Technology research firm Gartner estimates that companies will spend $131 billion on public cloud services in 2013, with 42.7% of that spending going to business processes and cloud-based software applications. To give some perspective to the $131 billion in spending, just a few years ago, companies spent nothing on cloud services, since the technology didn't exist.

While the cloud is penetrating many aspects of business, one of the places where it can bring real benefits is in the corporate real estate sector. Commercial real estate software that runs in the cloud has clear benefits over the old-fashioned Excel and Outlook model. It also trumps software that runs locally on corporate networks. Here's why:

Flexible Access

One of the hallmarks of a cloud-based application is its availability from anywhere. Since it doesn't run in a corporate data center tied to a corporate network, users can frequently access a commercial real estate software application running in the cloud without having to be logged into their work computer. Applications that are optimized for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets also improve accessibility. All you need is an internet connection.

For many corporate real estate directors, the best place to be is in the field. This provides insight to realities on the ground, so that they can make better decisions about their portfolios. Traditionally, being in the field meant leaving access to information behind. With applications in the cloud, a director can access the same data about his company's real estate portfolio and operational benchmarks when he is at a location, or back at the office.

High Security and Uptime

Commercial real estate software is a mission-critical application for many companies. Running mission-critical applications internally requires a significant investment of both capital and staff hours. Important applications run on expensive enterprise-grade hardware and should be backed up with high-speed mirrored drives instead of cheaper-but-slower tape.

Frequently, the server itself will be insured with additional hardware waiting in the wings to take over in the event of a hardware failure. In addition, it should have redundant connections to the network, a backup power supply and be located in a building that is hardened against both weather and physical intrusion. All of this hardware and software needs to be managed, optimized and supported by staff. The requires time and money that business can't afford to spend when they need to compete in volatile markets.

When a company runs its commercial real estate software in the cloud, it offloads all of these responsibilities and costs. The cloud provider takes care of creating an environment with high uptime and all that the end user needs is the same reliable Internet connection that it uses for its other applications and business communications.

Maximize Team Production

For many organizations, corporate real estate is a team endeavor. Whether it's a large internal department sharing data or a company set up where real estate data gets shared with financial and operations teams, commercial real estate software doesn't exist in a separate silo anymore. Old methods of tracking portfolio information were frequently single-user oriented. For companies who use Excel spreadsheets or a desktop-based program, it’s usually impossible to effectively allow multiple people to use it in anything but a rudimentary read-only function.

Cloud-based commercial real estate software typically runs on top of a sophisticated multi-user database system. From the ground up, the application works with many people accessing, reading and writing to it at once. The software handles tracking changes and updates what it displays, ensuring that everyone has access to the correct, real-time data.

See how CRE software can simplify tasks, improve operations and save money!

Schedule a demo and get a front-row seat of REoptimizer® today: