This time of year people tend to focus more on family than business. But before buying another present or heading to another party, spend a moment to reflect on your business and make some decisions regarding the year ahead.

When business planning, where is the best place to put your efforts?

The top 230 top executives in real estate were asked which competitive differentiators help their business the most, and 87% answered marketing tools and technology. Here are three things you can do to improve your marketing tools and technology and make sure 2015 is a successful year for your business.

Sync your technology

List your technology vendors and see where you can consolidate. Having several vendors with different technologies not only means administrative hassles, it can also mean less frequent updates, incompatible systems, and difficulty resolving issues when they arise. When it comes to technology vendors, the fewer the better. It is best to have a single point of contact, if possible. This way, you'll work with someone who understands your business in a more holistic way, not just in the one area they work on.

As an example, if you're pulling listings, neighborhood information, school zones, and basic demographic information into your site, you could potentially have four vendors just for local data. Perhaps it happened over time or maybe it was deliberate, but managing multiple vendors and data feeds costs you valuable time and can create inconsistencies on your site.

Use a single source for this technology to ensure standardization and consistency in your content. Make 2015 the year you have one point of contact, one vendor who understands your business challenges and can present solutions.

Make sure any technological investment will help drive revenue to your business

Are you spending money on technology you don't use?

Look at all the technology you use to promote and manage your business. If there's a system that gets little or no use or just creates work without yielding a return, stop using that technology, especially if it's costing you money.

One of our clients realized she was paying an annual membership fee to three different project management systems last year. She was able to pull her team together, decide on one, and save costs. Some marketing costs: drip-marketing, lead generation and capture, SEO tools – clearly drive revenue, but before the end of this year, go through all the technologies you're currently using. Make a list and check it twice for redundancies and technologies that seem like a waste of money.

Make more things automatic

Some of the best technologies are the ones that you don't have to think about or interact with for them to work. Again, look at the systems you currently use and see if there's any way to automate what you're currently doing.

Can you automate your outgoing calls? Your e-mail marketing campaigns? Your drip marketing? Do some of these changes make sense for your business?

Technology should make it easier for your staff to do their job. So audit the systems you have in place and if something can be automated, look into that solution for 2015.

If you're interested in finding out more about how Onboard's local data technology can help your business in the new year and beyond, talk to us today.

Thanks and happy holidays!

To view the original article, visit the Onboard Informatics blog.