As many of you know, our company plays many roles in the industry: consulting, training, leads management, coaching and help desk services. From each of these inputs into the industry, we see a lot of operational procedures. Some work. Others are woefullly broken. A trend, however, is readily noticable pattern of real estate agents and brokers who continue to use outdated equipment and software.

Our help desk handles almost 20,000 calls a month: trust me when I say: We've heard it all. The agent with the Windows 95 desktop; the personal assistant with the dot-matrix printer for labels; the manager who has finally "upgraded" to Outlook 2000 (that's not a typo).

Why get a new PDA, when the six year old model still "turns on"? Why change to the new MS Word 2007, when Microsoft Works still makes nice documents. What do you mean, it will take 2 hours to download the update to my Winforms; could it have anything to do with the fact that I'm still on dial-up?

Now, don't get me wrong: we actually thrive on this kind of dysfunction in the industry. The more REALTORS try to practice modern real estate using ancient equipment, the more they need to pay for technical support; pay for training and pay for consulting. But really - let's face it - many of the problems facing agents are of their own making.

There's nothing wrong with the Internet website: but it won't work with Explorer 5.0 any more. No, your email isn't filtering SPAM - but what do you expect from Outlook Express 6.0? I'm sure your nice new printer would make great photos, but you can't plug it any more: it's wireless.

Modern real estate requires modern equipment. That rule is evident everywhere in business: JetBlue steals customers from Southewest because they fly the same routes - BUT JetBlue has cool interactive music and television broadcasts for each individual seat. Honda steals business from Chevvy - in the same customer markets - because Accords come with Navigation system options and Chevvys come with the local AAA map. Day traders using direct internet software to buy/sell shares outperform armchair investors who "place a call" to their broker's voice mail and hope the order gets in on time.

Investment isn't an option for businesses. Lack of investment is a guaranteed expense. I know, because hundreds of callers pay us for technical support every month to "try to make it work" - whether it's old software, hardware or cell phone. Somehow, this message has to get out to the field. Managers can't be expected to do a good job if they're stuck using web-based Outlook and no instant messaging; if their desktops take 20 minutes to reboot;  and if their printer only does "lovely shades of grey." Agents can't possibly incubate web leads or keep up with email if their laptop screen is too dim for daytime use or their cell phone can't browse the web.

And consumers are definitely not going to just "give you a pass" and accept your lack of modern technology. Sure, it's an expense to buy it; but it's a greater expense to lose business because you don't have it - or you're always stuck fighting with the Medieval version of your technology.

What do you think: Do consumers prefer to sail on luxury ocean liners, with modern amenities and services. Or could Christopher Columbus entice anyone today to cross the ocean on the lovely, leaky old Santa Maria?