When Peltz learned that at least one competitor was developing a similar app, speed to market became a high priority. While eliciting input from the marketing group and the vice president of app development, "I pretty much managed the app right off my desk, because I didn't want to take the time to have it managed by committee," he says. He also chose to outsource the development to AT&T, rather than try to get his staff up to speed in mobile programming languages, particularly those for the iPhone, he says.

Deployed in December 2010, the app is now being used by a growing number of real estate investors, and it has generated several leads, Peltz reports. Now comes the hard part: designing and building an enterprise strategy and infrastructure for developing and managing mobile apps over the long term.

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