THE SUPPLEMENTARY EFFECTS OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY ON INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT

Abstract

The 90’s is a period of vast innovations, one of which is the advent of Information Technology and Internet, which completely changed the way people gather and process information. If we examine the Real Estate Industry as a whole, this impact is particularly shown on one sub industry, which is the real estate investment management. Investment management is like an industry which covers many other Real Estate Industries. Their services range from physical maintenance of assets to strategic allocation of assets to balance a portfolio. All in all, their services are to ensure the assets are operating perfectly and bring in dividends to their investors. This paper aims to answer the following questions: how does Information and Communication Technology drive or hinder investment management’s operations, what possible value-addedness can we observe in this industry and how should the people in this industry ensure ICT works for them in the long run when acceptance levels stabilised. For the purpose of this paper, surveys and interviews were conducted among investment companies and industry experts and a case study is being carried out to compare survey results with what might be happening in this industry. This paper revealed that ICT value added to the productivity of the stages involving large amount of information. This productivity is further noticed in the processing of information to produce results for the clients. Furthermore, ICT also integrated communications and information flow amongst parties involved. This in turn aids the real estate investment manager in expanding its offerings to increase competitive advantage, as time saved is used for detailed research and created greater multitasking capabilities.