With the same goals in mind, Alter Warden and her team are in the process of rolling out an exclusive, pro-level version of Cartavi, a document management system, to agents in the first half of this year. Cartavi recently partnered with DocuSign, and the tech tool will allow agents to create transaction rooms on a secure, flexible, cloud-based system. Alter Warden says this is an answer to agents’ and consumers’ desire to function as paperless as possible.

“Many of our technology decisions are driven by our agents as part of our agent council,” Alter Warden says. “They vet new tools and sometimes act as beta testers.”

Haran says continued enhancements to Coldwell Banker’s customer relationship management (CRM) systems and paperless solutions are on the books for the new year. One lead generation tool his company is especially proud to offer and expand this year is its offering of enhanced listings for its agents. Coldwell Banker pays for its agents’ listings to be enhanced on Trulia, Zillow, realtor.com, Yahoo! Real Estate, AOL Real Estate, MSN Real Estate, HGTV Front Door, HotPads and Homes.com.

“You can’t realistically tell your sellers you’re doing all you can [for them] when you’re not on those sites,” Haran notes. “Our agents can.”

Callaghan says maintaining Century 21’s CRM system and providing each agent with a fully functional, customizable website has been a top-tier focus, and will continue to be in years to come. In regards to the brokerage’s CRM, 2014’s efforts will be geared toward marketing to prospects through their current lead generation system. Agents will have the ability to customize how they contact their leads through options like drip campaigns to print marketing pieces. Agents have access to a site that includes their photo, contact information, content specifically geared toward the communities the agent serves, the ability to redirect to a domain of their choice and more.

One of Century 21’s latest implemented tools provides a measuring tool for how well syndication sites, social media and the like are working. The tool is called Golden Ruler and tracks a listing’s activity with consumers on all platforms.

“Golden Ruler offers the consumer the insight they want in a way that’s easy to understand and digest, while helping agents satisfy their clients who say they are not kept informed,” Callaghan says.

2014 will include a rebranding launch for Pierson’s company, and with that comes an array of pertinent technology upgrades. This spring, the company will become Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices KoenigRubloff Realty Group. Agents will have access to the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices (BHHS) technology suite that includes 21st century prospecting tools and platforms that integrate with today’s social media, lead management and CRM systems.

No matter what slice of the technology pie these companies choose to serve up, collectively it can be determined that no one recipe for technology success is the same; it has to be “taste-tested” and revisited in pursuit of the ideal combination of ingredients. CA