Gus, I think there could be potential no different than SalesForce.  I think what we’re looking for in our industry is to insure customer data can be managed effectively and efficiently without having too many logins or platforms to manage.  For example, once we actually capture a prospect and they rent an apartment we enter them into our property management system to manage their stay with us.  Right now we would just enter that prospect’s information right into the management system at the first point of contact and use the very basic CRM system built in, or we would use an integrated industry CRM lead management tool that pushes the prospect data through when they convert to a leasee.  

In general, our industry wants that data to transfer and integrate.  The industry CRM tools are OK, but they are nowhere near the sophistication of Salesforce or Highrise.  I’m not sure it really matters though.  While it would be a change from the status quo and could require some duplicate entry, I feel that the best of breed CRM tools out there can more effectively manage the leads and the leasing process.  The improved efficiency and improved leasing could easily trump time saved by integrating some customer data.  The challenge is the leap to train our teams to manage both and use them both effectively.  Worth testing, I think.

Something guys like Matt and I will likely pioneer, but I would guess that our efforts would not open the floodgates of followers unless we see a significant impact on our operations.