Electronic concierge: halfway around the world, you can check on home—and stock the fridge

South Florida CEO, May, 2005

Imagine being on vacation halfway around the world. You have an eight-hour flight back home, the mailbox is stuffed and the fridge empty. Your vacation high is likely to evaporate as soon as you walk in the door.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

There is another way. A new service offered by Miami-based Elite Technology Solutions Inc. allows residents to hop on the Internet from anywhere in the world and place an order for groceries, mail pick up or even theater tickets. The technology is installed in the person's condominium and managed by the property's management company. At home, residents have a keypad to punch in their order or request. On the road, they can log into a Web site.

"It's totally 'The Jetsons,'" says Peter Zuckerman, who lives in a downtown Miami high-rise building that offers the service. "I can be in Europe on vacation for three months, hop online at an Internet cafe and send a message back to our building for someone to pick up groceries for us. Our guests never have to wait in a valet line to have their cars picked up. We can order that up right from our home."

Elite, founded in 2000, developed the product (a patent application is pending), and found a way to get customer critical mass. "With living here, we saw South Florida undergoing a powerful real estate boom. We saw a need for our product," says Elite CEO Ariel Stiberman. His idea: get condo developers to offer the technology as an amenity that would make their buildings stand out.

Stiberman says initially he was knocking on a lot of doors to get the word out about what his "solution," as he calls it, offered people. But once the technology was installed in a few buildings, word spread quickly among developers, who began adding it to their package of amenities. By year-end, Stiberman expects to have 120 projects in the US, with about a dozen in South Florida.

"It's very appealing to everyone," he says. "It gives residents back control of their time."

The technology can work off of a building's existing infrastructure and does not require retrofitting, something attractive to both homeowners and builders who would not want to see their properties' walls ripped up. Stiberman says this also means Elite can easily upgrade and update the hardware.

Stiberman is looking to expand his 30-person company beyond condos, although he remains inspired by South Florida's largest industries: A new "solution" is in development for the hospitality industry.