CRM, BPM, SOA, SOBA, SAAS, Java, AJAX, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, etc., etc.

Last time, I left you hanging during my quest to find Technology with Methodology (Read Episode 1). Meaning I needed technology to work the way I worked and allowed me to apply productivity and business principles I have learned over the years.

Again, my hope was to find top producing real estate agents and brokers using CRM-related technology to work according to their personalized style and best practices. If I achieved this quest, I was confident I could then quickly incorporate what they were doing and be a top producer too.

What I soon realized was that only a few were using such technology in their real estate endeavors in 1998. I found some agents and brokers who were using some sort of digital database of clients, but most of the others had a Rolodex™ in their offices. I did find most of these top producers having trained assistants with a specific role in each transaction of the real estate and mortgage processes; some even having a team ranging from 12 to 24 team members.

With this realization, my big questions became not only about what technology these top producers were using, but how did they incorporate it to train their team to know what each of them were to do and when they were to do it. I needed to know:

• What were their workflows?
• What were their business processes and best practices?
• How were they automating these processes with technology?

The truth is, with technology evolving all the time; I’m still on my quest. Yes, I’ve achieved a great deal of success incorporating, even breaking or modifying technologies to put my successful proprietary processes at that time to work.

However, I decided early on in my journey, to not settle for the status quo. I realized a long time ago that the technology that is deemed the “best” at any given time can always be better.

• Better customized to my individual business processes
• Better automated to help my teams work more productively
• Constantly streamlined to help me stay ahead of the business at my door and my competition

Some have said I’m bent on breaking the barriers of the technologies I’ve used over the years. I like that I’ve done that and I’ll continue to be committed to it for the benefit of the customers I get to serve. I’m not a technologist, but I know what I want technology to do.

So, thankfully, while I’m on this quest, technologies with fancy acronyms come along to make me and my teams work better for our customers. I have come to appreciate the benefits of technologies that help put concepts like CRM, BPM (Business Process Management), Web 2.0, or Enterprise 2.0 into effect.

Even development environments like Java and AJAX are more than just fun acronyms to say so I can sound smart. Service delivery models like Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) are now more valuable than ever in helping my customers make their business processes succeed. 

I now can’t help but continue to be excited to hear another new acronym; especially, an acronym that I can help push to its limits.