C&W continues internet investment.

The euphoria over dot-coms may be over, but companies like Cushman & Wakefield are still searching for ways to use the Internet to facilitate real estate transactions.

Since the beginning of the year, the brokerage firm has been methodically investing in Internet-based companies it believes will enhance the services the company already provides. One recent example is the company's investment in the Business Integration Group, commonly known as BIG-e-real estate, a Scottsdale, Arizona-based company that provides services aimed at bringing the paper-heavy property management function online.

BIG-e was formed in 1998. In 1999, Cushman & Wakefield completed a joint venture with the company. Convinced of the value of combining high technology with real estate savvy, Cushman & Wakefield became an investor in 2000.

Ron Savage, president and chief executive officer of BIG-e, said the company provides services to about 55 clients around the world. BIG-e has 105 employees, most of whom work in Arizona. Unlike other electronic initiatives in the property management realm that provide services geared to a select number of functions, BIG-e provides services in the work, portfolio and project management areas.

"Most of the products are geared to one function. The difference with us is that we're fully integrated," Savage said. "It's been a lot of fun transforming a business that was very paper heavy."

Joseph Rubin, national director of real estate e-business solutions for Ernst & Young, works with both real estate and technology companies on e-business ventures. He called Cushman & Wakefield's strategy "a very rational approach to getting into an area where there has been irrational exuberance." Although he also points out that Cushman & Wakefield is a client of Ernst & Young. He had equal praise for BIG.

"BIG-e has a very credible solution and are gaining in the marketplace," he said. "They have some very substantial corporate users."

In an article called "Online Real Estate: The Path to Operational Excellence," Rubin identified property management as an area where use of the Internet could result in savings by accumulating operating data on properties on a computer.

"While property managers certainly have a vast and detailed understanding of their portfolios, there is currently no means of storing and analyzing huge amounts of data with a view toward performance improvement," Rubin wrote. "The key is making such data accessible and actionable. Over time, more an more data will be gathered and analyzed by these new solutions, enabling owners to realize savings in HVAG, goods and services, and other major expense categories."

He said a dot-coin's decision to pair up with a "traditional" business has both advantages and disadvantages. On the pro side, a partnership can help jumpstart a dot-coin by establishing credibility and enhancing its revenue stream. On the con side, however, a partnership can limit a dot-coin's ability to grow in the future.

BIG-e isn't the only e-business venture that Cushman & Wakefield is undertaking. But officials are quick to point out that the company does not view itself as a venture capitalist.

"We have not invested in companies solely on their commercial viability," said Dave Galanella, Cushman & Wakefield's executive vice president for global services. "We are not in the venture capital business."

But the list of e-business ventures has quietly been growing. In January, the company announced that it had appointed Thomas Falus as president of the newly created strategic ventures group.

"The creation of our strategic ventures group, and the appointment of Tom to lead it, demonstrates our commitment to exploring the range of traditional and web-based opportunities available to us, delivering more value to our clients at lower cost," said president and chief executive officer Arthur Mirante II.

Earlier this year, Cushman & Wakefield announced plans to co-develop Struxicon Interiors with Struxicon, a construction management company. The goal of the initiative is to "create the first suite of tools for owners, developers and project managers to plan, organize, manage and lead interior construction projects." Terms of the agreement were not announced.

Around the same time, Cushman & Wakefield announced an investment in eProperty Tax, which provides Internet-based property tax management services. Formed in 1994, eProperty Tax has its headquarters in Scottsdale, but also has offices in Denver and New Jersey.

"eProperty Tax has spent more than six years developing the technology to provide property tax management solutions that are more effective and efficient than traditional services," said Richard Nearhood, eProperty Tax's chief executive officer.

Some might consider Cushman & Wakefield's foray into the e-business world risky, especially considering the number of new technology companies that have folded and the losses incurred by more traditional companies that have invested in dot-coins. Last year, Insigmia/ESG reported millions in losses from failed e-business ventures.

Cushman & Wakefield officials, however, said the company is moving cautiously in the dot-com world, investing only in technology companies that are a good fit the services they already provide, Galanella said.

And while the pace of acquisition may have slowed in recent months, he said Cushman & Wakefield will continue its technology strategy.

"It's part of a bigger vision that we have," he said.