Gmaven’s commercial real estate (CRE) clients range from the big to the boutique, from brokers to property owners. Business is about relationships, and every business has a story. Here is 5th Avenue’s.
5th Avenue Properties – a leading South African CRE brokerage – wants to provide industry-leading service, empower their team, and grow their business.
Strategically, they see tech and data as a key success driver. But, over half a decade ago, the tools they needed didn’t exist. So they had to build their own.
Their inhouse development project took around 4 years, and cost a couple million Rands.
As Covid struck, the decision to continue building inhouse was evaluated, and re-evaluated. Tough debates were had. The phrase NIH syndrome was thrown around.
In the end a call was made to look for a specialist, CRE-focused data and software solution.
The system needed to solve the following problems:
And they wanted their data enriched and moved between systems. In short, 5th Avenue wanted a “one stop shop”, that would drive efficiencies.
They found this with Gmaven.
It’s a great story to hear… 5th Avenue, on the back of their years of reputation building, hard work and experience, is officially enjoying a serious run of success!
For more info on 5th Avenue, and a deeper dive into the team’s experience, see the commercial property brokerage white paper here (slide show):
Per Shaun Watters: “The back office team can now focus on more important tasks than managing data. We don’t need people populating our CRM”. All their vacancies are now handled with the Gmaven vacancy feed.
In this age of growing data volumes, data is the oil that CRE runs on. 5th Avenue needed their data desiloed and simplified, and they wanted the computer to do the work:
Customers, used to the ease of internet banking, online shopping and self-service flights are demanding greater speed and higher levels of professional service. 5th Avenue recognises this:
5th Avenue is highly profitable. Business is less complex, and more enjoyable. The painful past is long behind. Their tough strategic decision has paid off – for the company, and for those people who are enjoying success working in it.
Technology can be your greatest friend. And sometimes it can feel like your worst enemy.
5th Avenue were financially and emotionally committed to their tech project. It was a hard decision to end it, and hand that part of their business over to specialists.
But it’s paid off. The team deserves all their hard-won success. And hopefully this commercial property brokerage tech story does justice to the road they have travelled.
This is a key number in South African commercial real estate (CRE). After a lot of hard work, we are able to deliver a firm, defensible value to SA – relevant to businesses (who almost all operate out of CRE), policy makers and the industry itself.
For a South African CRE industry buffeted by Covid, weak economic growth and public sector incompetence, is solar power too good to be true? Is solar indeed one of property’s unicorns – a positively geared investment with increasing cash flows – and what are the risks associated with it?
Apple, one of the most profitable businesses in the world, is the king of outsourcing. Its brains reside in California, while its grunt work is spread to specialists all over the world. Is CRE missing a trick? Like the strategic minds at Apple, can it farm back office services to cheaper, specialist hands – and drive greater profitability?
