KETTLER

One platform, built around a shared vision

KETTLER has been a Yardi client for roughly 10 years. But the relationship changed about eight years ago when Cindy Fisher, then newly leading the company, ran a full technology proposal review. KETTLER was operating on multiple platforms, including Yardi, and she wanted to make a definitive call.

Yardi won it. “We came in with what we wanted to do, our vision and our strategy, and had a lot of conversations with our Yardi partners,” Fisher said. “What Yardi brought back to us aligned very well with where we were going, and it made it an easy decision.”

What sealed it wasn’t a feature comparison. “It wasn’t just selling products,” Fisher said. “It was a way to enable us to bring our vision to life and build the platform we were looking for.”

Consolidation as a business decision

Fisher hears the consolidation conversation everywhere now. “Tech stack consolidation is happening in the industry. We hear it a lot, and if anybody is out at industry events, they’re hearing about it.”

For KETTLER, the case was straightforward. Running multiple platforms meant redundant costs, fragmented data and a total cost of ownership that was hard to defend at the property level. “Properties can only absorb so much technology cost,” Fisher said. “When you start evaluating total cost of ownership, it can get too big for what a property can really support.”

The question shifted from what the team needed to how to get more from what they already had. “As we’re all leaning in on NOI, both revenue and expenses, we needed to look at how we better optimize with the product stack we already have.”

A single source of truth, ready for what’s next

Consolidation solved a cost problem. It also solved a data problem. Before, with multiple systems, KETTLER was managing multiple versions of the truth, which made accurate reporting difficult and meaningful analysis harder still.

Fisher runs a data-driven operation. “Data is huge to me. I measure everything, we measure everything, and we monitor everything,” she said. A single platform gave her team a clean, consistent data foundation to build on. “Being able to have a consolidated data view and data structure helps us move to the next generation of analytics and use data to improve performance.”

That foundation also matters for where the industry is heading — especially with AI. Before AI can do anything useful inside an operation, the data has to be reliable and accessible. For KETTLER, that foundation is now in place and AI-ready.

Earning a seat at the table

KETTLER operates as both a developer and a third-party manager, which means Fisher’s team sits in rooms where pro formas get built and underwriting decisions get made. Technology strategy has become part of that conversation.

“As a developer, we understand the full underwriting of a deal and all the aspects that go into building those pro formas,” Fisher said. “From the operations side, we have to be really clear on what the benchmarks are, what the data looks like from rents to expenses and how that drives the overall value of the asset.”

Ownership groups and investors want more than a summary. “In the past, operations would provide a lot of information, but not necessarily sit at the table to explain it,” Fisher said. “Now, people want to know how we’re going to get to those results and how we’re going to make those numbers work. They’re not just numbers on a piece of paper.”

Being able to speak credibly about technology, including consolidation and AI readiness, has become a differentiator when KETTLER pursues new management contracts. “Being able to talk about central business offices, optimizing our technology and leaning into AI gives us a competitive advantage because it shows how we’re using technology to drive real results,” Fisher said.

But Fisher is direct about what that credibility requires. “It’s time that we have to show our work. We can’t just say we’re going to adopt all these great tools. We have to show how technology is actually going to help the asset perform. We have to measure that success and demonstrate that what we’ve put together really does drive performance.”