Unlock The Business Value Of M2M

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking M2M technology is out of your league. I mean, it's a complex communications methodology brimming with confusing acronyms like GSM, CDMA, and GPRS and reserved for high-level applications such as developing a "smart" power grid … right? Wrong. The truth is M2M technology is going mainstream and is being leveraged in a multitude of innovative applications bringing a ton of value to everyday businesses just like yours. First Multiple Listing Service, Inc. (FMLS) provides an example of just how affordable, nonthreatening, and beneficial leveraging M2M can be. This data services provider to real estate agents in Georgia is currently using an M2M-enabled lockbox solution to provide convenient access to homes and improve the exchange of property information among agents.

DON'T BURDEN END USERS WITH DATA TRANSMISSION
Anyone who has ever bought or sold a home is familiar with the metal lockboxes that are placed on the doorknobs of properties for sale. The purpose of a lockbox is to securely hold a key to the home that can only be accessed by an authorized real estate agent for purposes of showing the property to potential buyers. However, what you may not realize is how many different versions of these lockboxes are available and still in widespread use throughout the United States. FMLS is well aware of the different lockboxes on the market and has purchased just about every lockbox type from its long-time vendor partner GE Security.

"The oldest lockbox models are basically just metal boxes with embedded combination locks," says Cantey Davis, president of FMLS. "These boxes posed security issues because they could be easily broken into with a hammer, or the combinations could fall into the wrong hands, allowing anyone to access a home."

Over the years, GE Security continually improved its lockbox technology and the resiliency of the boxes themselves. According to Davis, it's now easier to break into the house itself than it is to break into one of GE Security's newer lockboxes. However, even the GE Security lockbox solution FMLS leveraged immediately prior to adopting the M2M-enabled solution had a few shortcomings.

The solution, called DisplayKEY, integrated the lockboxes with mobile keypads that were issued to each real estate agent. Agents would carry their keypads with them, enter a PIN into the device, and the keypad would communicate with the lockbox via infrared technology. If the lockbox was programmed to grant that real estate agent access, it would then dispense a key to the house. 

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While more secure and informative (information regarding who accessed which home and when could be uploaded from the mobile keypad to the FMLS database) than the old combination-lock solutions, DisplayKEY did place an added burden on the real estate agents. "Agents were required to cradle their devices at home or in the office in order for the device to synchronize with the FMLS database," says Davis. "If this wasn't done, information regarding which properties a particular agent accessed couldn't be uploaded to the database, and new listing access rights couldn't be downloaded to the device."

Depending on how regularly an agent showed homes, it could be weeks before an agent synchronized their device, which delayed the exchange of information among agents. According to Davis, property access information is extremely important to the real estate sales process. For example, agents representing the seller want to know who accessed a home to gauge buyer interest and gain feedback on what they liked and didn't like about the house so the seller can effect change. Delays in the exchange of this information can extend the amount of time a home sits on the market.

Furthermore, while superior to other solutions on the market, FMLS still had a minor security concern with DisplayKEY. "If an agent's mobile keypad was lost or stolen and whoever found it knew the PIN for the device, they could use it to open homes until the device automatically deactivated itself after 24 hours without being synched to the network."

CELLULAR CONNECTIVITY IMPROVES AGENT COMMUNICATION, SECURITY
GE Security took the convenience and security concerns of its long-time client to heart and embarked on an initiative to enhance its DisplayKEY solution in early 2006. The manufacturer immediately approached Numerex, a network services provider it partnered with to deliver the SMS (short message service) capabilities of the DisplayKEY solution, about the possibility of developing a mobile keypad that could communicate with the FMLS database cellularly, as opposed to via a hard line. Numerex introduced GE Security to a select group of cellular radio vendors, and within a year GE Security, Numerex, and cellular module manufacturer Enfora worked together to develop the ActiveKEY lockbox solution (see sidebar on page 10).

With ActiveKEY, agents no longer need to cradle their mobile keypads in order to synchronize them with the FMLS database. Because each device is embedded with an Enfora Enabler II cellular module, they can communicate with the network cellularly in real time. Now, property access information is immediately uploaded to the FMLS database once the house key is dispensed. Furthermore, this information is immediately shared with other agents tied to the property via the SMS display screens built in to each device. For example, once a showing agent accesses a home, a text message containing the outside agent's name and the date and time they accessed the property is transmitted to the selling agent's keypad.

"The real-time data transmission available through ActiveKEY improves communication among our agents and helps accelerate the sales cycle," says Davis. "Furthermore, with ActiveKEY, data transmission is automated. Our agents are no longer burdened with the task of transferring updated information to the database."

The cellular capabilities of the ActiveKEY solution also provide an added layer of security. While the device is still PIN-enabled and can still be lost or stolen, it can be instantly deactivated via the cellular network. In other words, as soon as an agent realizes their ActiveKEY is missing, they can inform GE Security and the company will remotely disable the keypad.

Finally, since the mobile keypad itself shares a lot of the same characteristics as a cellular phone, GE Security can enable select mobile phones to double as lockbox keypads. This is accomplished by installing a software program called eKEY on cell phones certified by GE Security. Initially, only phone models with infrared capabilities were certified by GE because that is how the keypad communicates with the lockbox. However, in cooperation with RIM (Research In Motion), GE Security recently developed a program that can translate Bluetooth signals into infrared. Now, many BlackBerry models are certified for eKEY, and other noninfrared cell phone models are expected to be certified shortly. Using a cell phone as a keypad provides a couple of key benefits for the end users of the ActiveKEY solution. First, it eliminates the cost associated with leasing the keypad. And second, it frees the agent from having to carry around a specialized mobile device for the sole purpose of accessing homes.

While most of you reading this article probably aren't in the real estate business, the ActiveKEY story is important to note because it illustrates how far M2M technology has come … as well as the potential future M2M applications that are possible. Hopefully, this story has enlightened you to the potential impact M2M can have on your own business operations. For example, perhaps you can embed a module in a product you manufacture and remotely monitor the product line from your NOC (network operations center). By being able to remotely monitor usage patterns and performance, you may be able to detect and correct problems before they cause headaches for your customers and save yourself the cost of an on-site service visit in the process. This level of visibility and efficiency is within your reach because as GE Security and FMLS have shown, M2M doesn't have to be that complicated.