A Brief Background...

I worked in the computer departments of several major Wall Street banks for 10 years in the 1990s. Among my duties were:

• Assisting new computer users with getting up to speed on new technology. 
• Installing new hardware and software for individuals and servers. 
• Monitoring servers to make sure they were working optimally 24 hours a day 7 days a week. 
• Writing and maintaing various computer programs to support the bank's businesses.
• Producing contingency and back up plans to keep things running when disasters happened. 

Along the way I was in a unique position to see how technology evolved during one of it's most critical periods. The world radically changed from before the use of Windows and the birth of the web right through the 1st wave of internet based applications. These advances pointed the way toward a new future. We are now living in that future and the questions about how new technology can help business are just starting to be answered.

The banks I worked for were forced by competitive forces to spend large amounts of time and money (many millions of dollars) trying to solve some critical questions:

• How to spend the resources available efficiently and reduce waste. 
• Which technologies to invest in that would avoid early obsolescence. 
• How to empower their workers and max out their productivity.
• How to connect with our customers in the most effective ways. 

During my time with these banks I was able to see what worked, what didn't and why. As an experienced real estate agent it's easy to see our industry is still at the earliest stages of understanding how to leverage technology. The companies that effectively exploit these resources will have a decisive edge and dominate.