While the study will investigate whether online services"disintermediate" brokers, it will be the first to make basicmeasurements of the fragmented brokerage industry. It will tacklequestions such as how much space do brokers represent and how muchvalue do brokers, and other real estate professionals, bring in thecommercial real estate value chain, according to theWashington-based nonprofit trade association.

"It will be the first to define the metrics of the industry,"says Steve Blau, president-elect of SIOR and a trustee of thefoundation. "There aren't any good figures that says the commercialreal estate industry or the property management segment or theasset management segment is a $10-billion or a $12-billion or a$42-billion industry."

It's necessary to pin down such facts in order to determine howtechnology can harm or help the industry.