So you want to surf the Net, take a joyride on the Information Superhighway?
No of course you don't! But, you may want to see if there are any serious, professional uses for all these wonderful toys. Is it a business opportunity, or the biggest video game in the world? What do you need to know?
Probably the first thing is that it is not a highway at all. It is a turnpike. You pay tolls. The keepers of the tollgate are the Service Providers. I (and Estates Times) use CompuServe, but others are Delphi UK, owned by Rupert Murdoch, CIX and Demon Internet.
What do you get? All give you an e-mail address and access to some form of discussion group. The group I frequent is the Property and Planning section of the UK Professionals Forum on CompuServe. Many give access to a wide range of data sources. But data is where the problems start for UK property people.
UKPROF has hosted a wide range of discussions, with topics including the relationship between share prices and property values, forecasting, property cycles, planning problems, leasehold problems, teleworking and the marketing of property. It's great fun certainly, but also very helpful when sharpening up ideas or looking for inspiration.
Beyond this? The USENET system hosts a couple of newsgroups that are great if you are interested in residential opportunities in Hawaii, but as far as the Internet is concerned, that's about it for UK property professionals. There are no UK real estate data sources. None of the big information providers have Internet access. You can get share prices, but not deals data, AARoadWatch, but not construction data.
So should you bother clambering the Net? Without a doubt. You see, the service providers are, like all good businesses, client led. The reason there are no UK property data sources is because UK property people act, by and large, like technological dunderheads.
But if enough climb aboard and badger the service providers then they will start to seek opportunities to supply data and other services. They'll look to cut a deal with the information provision agencies and the whole market will benefit.
There some hopeful signs. Hammerson already have a private e-mail system among the contractors on the 99 Bishopsgate project. IT Director John Richards makes no fancy claims. "It's about efficiency", he says. On a large scheme with out of hours working there is no room for telephone tag.
Hammerson are exploring the possibilities for wider application of such networking, perhaps via the Internet. Richards is clear, however: "We have to be satisfied of the security". No decision is made and Hammerson are imposing no conditions on their advisors, but where clients lead....
Elsewhere, work is being done to set up a property "page" on the World Wide Web (a user friendly route onto the Net). And, of course, younger practitioners take their knowledge up the corporate ladder.
The Net is not the Next Big Thing. It is here already. Its development needs to be driven, not by techno-geeks, but professionals taking business decisions.
So when viewing the Net don't view it as a technology. In deciding when (not whether) to climb aboard, remember this: There are neither technological problems, nor opportunities. There are only business problems and opportunities with a technological dimension.
© 1995 Ian Cundell
Originally published in modified form in Estates Times
Jones Lang Wootton DTZ Debenham Thorpe International
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors Society of Property Researchers