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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nUnzipping efficiencies<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As Head of Enterprise Architecture and Innovation, Rowe-Hagans has been driving Cromwell\u2019s culture of problem solving through technology for more than a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Established in 1998, Cromwell has grown from a small Australian property syndicate to a real estate investment trust with 3.4 million square metres across three continents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cromwell has a razor-sharp focus on operational efficiencies, and technology and data play a big part in unzipping those efficiencies, Rowe-Hagans noted. But Cromwell adopts technology sensibly and strategically \u2013 and the secret is to start with business strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou have to identify a gap before you go looking to fill it with technology,\u201d Rowe-Hagans observed. Cromwell doesn\u2019t currently have too many gaps to fill. \u201cBut that doesn’t mean we can’t do things better,\u201d Rowe-Hagans added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Technology should be evaluated \u201calmost as if you are a venture capital firm\u201d. Do your due diligence or risk a big \u201ctechnology debt,\u201d Rowe-Hagans advised. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to be driving down that road, especially if your strategy is efficiency.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cromwell\u2019s short-term strategic focus may be on efficiency, but its long-term lens is pointed on \u201cbusiness resilience\u201d \u2013 and that means thinking \u201cnot just about how our buildings run but about how our business runs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unpacking the business case<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Building a business case before a big technology implementation is often the easiest step, Devine observed. That is, until two years later, when it\u2019s time to assess the benefits of a technology investment and \u201cno one knows what it has delivered.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rowe-Hagans, who spent many years in IT project management, agreed. \u201cThe bit after the implementation is the tough bit.\u201d That\u2019s when resources and focus fall away. \u201cWithout careful management or monitoring, within two years of that implementation the system will be costing you more than you even began to imagine when you were running that evaluation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cromwell assesses \u201cnot just reactive risk but also future risk,\u201d Rowe-Hagans said. This means more than going with a gut feeling and a lot of time investigating global megatrends and materiality matrices. \u201cWe are really interested in that long-term vision \u2013 not just plugging a hole for the now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Technology implementations are also evaluated against the user experience and how it will be maintained throughout its lifecycle. \u201cSmart\u201d organisations appoint \u201cprocess champions,\u201d Devine said. Others often \u201cneglect\u201d technology after its implementation. \u201cBut it\u2019s like a marriage. If you don’t invest in the marriage, it falls apart.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The real estate industry\u2019s challenge is to be both reactive and agile \u2013 and that means each player must think big picture. \u201cIt\u2019s about the ecosystems we are trying to build in this technology world \u2013 and that\u2019s not just about Cromwell. It\u2019s about all of us as an industry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Building the ecosystem<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Rowe-Hagans gave a tip of the hat to Yardi for its role helping to build the ecosystems that each sector of the property industry needs to thrive. Yardi\u2019s work capturing the lifecycle of a building \u2013 from leads to when a tenant leaves \u2013 was case in point, Rowe-Hagans noted. The real estate industry is starting to come together to collaborate and connect around data governance and sharing. \u201cBut it\u2019s not there yet,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The challenge ahead, nevertheless, looms large. By 2025, according to Yardi\u2019s most recent whitepaper<\/a>, the world will be generating an astronomical 175 zettabytes of data. This is \u201ctoo many zeroes,\u201d said Devine. If each bit was a coin, one zettabyte of coins in a stack would reach to the nearest star system, Alpha Centauri, 600 times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI bet 174 zettabytes of that data is utterly useless because it’s not structured or governed correctly,\u201d Rowe-Hagans laughed. \u201cYou can go to Alpha Centauri but you’re going to get lost somewhere because it’s not going to be of any use.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n How do you ensure you don\u2019t get lost? It comes back to evaluation, the pair noted. Cromwell is focused on capturing not just any data, but the right data, bringing it to the people who can best use it, and then ensuring they have the right tools to interrogate it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And that\u2019s how you evaluate to innovate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Check out the previous episodes<\/em><\/a> of Yardi\u2019s Proptech Insights series and <\/em>sign up<\/em><\/a> for the next proptech duck dive when Bernie Devine chats to Ben Robinson, CEO, Raffles Quay Asset Management Singapore.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What\u2019s the best way for a real estate company to flex its innovation muscle? Robust evaluation. That\u2019s the key takeaway straight from two property technology specialists, Cromwell Property Group\u2019s Sean Rowe-Hagans and Yardi\u2019s Bernie Devine. Devine, regional director for Yardi in APAC, caught up with Rowe-Hagans in the latest installment of Yardi Proptech Insights. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":442,"featured_media":30399,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_s2mail":"yes","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2844],"tags":[1849,2223,3009],"class_list":["post-30398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global","tag-apac","tag-proptech","tag-yardi-technology"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n