4-page Case Study - Posted 6/2/2008
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Commercial Real Estate Firm Boosts Competitive Edge with Innovative Mapping Technology
Coldwell Banker Commercial, an international leader in the commercial real estate industry, wanted to provide affiliates with an innovative online mapping tool. Brokers and customers could use the company’s existing Web site to view a property’s location, but the mapping component had limited functionality. After an extensive evaluation of online mapping technologies, Coldwell Banker Commercial developed and deployed an award-winning Web site based on Microsoft® Virtual Earth™ and Microsoft MapPoint® Web Service. Coldwell Banker Commercial is using the dynamic and detailed Bird’s Eye view and three-dimensional viewing options of Virtual Earth, along with superior quality aerial images, to give brokers and affiliates a competitive advantage and win new business, to save customers time and money, and to stay on the cutting edge of technology and innovation.
Situation
Parsippany, New Jersey–based Coldwell Banker Commercial, a subsidiary of the world’s leading real estate franchisor Realogy Corporation, manages a collaborative network of independently owned and operated affiliates across the United States and abroad. With over 400 franchise offices across 300 real estate markets, Coldwell Banker Commercial possesses one of the largest geographic footprints in the commercial real estate marketplace.
“Commercial real estate is a relationship-driven business,” says Tom O’Sullivan, Director of Marketing and Technology at Coldwell Banker Commercial. “It’s built on a lot of handshakes and personal interactions, but the industry as a whole has really lagged behind when it comes to technology. Coldwell Banker Commercial has always been an industry innovator, especially when it comes to real estate and the Internet, so we wanted to create an online tool that would help our brokers blend traditional marketing with modern technology."
In 2006, Coldwell Banker Commercial began updating its Web site. “Location is everything in real estate so we knew we needed to include some kind of map on our site,” O’Sullivan explains. “Unfortunately, the original map was only about three inches square, which just didn’t provide enough information.” Coldwell Banker Commercial tried incorporating Microsoft® ASP.NET AJAX extensions, using the map as a background layer and incorporating data layers on top of that. “We put it all together in a nice package for the consumer, but its functionality was still limited,” says O’Sullivan.
“The site was adequate, but we needed to take it to the next level,” adds Jason Silfies, Vice President of Marketing and Technology at Coldwell Banker Commercial. “We wanted to make a bold statement: that we are a leader in technology development for commercial real estate brokerage services.”
The main challenge was how to go about rebranding and building a new national Web site. “The most important thing that our customers want to be able to do is search for the right property, the right investment, and the right location,” Silfies continues. “We wanted to provide our customers with an easy-to-use, robust Web experience unlike anything that they’d find with our competitors.”
Coldwell Banker Commercial also asked franchisees for input. “Our affiliates told us that they really wanted high-quality aerial images,” explains Matthew Kornfeind, Interactive Marketing Manager at Coldwell Banker Commercial. “Renting a helicopter could cost over $1,000 per day, and we might only get two good pictures out of it. That just wasn’t feasible.
“Our affiliates also wanted us to integrate more mapping technology,” Kornfeind continues. “There’s something very compelling about looking at an image of a commercial property and actually being able to view it on a map. We really wanted to have that capability as part of the Coldwell Banker Commercial worldwide Web site.”
Solution
In In late 2006, Coldwell Banker Commercial began evaluating the various mapping technologies on the market, and after two months narrowed the choice down to Microsoft® Virtual Earth™ and the Google Maps application. “We decided that when it comes to real work and real life, Microsoft Virtual Earth delivers real results,” says O’Sullivan. “We knew that we would be fully supported by Microsoft, unlike with the Google application where we’d have to figure it out on our own. That’s great for developers and people who want to get their hands dirty but not for business decisions of this magnitude. We also wanted to build our Web site on a technology that is established and that will continue to grow along with our business. Microsoft has a vision for Virtual Earth and is going to continue investing in its development for the long haul. That’s very important to us.”
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[Our competitors] simply don’t have the mapping functionality that we have. … Using Virtual Earth has helped us establish ourselves as a technology leader in the commercial real estate industry. |
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Matthew Kornfeind
Interactive Marketing Manager, Coldwell Banker Commercial |
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Kornfeind adds, “When I compared an aerial photograph from Google with the same image from Microsoft, the quality of the Virtual Earth image was far superior. I think a few years ago you could have said that Google was the winner, but Virtual Earth has improved by leaps and bounds. Now I’d say Virtual Earth is ahead of Google with regard to mapping technology.”
Coldwell Banker Commercial enlisted Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Infusion Development to help with the mapping integration. “Infusion did a lot of the technology work on the back end and set us up so that we could make the proper calls out to the application for the data,” O’Sullivan says. “We spent two or three months doing the actual application coding, then another four to five weeks to integrate it into our Web site. The whole process—including evaluation, legal approval, testing, and delivery—took a little less than 15 months.”
Coldwell Banker Commercial launched its new Web site, www.cbcworldwide.com, in January 2008. In April 2008, the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences recognized the company with a Webby Award, an international award honoring excellence on the Internet. “We would like to think that our mapping technology, which is one of the major components of the Web site, helped us to receive such an accolade,” says O’Sullivan. “We’re definitely doing things above and beyond our competition and providing our customers with a Web experience they’ve never had before. The feedback we’ve received is that the Web site is easy to navigate, very inviting, and encourages users to come back again and again.”
One of the innovative ways Coldwell Banker Commercial is using Virtual Earth is in conjunction with the Microsoft MapPoint® Web Service. “Virtual Earth brings mapping to life,” O’Sullivan explains. “With the three-dimensional view and the Bird’s Eye view, the user experience is much more dynamic—you can ‘walk’ down a street and understand exactly where a building is positioned, how other buildings are situated around it, and where it is with regard to freeways and railroads. Virtual Earth turns mapping into a living technology that helps us empower our commercial real estate brokers and our customers.”
“Coldwell Banker Commercial brought to life the true power of Virtual Earth,” adds Tyler Davey, Practice Manager of Managed Solutions at Infusion Development. “The platform’s versatility enabled the creation of a custom mapping platform that Coldwell Banker Commercial is now using to build innovative solutions that improve efficiencies─from internal processes right up to the way customers receive information. The end result is an enhanced, re-engineered customer experience.”
Benefits
Coldwell Banker Commercial continues to position itself as an industry leader, using the latest mapping technologies from Microsoft Virtual Earth to give brokers and affiliates a competitive edge, to save customers time and money, and to stay on the cutting edge of technology and innovation.
The “Wow” Factor
Using Virtual Earth is helping Coldwell Banker Commercial brokers to generate more business. “When our professionals talk to prospective customers, what they basically say is, ‘Your property is going to be featured on our Web site, which employs Microsoft Virtual Earth technology,’” Silfies explains. “If a potential customer wants to list a $10 million office building, for example, we can show him how potential buyers will see an image of the facility and where it resides on the map, get driving directions, and access all of the pertinent information about that property on the Web site. No one else in our industry is using the Web like this, which gives our brokers a huge advantage. The prospective customer is going to say, ‘Wow.’ Anecdotally, we know that Virtual Earth is helping our company to win business.”
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No one else in our industry is using the Web like this, which gives our brokers a huge advantage. The prospective customer is going to say, ‘Wow.’ Anecdotally, we know that Virtual Earth is helping our company to win business. |
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Jason Silfies
Vice President, Marketing and Technology, Coldwell Banker Commercial |
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Silfies adds, “I recently gave a presentation where I showed three-dimensional views of a commercial property. The reaction I received was, ‘Wow—I understand the building is right next to this building. I understand the street is so many feet wide. Here are the traffic lights. I had no idea you could do this.’ Virtual Earth is a world-class solution and by incorporating it into our Web site we can provide our customers with an online real estate experience unlike anything they’ve had before.”
Saving Time and Money
Coldwell Banker Commercial is using Virtual Earth to help reduce expenses for affiliates and to improve efficiency for customers. “The main benefit for the end user will be saving time and saving money,” says Kornfeind. “Using Virtual Earth will not replace a site visit, but now users can explore the property virtually before spending the time and money to travel there. That’s a huge benefit.”
Leading the Way
Using Virtual Earth, Coldwell Banker Commercial can provide affiliates with tools that they have never had before. “With Virtual Earth, we have these great aerial views, three-dimensional street views, and detailed property information that didn’t exist before,” says Kornfeind. “The message we’re sending to our customers is that they no longer have to be restricted by boundaries. We’re telling them to search outside the lines. They can do that with Virtual Earth.
“When you compare our Web site to any of our competitors’ sites, it’s clear that we have the advantage,” Kornfeind concludes. “They simply don’t have the mapping functionality that we have. Using Virtual Earth has helped us establish ourselves as a technology leader in the commercial real estate industry.”
Microsoft Virtual Earth
The Microsoft Virtual Earth platform is an integrated set of services providing quality geospatial data, rich imagery, cutting edge technology, and dependable performance that helps organizations visualize data and provide immersive end-user experiences. With ongoing investments in innovation driven by customer feedback, the Virtual Earth platform continues to offer new map detail and imagery, feature enhancements, and robust platform capabilities.
For more information about Microsoft Virtual Earth, go to:
www.microsoft.com/virtualearth
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:
www.microsoft.com
For more information about Infusion Development products and services, call (416) 593-6595 or visit the Web site at:
www.infusion.com
For more information about Coldwell Banker Commercial products and services, call (800) 222-2162 or visit the Web site at:
www.cbcworldwide.com
