The Evolution of CREtech

The Evolution of CREtech

It is no secret that the CRE industry has been known to be a laggard in adopting new technology. Not that long ago, the main reasons were the high cost of entry for both demand-side and supply-side. The result of this was users were locked into expensive long term contracts for legacy systems and often they were too expensive to upgrade or replace.

The level of investment required to adopt earlier groundbreaking systems was restricted to a limited number of major users. They set aside funds to invest in the latest and greatest technology and could afford to pay for it. For the SME cohort, cost was an absolute barrier to entry. It wasn’t because they didn’t want to. It was because they could not justify the cost.

As for the suppliers, they were as limited as the major users. Limited in number, budgets and ability to ride out the long haul of developing technology, tech was the domain of the deepest pockets. The small guys could not compete. We experienced this when developing our own proprietary “web-based” software many years ago. The usual retorts were along the lines of, “great system”, “just what we need”. But there were always “buts”.

Size of market was often deemed a factor, but the pace of technological change has created no borders, so this is no longer an excuse. The best example is prior to 2019 when video conferencing (apart from Skype) was almost the exclusive domain of the largest firms. Everyone remembers calling IT for assistance to get a video conference up and running. By 2020, Zoom, Teams et al were part of everyday use and free in some cases.

The startup revolution that began prior to 2020 was off the back of the massive improvement in technology and the huge reduction in costs. It was not only that technology had improved considerably but that the cost of developing technology was drastically reduced. Where boot strapping was not possible, investors were at hand.

The CRE and CREtech markets have changed drastically over the last 4-5 years. Heightened competition, no borders, continued and rapid improvements in technology, and reduced costs have now made technology affordable for everyone.

Where does that bring us? This next structural shift is proving that the technology of a larger entity is not necessarily an advantage over the technology of a smaller entity. No longer is technology (or the perception of it) the domain of the largest users or suppliers. It’s everywhere. The price gap is a lot narrower and the outputs are narrower still.

The only difference is the resources to adopt new technology on a company wide scale. But this is significantly easier than ever before. Not only are there so many options but finding partners offering technological solutions to work and collaborate with is much easier today than it has ever been.