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A group of real estate industry thought leaders, including Yardi’s Brian Sutherland, exchanged thoughts on emerging real estate technologies in a recent Realcomm-hosted webinar.
With the “explosion” of solutions to choose from, “it’s challenging to know which one will help operationally, increase the bottom line, reduce costs and serve customers,” said Sutherland, industry principal for Yardi Elevate.
Some of them, such as coworking, didn’t exist only a few years ago. While buyers benefit from a number of innovative options, he noted, rapid obsolescence and change management challenges present potential pitfalls.
Sutherland also addressed technology innovations that support facility and construction managers, leasing agents and property-level users in new and meaningful ways. “They want a solution that’s designed for them and which connects them to the central data system with mobile applications and dashboards. That’s why we created a connected ecosystem for the operations side [with Yardi Elevate},” he said.
Expanding data access to the back office is tied to the larger issue of data management, Sutherland said. “The challenge is dissecting data and making it actionable for informed decisions. That’s the importance of role-based dashboards that remove guesswork for building operations people who need to control costs and work more efficiently.”
Other participants in the webinar included Chip Pierpont, director of innovation, performance and technologies for the U.S. General Services Administration, which manages property for the federal government. GSA sees energy consumption analytics as a “pristine opportunity to engage in a new way to operate” to meet federal government energy reduction targets,” Pierpont said.
GSA continues to seek ways to use energy analytics, retrofit equipment and incorporate additional sensing capabilities in its buildings. Pierpont also emphasized the importance of managing data, not just collecting it: “No matter how much data you have, if it’s not being analyzed and shared and disseminated, then it’s not being fully utilized and you’re not gaining benefits.”
Bill Cune, vice president of network architecture for materials science developer Corning, discussed innovations in cabling technologies that free up space and introduce flexibility in delivering connectivity, bandwidth, and power throughout a building.
Rahul Shira senior product marketing manager—controls, software and IOT for connected light-emitting diode products, systems and services provider Signify (formerly Philips Lighting), discussed how technologies that use light to transmit data provide an alternative to an increasingly overburdened radio spectrum.
“This is a good time to be excited with startup technologies. Great things will emerge that owners and investors will be pleased with,” Sutherland said. “Just dive in; the journey is worth the effort and the impact on the bottom line,” Pierpont added.
