expensive and challenging if you have limited budgets. Opting for cloud can help resolve this since cloud service providers utilize most advanced tools to protect data and deploy next-gen firewalls with intrusion and malware protection to keep cybercriminals away from servers and data.

4. Data Insights

Data is an integral part of decision making in providing insights that can help improve productivity, cost effectiveness, marketing, web design and more. Cloud technology helps analyze data and centrally manage data by providing insights needed to drive business forward.

It helps map customer journeys across all touchpoints ensuring that communications are consistent. The data also can help pinpoint poorly performing pages so that quick comebacks can be done such that customers stay on page for longer duration and this in turn helps gain advantage over competitors.

5. Superior Customer Experience

As per latest research, 86% of customers are willing to pay more if they are offered better customer experience. Migrating to the cloud provides an added advantage in providing excellent customer experience not only swiftly but cost effectively too. Using cloud helps businesses provide information to both buyers and sellers without having to visit the premises physically. To take cloud usage to the next level, some of the real estate agents even offer financial calculation tools, virtual tours, online form fills, customer service chatbots, omnichannel messaging etc. This helps buyers and sellers make an informed decision and in the long run foster strong relationships that lead to better reviews and online reputations.

6. Timely Upgrades

With cloud computing, the real estate sector does not have to worry about software upgrades.

The latest updates are generally taken care of by cloud service providers. This definitely leads to saving on investments that needs to be done towards maintaining servers, infrastructure that comes with on-premises servers.

7. Data Recovery

Data loss in the case of cloud is very minimal as cloud service providers store all the data in the cloud. In case of emergencies, there is no threat to data loss. SMEs generally cannot afford to make huge investments in terms of allocating budgets towards expensive disaster recovery systems. Cloud computing has definitely helped these businesses to thrive by providing cloud-based storage solutions that help safeguard their data.

8. Better Control of Data

Before the advent of cloud, employees had to send files back and forth before zeroing in on the final document. This would definitely lead to errors and reduced accuracy. With multiple versions of the file being tossed back and forth, it would be confusing. However, with cloud computing, multiple users can access the same file from different locations and suggest changes in real time leading to reduced error rate.

9. Enhanced Collaboration

Improving collaboration across teams and taking your business on international platforms, overcoming geographical barriers and time zones can be easily handled through cloud computing. Teams from different parts of the world can access the same document form anywhere and collaborate to perform better and in a more time-efficient manner.

10. Disaster Management and Mitigation

Cloud-based technologies are expected to only increase in disaster mitigation and management. The losses incurred by the real estate sector because of natural disasters or other calamities have been an area of concern for quite some time. With cloud-based technologies, disaster management can be handled better and more efficiently not only saving lives but minimizing the cost of repair and maintenance.

The rapid rate at which cloud technology is growing, it has become imperative that all sectors adopt the latest technology to meet the heightened expectations of consumers. Real Estate sector will need more agile environments to function better. To stay competitive and relevant, it is now more than essential to move to faster technology like cloud to achieve business continuity as well as meet customer expectations. Compared to 2020, the use of cloud computing increased by 41% in the real estate industry. The job opportunities are also booming because of the integration of cloud technology making way for new opportunities like Virtual Valuation Advisor, Virtual Leasing Manager which is of great help during the pandemic. Cloud is definitely the way to move forward for any sector, especially in the real-estate sector.

Views expressed above are the author's own.

END OF ARTICLE

See the rest here:
Future of Cloud Computing for Real Estate - The Times of India Blog