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.