Much like the impact of COVID-19 on the global economy at large, the pandemic also took its toll on U.S. Commercial Real Estate (CRE) industry. However, most U.S. commercial real estate sectors are now on the rebound. While it is clear that CRE is still a growth industry, it is not without its challenges, including how to manage rapid data growth as companies turn to cloud-based solutions to help protect shrinking margins.
Like almost all sectors, Covid hit the CRE market hard, with lockdowns and in-person limitations severely affecting how property managers could run their businesses. Turning to technology, and cloud-based technology in particular, helped many landlords, estate agents and property managers optimize rent collection, keep tenants happy and maintain profit performance.
The unintended consequence, however, was the creation of a deluge of additional data which placed a significant strain on existing software management systems, not to mention the manual processes on which many firms still rely.
One of the biggest tech challenges facing property management today is the complexities created by running multiple disparate systems including their PropTech systems as well as their front-end and back-end solutions. From tenant-facing PropTech such as access control or ubiquitous Wi-Fi, to CRE-facing PropTech such as utility metering systems.
In addition, many property management teams have resorted to manually compiling excel spreadsheets using VLOOKUPS or formulas to calculate utilities and relying on multiple screens to have anything close to a 360-degree view of their buildings and tenants – a nightmare environment commonly referred to as swivel chair integration. As these spreadsheets grow so does the complexity of the data that is managed within them, making it more difficult to move data in and out of different systems in order to draw actionable intelligence.
This sub-optimal situation has created a deluge of data floating around that is either lost or incorrectly captured and unactionable. All of which results in poor decisions because business leaders have a limited view of the information puzzle.
The pain of poor data management is felt particularly keenly by finance departments, especially come reporting time. Most property managers use Excel spreadsheets (Monthly Utility Billing, CAM, etc.) that are all built uniquely for different properties. Lease contracts, HVAC systems, and accounting are still being managed by siloed legacy solutions. These outdated management structures not only place the company at risk, but also pose a major operational threat. Because information lives in multiple legacy systems, or worse, paper-based documentation. The time and effort it takes to extract data from multiple sources locked away in complex spreadsheets, transform that data into the required format, and then load the data into the desired location, can overburden already stressed teams and can lead to mistakes, missed insights, and extreme frustration.
Most dangerous of all is the potential damage done to tenant relations. Bad data, or bad decisions because of bad insights, can leave property management businesses exposed to tenant churn. In a paper addressing the economics of tenant churn based on the Lifetime Value of tenants, it’s estimated that each time a resident moves the unit will stay empty 1.5 months and that a retained tenant is worth more than $900 each year, over and above the annual rental. What’s more, with so much dependent on staff performance, it is clear that equipping your teams with the best data available becomes a no-brainer.
ETL (extract, transform and load) is an integration process that combines data from multiple sources into a single store, housed in a data warehouse. For property managers, this is extremely useful as it allows them to extract the information they need from one system, enrich and clean that data, and then pass it through to a single source of truth from which they can draw reports and obtain the all-important 360-degree view of their tenants and all their assets.
How companies manage their data consolidation and integration is vital to their success. Using a Hybrid Integration Platform (HIP) equipped with ETL, Integration, API Management, or Warehousing capabilities all within a single unified tool means organizations can identify, collect, and integrate disparate data across an enterprise using a single system. This enables businesses to deliver data that is meaningful, ready to use, and specific to each team’s needs at the required time.
Synatic's data warehouse is built into its HIP. The data transformation capabilities of the platform mean it can perform ETL processes for loading data into the Synatic data warehouse allowing for the seamless movement of the data from various systems into a central store that can handle multiple data formats.
Ensuring all the property data is seamlessly consolidated into one system means companies can quickly incorporate, integrate, analyze, and share their data with their teams and turn data into immediately actionable insights.
Creating a repeatable workflow allows for greater automation and means your teams don’t have to re-do work every time data needs to be modified and the whole data process is transparent and can be traced back, building added security into your efforts.
Most importantly, your teams are no longer beholden to spreadsheet management and can avoid the burdensome requirements of manual data entry and the resulting data inconsistencies.
In short, while property managers are often at the mercy of externalities, in times of uncertainty ensuring tenants are happy and churn rates are minimized is something all managers can control. To achieve this, proactive management must be optimized through good decisions, based on accurate data. To learn more about how Synatic can help you optimize your property management processes contact us today.
