A study on utilization of information technology (IT) : identifying IT opportunities in the field of property management

Abstract

Companies nowadays can no longer operate without Information Technology (IT) although the degree of adoption differs depending on the nature of the industries in which those companies are in irrespective of whether they are providing goods (as in retail) or services (as in property management).

Information Technology (IT) has been widely incepted strategically by some forward-looking coming to enhance their competitive advantage especially for retailers in adopting POS in linking with their manufacturer in which Giordano is the pioneer and for local and international financial institution such as banks in providing automatic teller machine (ATM) and internet banking which in turn saved manpower and to increase their operational efficiency (Chiu, 2006).

Despite the fact that Information Technology (IT) has dramatically changed the landscape of competition, as what Apple Inc. did to the telecommunication and mobile device industry, the property management industry seems to stay intact from such tides.

It seems that property management industry although slow in adopting Information Technology (IT) as comparing with other industry due to industry constraint (to be discussed in below writing), nevertheless cannot escape in utilizing Information Technology (IT) strategically if it is to compete in the ever growing in competitiveness of its business environment in which it is situated. Perhaps the industry might even experience the impact of recent technological advancement such as mobile computing in changing the landscape of competition. This thesis will analyze the utilization of IT in property management and also the future opportunities. The purpose of this thesis is to provide insight to future opportunities as to where Information Technology should be concentrated for the industry, why the industry is lagging behind their counterparts such as retail and banking and how to overcome these obstacles if any.