Word of mouth marketing (WOMM) is an old hat that has learned new tricks. Nielsen reports that 92 percent of consumers believe recommendations from friends and family over all forms of advertising. A study by The American Marketing Association adds that 64 percent of marketing executives believe that word of mouth is the most effective form of marketing. So why have only six percent of marketers mastered the new potential WOMM? WOMM with Purpose Jay Baer’s latest book, “Talk Triggers,” explores how businesses can capitalize on WOMM. His first tip is to strategize. Too often, businesses rely on happenstance, like tripping on a rock and noticing that it’s a chunk of gold. But by intentionally creating word of mouth opportunities, you get people to talk on purpose and control the message. Next, Baer recommends repeatable strategies. One-hit-wonders don’t build a brand. What can you do, and continue to do, to keep customers talking? Doubletree’s free cookie program is a prime example of intentional, repeatable WOMM. Every check-in and free cookie is a WOMM opportunity. More than 25 years later, the free cookies still generate buzz. Learn from Sprint’s Mistake Lastly, Baer encourages businesses to be unique. Sprint demonstrates how sameness backfires. Sprint hired actor Paul Marcarelli, formerly of the Verizon “Can you hear me now?” campaign. Verizon’s campaign, which lasted for nearly a decade, was a huge success. Sprint’s attempt at piggy backing on that success only sort of worked. Sprint spokesperson David Tovar told the New York Times that the new commercial was viewed 14 million times on YouTube. Nearly 1,000 articles (including this one) mention Marcarelli’s brand switch. Sprint’s Marcarelli stunt stimulated more than 3 billion impressions but the conversation wasn’t exactly good. Few consumers talked about Sprint’s improved network. People wanted...

Commercial property photos are notoriously unimaginative. Prospects have grown accustomed to mundane shots of empty spaces. But what if you offered something more interesting? Your property will gain the competitive advantage. Below are five tips for better commercial property photography that will help you stand apart from the crowd. Show Interactions, Not Spaces All commercial spaces have a ceiling, walls, and a floor. Skip the boring space photos. Instead, showcase interactions and operations within the space. Here are a few examples: Accentuate the room’s natural light by depicting an employee as she waters thriving, indoor plants near large windows Capture a team effortlessly unloading packages on the spacious and updated loading dock Emphasize your rapid WiFi availability with teams working simultaneously on their laptops and mobile devices Highlight your services by showing a vendor removing a recycling bin from the site Stage Like Sales Depend on It! As you’ve gathered by now, staging a commercial space may require models and supplies. It could be worthwhile to invest in office furniture so that you can stage spaces now and in the future. Otherwise, you can find models, photographers, and props on sites like MuseCube, Model Mayhem, and OneSource Talent. Commercial tenants want to see the potential of the space that you offer. If live staging is cost prohibitive, consider virtual staging. Virtual “renovations” are a great way to show potential uses for the space. Showcase Versatility Think beyond expected uses of the unit. Consider creative approaches for the space, such as coworking and CrossFit. By thinking outside of the box, you may attract a prospect that had not previously considered your site. Location, Location, Location Your property’s neighborhood may be a noteworthy part of your marketing efforts. Are there restaurants nearby that tenants may enjoy...

Until fairly recently, enterprise software platforms for real estate largely focused on accounting, finance and other back office operations. The advanced programming languages, mobile reach and internet capacity that enable automated workflows and remote access available for the back office hadn’t reached the front office. Things are different today—for the better. In an article originally published in Journal of Property Management, Todd Huebsch, Yardi vice president of commercial sales, explains why.   New software applications squarely target the front office, lending new dynamism to leasing, customer services, facility management, development and other operations. What does the evolution of technology dedicated to the front office mean in practical terms? For one, it means that property management technology has reached the point where remote access is both affordable and effective for managers involved in leasing, construction and facilities management. It also means leasing and asset management can work a deal together with a previously unattainable degree of collaboration. Development vice presidents can evaluate risk with instant access to project status, instead of waiting for a weekly report. They can leverage ERP data such as lease comps, revenue trends, contractor and job analysis, to make better decisions. Consider, for example, construction managers working to correct a problem with a building’s foundation. In an earlier era, they would call or email the back office, or even leave the site altogether to calculate the change order and negotiate the amount and cost code. Today, using apps designed specifically for their role, construction managers can enter the work order with just a few taps on a mobile device. The change order automatically flows to the back office and is recorded in the core property management and accounting platform. The adjustment is fully visible to all parties and the construction manager...

Developers, property owners and architects have a new tool available for building design. The Virtual Building Service, an innovation from Budapest-headquartered EIT Digital, creates digital simulations to test and optimize people flow and building occupancy. IBM and KONE, a company that specializes in the elevator and escalator industry, have partnered in the initiative, with KONE acting as business owner and activity leader. The service is designed to make it easier for real estate professionals to design buildings that are financially attractive, while maximizing shared spaces. Simulation data will be collected in real time by sensors, while new facilities will have to rely on input from previous studies. “Our simulation capability is much improved. We can, for example, simulate people flow in the lobby of an office building; understand how that might look along with the waiting times for the elevators,” said KONE’s head of People Flow Optimization Juha-Matti Kuusinen. “Not only can we calculate a building’s efficiency, but we can also benchmark it with similar buildings and conclude if the building is performing very well or if there’s room for improvement.” KONE had focused its efforts on vertical efficiency, such as people moving from floor to floor. In tall buildings, elevator group control systems select which elevator to dispatch to each request, aiming to minimize waiting times. These systems could be upgraded by forecasting future traffic based on historical statistics. “We realized, however, that if you don’t design end-to-end people flow, including the horizontal people flow, it is difficult for our customers to judge whether their buildings are really efficient. This is why we started to explore the optimization of the total people flow, combining both the horizontal and vertical dimensions,” added Kuusinen. Tarmo Kekki, executive partner at IBM, said the simulator is a...

In July, parts of the U.S. saw record demand for electricity, driven by higher temperatures pushing up power usage. Pennsylvania-based regional transmission organization PJM Interconnection LLC reported 144,557 megawatts of demand on July 3, the highest level in almost two years. Power usage in New York City reached its highest level since 2013 the previous day, July 2. On the other coast, more than 80,000 Southern California residents lost power on the July 7-8 weekend as a heat wave caused problems with distribution system equipment. Meanwhile, ERCOT, the grid operator for most of Texas, expects to set a new peak demand record this summer. Resource capacity should allow the grid to operate reliably, but unexpected outages to major generators could prompt demand-side management measures, including potential emergency load shedding. Strain on the grid has obvious implications for property managers, since the residential and commercial sectors account for about 39% of total U.S. energy consumption and more than two-thirds of the electricity used nationwide. Summer heat and havoc it wreaks on the power grid is one reason many property owners seek to incorporate energy efficiency as a core business tenet. One resource in that effort is the Green Lease Leaders program, which encourages lease terms that give both landlords and tenants a stake in adopting building efficiency practices and investments. The Institute for Market Transformation, which administers the Green Lease Leaders program with the U.S. Energy Department’s Better Buildings Alliance, estimates that green leasing could help reduce utility bills by up to $0.51 per square foot (22%) in U.S. office buildings alone; if all leased office buildings executed green leases, the market could achieve over $3 billion in annual energy costs savings. In June, IMT and Better Buildings Alliance recognized companies that incorporated innovative energy...

A vendor provides a product or service for a property management company. Then they get paid, the sooner the better. That’s the theory, at least. In practice the traditional process can be laborious for both sides of the ledger—vendors and property managers. Submitting paper invoices, securing approvals, cutting checks, stuffing and mailing envelopes, and taking payments to the bank breed opportunities for errors and delay. Yardi’s online vendor management solution, VENDORCafé®, speeds up the invoicing process for vendors while reducing printing, mailing and storage costs for property managers. “We’ve noticed a significant improvement in expediting our invoices through the system. It’s user friendly, and provides an easy transition from one task to the next. Thanks VENDORCafé!” says Shamrock Press and Graphics. Yardi has taken the lead in developing new technology for vendors that makes processing invoices and payments, uploading insurance certificates and accessing statements, much easier. VENDORCafé offers: Easy, secure, mobile-enabled uploading of invoices and statements Reduced costs through electronic invoice processing Automated transmission of compliance status, expiration alerts and other information This infographic takes a look at the step-by-step VENDORCafé process. For property managers, VENDORCafé is a single vendor management system of record that cuts risk in vendor onboarding, eliminates lost and duplicate invoices and integrates fully with their Yardi Voyager® property management and accounting platform. “VENDORCafé eliminated the frustration that our vendors and internal staff previously experienced.  Before, vendors would reach out to our staff to get updates on invoices. Now that vendors can follow their invoice online through the payment process, we have seen a visible increase in efficiency,” says Iris Esguerra, Yardi project manager and information technology business analyst for Grubb Properties, a developer in Charlotte, N.C. with commercial and residential holdings. She adds, “VENDORCafé gives our vendors confidence and...

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...

In a recent nationwide survey, Yardi office listings platform COMMERCIALCafé investigated what office employees across a variety of industries had to say about their work spaces. We asked 2,107 respondents from a wide range of ages (from Baby Boomers to Gen Zers), working in different fields (from tech to retail, education and entertainment) some questions about what they view as productivity killers in their current workspace, and what improvements could make a difference. The Quest for Privacy in the Office Most Americans work in an open-plan office—roughly 70% of workspaces in the nation currently sport this design. Employers have many reasons to love open-plan offices, as they are cost-effective and grant great flexibility in accommodating a growing workforce. Nevertheless, from our respondents’ point of view, there are several grievances that the offices they work in fail to address. What stands out most is the employees’ concern regarding the lack of privacy and high noise levels. Roughly 64% signaled they had trouble concentrating due to interruptions from their coworkers, while things like outdated equipment, air quality or poor lighting were raised as issues by around 33% of respondents. Designers are trying to address some of these problems and their current range of solutions combine the use of sound-absorbing materials for flooring, walls and furniture, panels and partitions to create a sense of privacy, and soundproofing quiet rooms or pods. Plants in the office can also contribute to bringing down noise levels and improve air quality, not to mention the added aesthetic appeal they provide. Millennials and Baby Boomers Agree: Private Offices Are Still the Best We know open-plan office designs are widespread, but does that mean they are also popular? Only 9.87% of surveyed workers indicated this layout as their ideal workspace. By comparison, roughly...

“CRE Tech Industry—Boom or Bust?” was the question posed in a recent Realcomm-hosted webinar. The answer will depend on technology providers’ ability to differentiate themselves and deliver solutions that create value for building owners and operators, according to a panel of real estate technology suppliers, investors and users including Yardi’s Alex Stanton. The five webinar panelists agreed that the commercial real estate industry historically has been slow to innovate its asset management technology. In recent years, however, competitive, regulatory and sustainability pressures have generated a sense of urgency among property owners and managers to regard technology as a strategic ally. Stanton, Yardi’s regional director for commercial sales, noted that generic enterprise management platforms have evolved to accommodate procurement, energy management, coworking and marketing, paralleling the morphing of “lease” from basic tenancy to include amenities and online self-service options. “As a provider of transaction-enabling technology, Yardi aims to create deep transactional functions that can be embedded into the core technology platform,” he said. John Gilbert, chief operating officer and executive vice president of New York City property owner and manager Rudin Management, said his company invests in technology startups and even spun off its own software company. He likened technology to a construction project: “When building a structure, we dig a hole and pour a foundation. Property owners should look at technology adoption exactly the same way. I don’t want 20 more silos with 20 new technologies. All data collected should go into a central, integrated platform that can make the building run more efficiently and be smarter.” This approach will “future-proof” buildings and create value by correlating data that’s already being collected. Will O’Donnell, a senior vice president at logistics real estate leader Prologis Inc., noted that the difficulty of adopting new technology can...

Functionality in Yardi Voyager Commercial property management and accounting platform complies with upcoming new accounting standards for commercial property management set by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). Yardi Voyager supports FASB-required operating and finance leases and IASB-mandated finance leases. “Yardi fully understands the requirements set by FASB and IASB and is helping our clients adopt the mandatory new standards,” said Terri Dowen, senior vice president of sales for Yardi. The FASB/IASB standards are optional now, but starting in 2019, FASB and IASB will require recognition of all lease transactions on a lessee’s balance sheet. Previously only finance leases (purchase agreements) appeared as liabilities; property management companies were not required to disclose long-term liabilities associated with a lessee’s leasing activities. To account for these liabilities, lessees will need to determine the net present value (NPV) of all future leasing obligations as of a certain transition date and given a certain discount rate. The liability on the balance sheet will equal the NPV of the future lease payments.  The offsetting right-of-use asset will equal the NPV of future lease payments, adjusted for initial direct costs and carryforward. New features in Yardi Voyager help tenants meet the new standards by allowing calculation of the net present value of lease payments using a discount rate.  They also recognize a liability equal to the calculated present value and an asset equal to the present value plus adjustments. Other new features include amortization of the lease asset value and lease liability over the life of the lease, generation of all required general ledger accounting entries, and a full reporting suite including prior year comparisons and compliance reports. FASB is an independent, not-for-profit organization that establishes financial accounting and reporting standards for public,...

Leasing agents often have to be part lawyer, part CPA and part tour guide when handling such details as monitoring existing tenant lease options, notifications and expiration dates, tracking prospective tenants, crafting letters of intent and arranging showings. Customer relationship management technology that manages these operations has come a long way over the past few years. A key development was stacking plans and floor plans that provide a two-dimensional visual representation of a building showing space availability, tenants on each floor, expiration dates and current rental rates.  Color coding helps managers, leasing teams and others identify opportunities and expose risk.  And mobile technology has taken lease execution out of the office and into the field, further shortening the leasing cycle. What’s the next step for CRM technology?  The Balance Sheet asked Tom Dragmen, Yardi’s manager of global solutions, for a deeper dive into the emerging generation of stacking plan and floor plan technology. Q: What does “interactive stacking and floor plans” mean? A: This refers to a rich visual representation of lease expirations and related space details. They can overlay configurable performance measures and metrics on floor plans.  They also provide a visual dimension for efficiently analyzing expirations, options, unit types and rent-per-area trends in buildings. Q: What’s the user perspective? A: Leasing agents and others get a full graphical display of vital information including lease statistics that determine rental rate trends.  They can see stacking and floor plans based on expirations occurring in specific years, rents per area, encumbrances, options, proposals, unit types, and tenant performance measures such as sales per area, sales variances year over year and foot traffic. Q: How can this information be used? A: When integrated with CRM and accounting systems, the new generation of interactive stacking and floor...

In September 2016, real estate became the 11th Global Industry Classification Standard sector.  Morgan Stanley Capital International Inc. and S&P Dow Jones Indices, which maintain the standardized classification system for equities, described the action as reflecting the “growing importance of real estate in the world’s equity markets” and “the position of real estate as a distinct asset class and a foundational building block of a modern portfolio, rather than an alternative.” The GICS classification means real estate asset performance is no longer blended into a larger financial picture but stands fully accountable on its own merits.  This has prompted many companies to capitalize on real estate’s status as an increasingly viable asset class.  For example, Cousins Properties Inc. completed the spinoff of Parkway Inc. into an independent REIT in October 2016.  In March 2017, shopping center owner, operator and developer Regency Centers Corporation merged with Equity One Inc. to form a $16 billion company.  Government Properties Income Trust acquired First Potomac Realty Trust for $1.4 billion later that year. Alex Stanton, Yardi’s industry principal for commercial, offers insight into best practices for participating in the growing mergers and acquisitions trend. The following are his thoughts on how to prepare: The increasingly common exchanges of real estate following the GICS designation aren’t the exclusive province of the big players; it’s happening with medium and small real estate companies as well, including enterprises that are family owned and operated. Mergers and acquisitions hold high potential to benefit shareholders, staff and customers of the newly created entity—but only if the organizations involved put the right strategy and assets in place.  Here are some ways to do that. Put People First A company may be privately owned and dreaming of being a REIT, or planning to open funds...

Yardi Matrix has completed the first report that quantifies the amount of office space dedicated to coworking in office buildings with 50,000 square feet or more in 20 large U.S. markets. “Coworking represents a small yet growing segment of the office market,” the report says, noting that that 20 markets contain more than 1,100 coworking space encompassing almost 27 million square feet of space.  This total represents 1.2% of the total office space in those markets. Shared workspace originated in the 1990s to provide space for self-employed workers and employees traveling or working remotely. The practice expanded after the Great Recession, driven by a growing gig economy, cost-cutting strategies and other factors. Today, the report says, “coworking represents a small yet growing segment of the office market” that helps companies accommodate remote employees, attract talent, promote work satisfaction and reduce leasing costs. Eleven of the 20 metros in the Yardi Matrix study have more than 1 million square feet of coworking space for lease, led by Manhattan, N.Y., with 7.65 million square feet in 245 spaces and the Los Angeles office space market with 3.7 million square feet of coworking space in 158 locations. Nine other metros have at least 1 million square feet dedicated to coworking. Miami has the most coworking space as a percentage of total stock, at 2.7%. “Demand is high in markets with concentrations of knowledge workers—especially IT but also new media or industries such as biotechnology and telecommunications—that are friendly to startups [and] in metros where space is at a premium,” the report says, and lower in metros such as Dallas and Houston that have low barriers to construction and high vacancy rates.  The practice is more prevalent in urban settings due to the concentration of workers there and...

Alex Stanton, Yardi industry principal for Commercial, joined other technology experts in exploring the fast-paced evolution of technology, automation and innovation in a recent Realcomm-sponsored webinar. The six-member panel described the current real estate technology paradigm that considers tenants, guests, employees and shoppers as interrelated elements of a user experience.  As a result, property owners and managers aim to deliver a high-value experience by using new property management software systems that can capture and apply data inclusive of all occupant touchpoints, from reservations to parking to the building environment. Stanton elaborated on this theme, noting the convergence of historically separated property management technologies for property and facilities maintenance, energy management, procurement and self-service experiences.  Amid rising expectations of among space and asset users, he said, “facility, property and business management systems are coming together,” allowing inventory management, preventative maintenance and exceptions management from a core suite.  Additional technology innovations include “interfaces that enable experiences, such as service requests, photo-enabled technology for notifications, concierge services and payments, with immediate download of supporting photographs,” he said, adding, “Yardi sees tremendous opportunity in artificial intelligence, the internet of things and visualization.” Addressing another part of creating an optimal building experience, Stanton referenced Yardi’s creation of an energy suite that encompasses everything from energy optimization, sourcing, utility expense management and compliance. Other speakers addressed other drivers of real estate technology innovation.  Rick Gehringer from real estate developer Caruso related how a common technology platform can provide “a true experience management system” for guests by capturing all touchpoints and every user engagement across a property.  Examples of how technology can make the guest experience enjoyable, efficient and high-quality include a common reservation system, a rewards system that captures receipt images and an automated parking system. John Gilbert of commercial...

Transparency Market Research reports that the global energy management systems (EMS) market continues to grow. The market will show an estimated compound annual growth rate of 13.4 percent between 2015 and 2023, leading to a valuation of $36 billion by 2024. The estimate reflects ongoing confidence in the benefits of sustainable initiatives. Increasing Demand Several factors contribute to the rising demand for EMS. Current fossil fuel sources lack security and sustainability. The long-term projections by the International Energy Agency forecast a rise in such energy costs. As a result, organizations—particularly office, retail, and industrial spaces– strive to mitigate rising expenses by decreasing dependency on non-renewable fuels. Data gathered by EMS highlights opportunities for organizations to use less energy while maintaining optimal site performance. Smarter energy use will minimize waste and keep operating costs low. EMS also contribute to higher property values. The value of buildings with sustainable features exceeds the value of conventional structures by a median increase of 7 percent, reveals a joint study conducted by Dodge Data & Analytics, United Technologies Corporation, and World Green Building Council.  The Drive Toward Healthier Buildings report states that 73 percent of green building owners are able to increase their leasing rates and 62 percent achieved higher asset values. EMS help buildings achieve and maintain the standards needed for green building certifications, increasing the ability to lease and resale sites with higher value and fewer concessions. The drive for increased productivity, employee satisfaction and retention also contributes to the increasing demand for EMS. Research points to occupant health as a component of employee satisfaction and retention. In The Drive Towards Healthier Buildings, 79 percent of respondents believe wellness-focused buildings will lead to improved employee satisfaction. Business owners listed products that enhance thermal comfort, such as EMS, among the...

Video continues to rise to the top of the digital marketing playbook. If you’re skeptical about the power of video, consider that almost 50% of internet users look for videos related to a product or service before visiting a store. And four times as many customers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it. Video content can also improve SEO, increase engagement and boost brand loyalty and awareness. Within the realm of real estate, the industry – from retail to residential to student housing – is finding creative ways to leverage video. What’s clear is video isn’t going anywhere, so it’s time to jump in feet first. Facebook Live offers an interactive, free and highly visible way to engage with an audience. The platform now sees 8 billion average daily video views from 500 million users. With help from social media experts, in-depth tutorials and best practice tips, even the most novice user can become a Facebook Live pro.   Here are five tips to rock Facebook Live: Step 1: Ask permission If you plan to live stream other people, ask for permission before you record them. Keep in mind some conferences and venues may have strict no streaming policies. When in doubt, ask. Step 2: Game plan Some questions to inform your live video strategy: Why do you want to do live video? Who are you hoping to reach? What do you want this audience to do? What will you talk about? How long will you go live for? Facebook recommends 10 to 90 minutes, but even 5 minutes is great. Do what feels right for your organization and your viewers. Where will you go live from? Walk the room and consider reserving a spot in front. Minimal background...

Rob Teel, senior vice president of global solutions for Yardi, offered perspective on new tools that help commercial real estate companies gather, analyze and use data in new ways in an interview at the Realcomm conference in San Diego. Guided by collaboration with clients and industry trends, Yardi is directing its product development beyond traditional accounting and back office systems.  “Most transactions, such as purchase orders by employees and work orders by tenants, start in the field and usually on a mobile platform. We want to continue pushing ERP upstream to the source of transactions, and capture data that goes to the general ledger from the first transaction,” Teel explained. He cited COMMERCIALCafé Tenant, a downloadable app that extends online services to mobile devices, as an example of this effort. VENDORCafé, which automates manual processing involved in validating and onboarding vendors, also offers secure, mobile access to the ERP. Teel also mentioned the investments Yardi has made, through acquisitions and development, to develop a comprehensive energy offering that includes intelligent HVAC optimization, submeter-level usage analysis and fault detection.  With these capabilities in hand, Yardi now focuses on putting them together as “a holistic offering that helps clients reduce their energy spend and promote sustainability,” he said. He also discussed Yardi Matrix in terms of the artificial intelligence and guided analytics trends that were popular topics of discussion at Realcomm.  For years Yardi Matrix has been gathering information on commercial, multifamily and self storage facilities across the U.S. The challenge now, Teel said, is to “use that repository of information about leases, rental rates and other characteristics to help clients make smart decisions about pricing properties, forecasting budgets and reporting to analysts and stakeholders,” Teel said.  Extending Yardi Matrix beyond data capture and leveraging the...

A group of real estate technology experts—including Alex Stanton, Yardi industry principal for commercial—took stock of cloud computing’s growing role in real estate in a recent Realcomm-sponsored webinar, “The Latest Trends in the CRE Cloud.” With about 80% of companies running some portion of their workloads in public or private clouds, the panel explored the new opportunities this dynamic environment presents real estate companies as well as potential pitfalls. Emphasis on security Stanton focused on the challenge of safeguarding the massive amount of information involved in cloud-based commercial asset management. “Sources of real estate data are ever-expanding, and more public and private information is available as the Internet of Things takes hold,” he said.  Commercial real estate is now edging into the “Big Data” phase with transactional data being married with content including photos/videos, satellite imagery, weather data and building performance systems. While the collection points for this information can optimize business and site efficiency, they also present more potential points of entry for security threats. As a result, he said, “the bar is continuously being set higher for security.”  Yardi and other solution providers create vulnerability management protocols and multiple levels of data center and application security.  Real estate companies, meanwhile, must educate their employees on protecting the information they access with business applications on remote devices and other means. “We continue to see the acceleration of technology adoption in the commercial real estate space. It will be an exciting journey, but from a data governance standpoint we need to constantly adapt and identify the solutions that will connect them in an ever-evolving environment,” Stanton said. IT’s new perspective Another panelist was Bob Rybak, chief information officer for Morguard, whose portfolio includes 44 million square feet of commercial space and adopted 100% cloud...

In 2016, major cities such as Hong Kong have seen a significant 45% increase in the amount of coworking office spaces being offered. Similarly, the past two years have resulted in more than 100 operators providing coworking environments in China’s top cities and more than 20 in Singapore according to JLL reports. Although numbers still lag behind those in the West, the proliferation of coworking spaces in Australia, Singapore, China, and other metropolitan areas in the Asia Pacific region show a growing inclination for flexibility and non-traditional offices for both employees and corporations alike. A trendy alternative Coworking is a style of work that involves sharing a space with others not employed by the same company. Occupiers of a coworking space generally have access to a number of resources including wifi, private offices, conference rooms, cafes, work desks, and communal space on a shared floor. Coworking spaces also provide a low risk, agile solution for companies and individuals that do not want to invest in the high fixed costs and long leases required of a traditional office. Yet far more than the resources, the greatest value in coworking comes from the relationships, knowledge sharing, and collaboration fostered by accommodating people of various industries, backgrounds, and levels of experience into one single workspace. Nowadays coworking spaces can take on a variety of forms from ones that are catered to freelancers and startups to those for a single business. Corporate interest in coworking, especially, is growing. More and more businesses see the value in sending their employees into a community in closer contact, as JLL Singapore research analyst Jiemei Tan describes, “with startups, entrepreneurs and freelancers, [that] allows for an unhampered exchange of ideas with these stalwarts of innovation.” In the Asia Pacific region too, the...

Direct-to-door home meal services have experienced record-breaking growth. The past four years witnessed a 33 percent increase in delivery traffic, reports NPD group. This growth presents new opportunities for commercial and institutional real estate. The Catalyst & Growth Potential The growth of prepared meal services comes as a response to public cries for healthier, convenient food. Americans are becoming more health-conscious.  The surge towards healthier fare comes on the heels of seemingly endless bad news: Almost 70 percent of American adults are diagnosed as overweight or obese. Rarely disclosed allergens in foods decrease the efficiency of digestive and endocrine systems. Processed foods continue to make headlines for dangerous ingredients and poor transparency practices. Homemade meals using fresh produce and lean meats are a tried and true step in restoring health. But few adults feel that they have enough time to cook. Adults are willing, however, to pay top dollar for homemade meals cooked elsewhere. Nielsen’s 2015 Global Health & Wellness Survey polled over 30,000 individuals online. Of the respondents, 88 percent are willing to pay more for healthier foods.  NPD reports an increase of 6 million fresh meal deliveries in the past year. The convenience of online orders cannot be underestimated. Users avoid waiting at the drive through or detours to the grocery store during the commute home. User avoid expending emotional energy by talking to another human being. The potential of such convenience is limitless. In this atmosphere, direct-to-door services will continue to grow. Creative Sites The real estate requirements of direct-to-door services vary, based largely on the popularity of the service. A few components appear to be consistent: Mature companies seek out numerous, small sites rather than vast distribution centers. These sites are centrally located to heavily populated areas with easy access...

If you work in the real estate business, chances are that at some point, someone has tried to tell you that your job is “all kinds of boring.” But most times, they sure are wrong. Not long ago we read a blog post published by one of our clients, Phoenix-based Gary Shaw of Arcadia Management Group. It was the kind of story that reminded us just how not boring the real estate business can be. Gary relayed the tale of what happened when a commercial tenant of his company became delinquent on the rent for their retail space. As a result of the missing rent, Arcadia Management Group essentially “locked out” the tenant, which typically results in a fast remittance of the funds owed. This wasn’t just any retail store, though. It was a high-end tropical salt water fish store, and taking care of the inventory was no small task We’ll let Gary tell you what happened next in his own words: “We were certain the tenant would be able to come up with the capital to cure the default and take back his store. “The real world, unfortunately, doesn’t always follow the ideal scenario. The store owner was truly at an impasse and did not have the capital to cure the default. He made it clear that he was walking away from the fishy business for good. “We pleaded with the owner to continue running the aquarium equipment while we made plans to liquidate – ‘If nothing else, do it for the fish!’ Our pleas went unanswered, and our calls were never returned. Nemo, Dory and all of their friends’ lives were now in our hands. Overnight, we went from property managers to fish store operators and underwater ecosystem caretakers.” Thankfully, this story...

Two Yardi commercial real estate clients were recognized this month with prestigious Digie Award honors from the technology-focused conference and networking event Realcomm. Deutsche Bank Wealth & Asset Management was recognized for “Best Use of Automation in Real Estate Investment Management” and Stuart Appley of Shorenstein received a “Digital Impact Award” for his contributions as an industry visionary. According to Realcomm’s website, the Digie Awards (the name stands for “Commercial Real Estate Digital Innovation Awards’”) were created to single out “companies, real estate projects, technologies and people that have gone above and beyond to positively impact our industry through the use of technology, automation and innovation.” Yardi is a recipient of numerous past Digie Awards for the innovation contained within its technology products, and this year the company’s energy efficiency monitoring platform, LOBOS, was a nominee. You can hear Yardi Senior Vice President of Global Solutions, Rob Teel, talk about the product’s role in the commercial technology platform in this video. Stuart Appley – Shorenstein Appley has been with Shorenstein since 2007 and serves as the company’s CIO. A self-described “cloud evangelist,” with a technology focused Twitter account, he has been responsible for pushing Shorenstein’s technology platforms into the realm of today’s best practices. The company chose Yardi to be its technology provider several years ago. “It was time to automate a lot of different parts of the business, and Yardi’s system was the only one that has the breadth to allow us to do that,” Appley noted. Realcomm recognized Appley as “an industry visionary and early adopter of an ‘all in’ cloud strategy for the business of commercial real estate,” who “elevated IT from a tactical to strategic role pursuing a business transformation through technology.” “Real estate, traditionally, never spent any money on...

Yardi’s Procure to Pay platform was recently featured on “Corporate Review,” hosted by Donald Trump Jr. with airings on the Bloomberg channel and Fox Business Network. The focus of the piece, conducted in an interview format with Brad Setser, Yardi’s Vice President of Marketing, and Akshai Rao, Business Development Manager for Procure to Pay, is the myriad business efficiencies that can be created thanks to the Procure to Pay product. “If you can centralize your purchasing on an online Procure to Pay system, there are several things you will be able to do,” Setser explained. “You will be able to leverage volume pricing much more easily than if all of your (property) sites are doing different things. Number two, you will be able to deliver and enforce policies and procedures across your entire portfolio, which is very difficult to do when your sites are doing their own thing. Third, with all of that spend data in one place you can conduct spend analytics and spend management. Lastly, if the Procure to Pay system is properly integrated with an invoice processing system, you can have a true paperless process from beginning to end.” Yardi clients Arcadia Management Group (Gary Shaw) and Post Properties (Janet Ham) describe their positive experiences using the product as part of the presentation. Watch the complete video...

Content marketing in the commercial real estate realm makes sense, from a PR perspective. Why not showcase the expertise of investment, development or brokerage leadership with smart writing about trends and business practices? For many companies, it’s a nice idea that might encounter many logistical hurdles a long the way. So a relatively new blog from Colliers International, Colliers Insights, pulls off a rather impressive feat – providing insightful, visual and shareable content relevant to commercial real estate. With a soft launch in October 2014, Colliers Insights is a relatively new project for the company’s marketing team, and one that made intuitive sense. Christine Schultz, global vice president of marketing and research, shared the scoop. CPE: Can you tell me why Colliers sees content marketing as important to its real estate goals? Schultz: The blog has really been a natural extension of how our Colliers advisors want to share insights and moving that into the digital realm. Websites can be very formal, with hard to find information in a quick, easy fashion. The blog provides a casual entry point for digital users to engage with our thought-leading content. CPE: How would you describe the overall experience you are trying to provide for readers? Schultz: We want it to be fun for the audience and share content in an engaging way. It’s really important for us to offer the blog as an authentic experience and to give users a sense of what it’s like to work with Colliers and to feel the magic of our culture for those interested in joining Colliers. CPE: One thing the blog does especially well is its presentation of thought leadership by Colliers executives around the nation and even globally. How do you compel their participation? Schultz:  I have been...