The multihousing industry is currently in the early stages of a dramatic upgrade of its information systems, the ultimate aim of which is to make sure every apartment company can take full advantage of the Internet's revolutionary productivity-enhancing opportunities.

The centerpiece of these efforts to enhance the way the industry communicates and operates is the Multifamily Information and Transactions Standards project, or MITS for short. The goal of MITS is to create common data standards--customized for the multihousing industry--that will streamline both internal and external communications throughout the industry.

To get a better understanding of just how the MITS intiative will boost performance for virtually all apartment sector companies, several of the experts involved with the program were asked to discuss its current--and future--impact on the multihousing field. (For the complete article, please read the October edition of Multi-Housing News. For this synopsis, we will just quote Russ Sandlin, MRI's Manager of Residential Business Development.)

While it may seem that the technology/software community is the logistical group to take the lead developing the MITS data standard, can you offer some thoughts on how important it is for property owners and managers to actively participate in the process?

Sandlin: There are so many opportunities in the multifamily industry to reap the rewards of an Internet strategy that it is unlikely one software developer will be positioned to capture them all. The MITS initiative will create an opportunity to maximize the collective effort of a variety of solutions for the industry.

Why is it critical for the multihousing industry to have its own customized data standards, given that other organizations are developing standards for the commmercial real estate sector as a whole?

Sandlin: A significant number of our existing and prospective clients are using Internet-based products that have been developed in the past five years. The MITS initiative provides a path for us to integrate these solutions quickly and with a standard which we can all use.