Change Management... "We have no legacy people." Doesn't that thought make you smile? Hope that you're not a legacy person! That's Randy Thomas, CEO of the Insite Commercial Group in Southfield, MI, speaking on Realcomm's panel, Change Management -- Does It Work? So naturally, Insite's 31 salespersons were hired with no prior experience. (Repeat, no legacy people here.)

A month ago, I talked with Ira Zlotowitz about his company, Eastern Union Funding, a mortgage brokerage firm headquartered in New York. Zlotowitz has grown his company from 2 to 40 professionals in 7 offices in the last 3 years. And he echoed a similar theme, "Every person is home grown." Like Thomas, Zlotowitz emphasizes the importance of technology and a culture of sharing information.

Eastern's professionals are bound together by, what he calls, an "operating system," Simple Remote, which covers the entire client life cycle -- from account management to packaging to reporting. This technology enables Eastern to tie its professionals together with just "one-and-a-half" administrative staff. And, according to Zlotowitz, his brokers can circulate a typical finance deal, say, a $7-10 million shopping center, to multiple lenders in an hour. Full disclosure: Zlotowitz is an investor in Simple Remote.

A week ago, I received an e-mail from a subscriber (who requested anonymity) seeking advice from PikeNet readers: "What application best improves the management and efficiency of your deal sourcing pipeline without requiring significant capital outlays for infrastructure, ongoing training, consulting and IT support? ... How does your firm manage its deal sourcing pipeline? What CRM (customer relationship management) software applications do you employ and why? ACCPAC CRM? Salesforce.com? Simple Remote? Saleslogix? ACT? Goldmine?" ... So what do you think?

Typo Correction... Oops. Thanks to Annette Wilde of Planimetron for "spreading" the word in this week's Dispatch.

--Peter Pike