Realcomm’s August two-part webinar series, Celebrating Women and the Diverse Voices in CRE, highlighted the talent, thought leadership and unique mindsets that have enhanced commercial and corporate real estate as more women, minorities and diverse thinkers fill executive leadership positions and advanced technology roles as well as facilitate key vendor partnerships. Insights on career paths and navigating challenges In session one, Leadership, Diversity & Evolving Company Cultures, the executive-level women panelists talked about how workplace culture reflects the values of company leadership and can shape employee interactions as well as promote motivation and loyalty. With new voices in the leadership space, the panel discussed changes in leadership modeling, evolving workplace challenges, the critical role that mentorship plays and how companies are attracting new talent. A big theme among the panelists’ stories of their personal journeys was about receiving mentorship and support and becoming a mentor themselves to help other people advance and open up opportunities. Further, working with good leaders taught them how to become good leaders. Another common theme was about advocating for yourself. Hope Dunleavy, enterprise managing consultant at RealFoundations, stressed the importance of reaching out, being authentic and sharing your story while also listening to others’ stories. The panel agreed on the importance of creating community for support — such as joining (or creating) a women’s group in your organization, which Kelly Soljacich, senior vice president of LaSalle Investment Management, recommended. Veronica Unnikrishnan, partner and senior vice president of innovation, sales and marketing at 5Q Partners, commented that choosing the right organization and positions that will lift you up “is where the magic happens” and will help you grow and develop your career. Further advice included choosing the best opportunity over the most money is a wise decision in the long...

Five Yardi® clients earned Digie Awards, one of the highest honors in the commercial real estate industry, at the recent Realcomm | IBCon 2021 event. Short for Commercial Real Estate Digital Innovation, Digies recognize outstanding companies, real estate projects, technologies and the next generation of smart, connected, high-performance, intelligent building systems. Digies are also awarded to individuals who have positively impacted the industry through the application of technology, automation and innovation. This year, Realcomm focused on honoring those who are “leading the charge on COVID-19 strategic and transformational technologies, creating a more efficient, effective and adaptive industry and shaping the future of smart buildings.” Among this year’s winners were the following Yardi clients: QuadReal Property Group won the Most Intelligent Portfolio, Office award, in recognition of their “smart, connected, high performance intelligent building concepts.” In recognition of their “extraordinary level of automation, technology and innovation to their business processes,” The Inland Real Estate Group of Companies won the Best Use of Automation, Retail Real Estate, JLL won the Best Use of Automation, Commercial Services and Invesco won the Best Use of Automation, Investment Management. Ilan Zachar, Senior Vice President & CTO, Carr Properties won the Realcomm Julie Devine Digital Impact Award that acknowledges “those individuals who saw things ahead of their associates, had the courage to leave the mainstream and the tenacity to keep standing up after many failed attempts.” Zachar directs all corporate technology, strategy, and standards for Carr Properties. “Yardi is impressed with the extraordinary achievements of the companies and standout individuals who are shaping the future of the industry through transformational technology. We applaud all the award winners and look forward to what we can achieve together as an industry moving forward,” said Rob Teel, senior vice president of global solutions for Yardi. Teel was a...

Due to unique challenges this year, the 2020 Realcomm | IBcon Conference changed to a new hybrid format with two days of virtual sessions followed by a day of in-person sessions. As part of the virtual event, Yardi president and founder Anant Yardi participated in the opening session panel, as well as a thought leadership discussion with other industry software providers. Mr. Yardi’s vision for the future of the commercial real estate industry was optimistic, while stating the importance of businesses adapting to a new normal. In the opening session, “#COVID.RE.Economy.Technology.NewNormal,” he reflected on the difference between gathering 2,500 people in one venue at the last Realcomm conference in June 2019, versus a virtual environment over two full days of content in October 2020. “I yearn for those times when we were able to be face to face,” he stated. “But we understand change, we recalibrate and navigate that change.” Property owners and managers are likely to have some concern over whether tenants will need their space at the end of the lease, but enterprise corporations such as Microsoft and Exxon are leading the way on hybrid work models, which may be the new normal. Workers could access the office at some points during the week for team collaboration and then continue to function normally from remote environments, be it at home or a shared coworking location. For those companies seeking more space, often satellite offices, Mr. Yardi sees a trend where clients search available sublease space or sections of coworking offices to bring workers back into a collaborative environment. A significant challenge for the future of the office sector is occupancy levels. While a majority of tenants have managed to successfully pay rent and offices are slowly beginning to reopen, capacity restrictions and...

Yardi is proud to be the Diamond Plus Elite Sponsor of the first Realcomm | IBcon hybrid conference. Due to the unique and challenging circumstances this year, the event will begin October 26 in a virtual setting with in-person sessions starting October 28 at the Marriott Gaylord Rockies Resort in Aurora, Colo. This premier event hosts hundreds of commercial and corporate real estate executives to discuss technology, automation and innovation. As part of the event, Yardi will have numerous speaking opportunities: Monday, October 26 Senior director Arjun Rao will host a CEO/COO roundtable discussion titled “The Future of Office Leasing: Challenges and Opportunities Explored,” focusing on leasing, demand for space in urban and suburban markets, as well as key factors for restructuring leases. A CIO roundtable focused on the outlook for private equity and the impact of technology on big spend will be hosted by Rob Teel, senior vice president of global solutions. Teel will also participate in a Realcomm LIVE interview to discuss current trends in the real estate industry. Founder and president Anant Yardi will join global thought leaders sharing their visions for the future of real estate technology, the economy and the workplace experience beyond the pandemic. Tuesday, October 27 Anant Yardi will join a panel titled “Industry Leaders Weigh in on Surviving and Thriving in Uncertain Times” to discuss how the real estate industry is trying to define the new normal. Wednesday, October 28  Brian Sutherland, industry principal for commercial, will also take part in a Realcomm LIVE interview session to discuss Yardi’s position in commercial real estate during the pandemic. Check out the full conference agenda, which will be updated continuously as more speakers and sessions are added. Visit Realcomm for more information or to register for the...

One of the most significant factors hindering a smooth return to work has been the legal uncertainties surrounding COVID-19. The main concern is the lack of uniformity in the laws between jurisdictions, and the tightening and loosening of restrictions as cases rise or fall. Therefore, employees, tenants and landlords all need to understand what can and cannot be enforced. Contract clauses, deferrals and concession negotiations have been ongoing since March, and the ramifications of these changes will carry on for months to come. Compliance for reopening If a manager cannot ensure the safety and wellbeing of workers, then an office simply cannot reopen. On a recent Realcomm webinar, Evandro Gigante, partner at Proskauer law firm, explained that compliance for reopening varies by jurisdiction, but New York, where their main office is located, has a thorough set of rules laid out for businesses to reopen. “There is a very robust set of guidelines that include, among other things, the development of a comprehensive health and safety plan which requires a close look at screening, testing, contact tracing, signage and social distancing procedures to be put into action,” he said. The guidelines require a written document detailing expectations for landlords and employers. Administering questionnaires regarding self-health is going to be a key, and there will be many questions about the legality or requirements involved with temperature taking. “Under Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidelines, you can diagnostically test your employees,” Gigante explained. “But the EEOC has not sanctioned antibody testing for the purpose of making employment decisions.” You can legally collect medical information on individuals, according to the EEOC, including their temperature or their symptoms, as long as you maintain it confidentially and separately from personal files. But here is where different jurisdictions and different guidelines...

The annual Realcomm ׀ IBCon conferences recognize real estate companies, projects, technologies and people for excellence in automation, technical innovation and intelligent building projects. Outstanding contributors over the past year received Commercial Real Estate Digital Innovation Awards, known as Digies, at the most recent Realcomm ׀ IBCon conferences in Nashville, Tenn. Digies are among the highest recognition available in the commercial real estate industry. One Digie winner was Australian property manager and investor Dexus, which, as described by Realcomm, “created an elite partnership with Yardi, effectively leveraging all modules of the Yardi suite to maximize enterprise cost/benefit.” Another Digie winner, Santa Monica, Calif. retail owner, operator and developer Macerich, incorporated Yardi solutions into its smart building management system. Yardi salutes all client organizations that received Digie awards this year, including: Cushman & Wakefield: Recognized early the role commercial real estate service providers can play in accelerating PropTech startups in real estate and construction technology. Shows ongoing commitment to exploring innovative strategies while working with large, progressive corporate clients. Prologis: Established a 15,000-square-foot industrial innovation center in San Leandro, Calif., for testing emerging technologies. Created a virtual data lake and migrated the in-house data warehouse into the cloud. Developed a customer experience platform that connects clients with services and products they need to run their Prologis logistics space efficiently. Boxer Property: Introduced AI into the company in multiple areas. Made innovative use of natural language processing for resume reviews and work order management. Optimized real estate operations with Blockchain technology implementation. Brookfield Properties: Built an integrated, automated and responsive cloud analytics and BI platform to extract and integrate data from various transactional systems, IoT devices and third-party data sources. Built a data strategy to drive actionable insights into the optimal retail tenant mix that matches demographics...

Yardi contributed hugely to the success of the recent Realcomm ׀ IBCon conferences, an annual premier event in the commercial real estate industry, by showcasing innovative technologies that control revenue and expenses. Yardi focused on the benefits of Yardi Elevate, Yardi Kube and Yardi Pulse. These product suites blend business intelligence from Yardi Matrix with operational tools into a single connected platform that harmonizes leasing, deal management, tenant improvements, budgeting, construction management and other operations. Property owners can make better decisions, manage pipelines more efficiently and foster closer interaction between external brokers and asset managers. Rob Teel, Yardi senior vice president of global solutions noted in a live-streamed interview during Realcomm ׀ IBCon that property managers must manage revenue and expenses more actively than they did a decade ago to generate expected returns. “Success comes when teams work together to create an ecosystem of users who can collaborate to improve operational performance,” he said. Watch the full interview below: The solutions also give rise to new revenue streams from coworking membership arrangements, better forecasting capability, lower energy consumption and expenses without sacrificing occupant comfort, and budget and schedule certainty for construction projects. With their real-time connection to the Yardi Voyager property management and accounting database, they’re easier to use and more reliable than point solutions. “Yardi has extended solutions from the Yardi Voyager property management and accounting platform to encompass other elements, making property owners and managers more efficient,” Brian Sutherland, industry principal of global solutions, said in another live-streamed interview. Watch the full interview below: “Realcomm ׀ IBCon was a great opportunity for the Yardi team to connect with and learn from clients, vendors and other industry participants. The conference’s quality is second to none,” Teel said. Asked the secret of Yardi’s success, Sutherland said,...

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...

Yardi’s Rob Teel, senior vice president of global solutions, and Todd Huebsch, vice president of commercial sales, discussed key trends in the commercial real estate industry in interviews at the recent Realcomm and IBCon conferences. Excerpts follow. Q: What are some key shifts that you’re seeing in commercial property management? Huebsch: From an enterprise platform standpoint, software products historically have been developed for people in back office operations such as accounting and property management. Now we see the emphasis rapidly changing to the front office—people in the field who are managing leases, construction projects and facilities. Enabling that move is a series of mobile apps and role-based tools that simplify tasks and help front office people do their jobs faster, easier and more efficiently while seamlessly connecting to the back office. These new capabilities speak to reducing risk and increasing asset value Q: What is Yardi’s primary focus area at present? Teel: There are three. One is Yardi Elevate, which, in contrast to the traditional chief financial officer focus of property management software, is tailored to a chief operating officer whose direct reports might include the leaders of leasing, asset management, construction and facilities management. Another key focus is energy management, which addresses the needs of COOs and chief engineers who are looking to reduce consumption and expenditures and boost sustainability. Yardi has made five acquisitions in three years in this area and it’s one of our leading long-term strategic visions. And coworking has gone through a revolution in the last two years. Today about 1% of commercial offices in the U.S. are tagged as coworking space but we think it might go to 5-10% in the U.S. and globally within a few years. We made two acquisitions that brought us the Yardi KUBE...

Commercial real estate education and event organization the Realcomm Conference Group LLC (Realcomm) celebrated its two-decade milestone by honoring 20 visionaries at its annual conference in Las Vegas. The prestigious group of honorees included Yardi founder and president Anant Yardi, who received a Lifetime Achievement Award recognizing his career-long accomplishments in real estate and technology. Realcomm also recognized the following industry leaders: Jesse Carrillo, SVP and CIO, Hines; Dave Clute, Chief Marketing Officer, ESD; Maureen Ehrenberg, President, Global Integrated Facilities Management, JLL; Robert Entin, EVP and CIO, Vornado Realty Trust; John Gilbert, EVP, COO and CTO of Rudin Management; Mark Golan, VP of Real Estate and Workplace Services, Google; Don Goldstein, former SVP and CISO, Digital Technology, CBRE; Hari Gunasingham, Founder, Sigma Sustainability Institute; Tama Huang, Principal and Global Real Estate Advisory Services Leader, NOI Strategies; Sandy Jacolow, CIO, Silverstein Properties; Ted Maulucci, President, SmartONE Solutions; Scott Morey, Executive Director of GPG Advisers; Paul Oswald, Managing Director, CBRE; John Petze, Principal, SkyFoundry; Wayne Pryor, Principal, 2Five1 Consulting; Joseph Rich, SVP and CIO, Related Companies;  Darrell Smith, Director, Central Facilities Operation of Google; James Whalen, SVP and CIO, Boston Properties; Scott Zimmerman, CIO, CenterPoint Properties. The award criteria included consistent focus on real estate innovation and contributions to the industry for more than 20 years. Mr. Yardi founded his company in 1984 in Santa Barbara, Calif. Since then, it has become a global real estate software leader, and now has over 6,000 employees in 40 offices worldwide. “Anant is a constant supporter of Realcomm’s vision for uniting technology, innovation and real estate operations. His thought leadership, service to the industry and technology innovation over the years have been profoundly impactful,” said Jim Young, co-founder and CEO of Realcomm. “Realcomm has done a remarkable job enhancing...

Appropriately for the “acceleration” theme of its global conference this week, Realcomm recently hosted a webinar in which several experts, including Yardi’s Alex Stanton, commented on the rapid pace of change in commercial real estate and new data management technology entering the marketplace. Stanton, regional director of commercial sales, said the movement toward an integrated concept of information management is so profound that it’s altering the very concept of the lease. “Client,” for example, no longer means a single entity but instead a broader category of people to be managed with increasingly granular information. “Space” encompasses coworking, parking and amenities as well as traditional offices. “Tenants” are morphing into “guests” whose service expectations require the collection and management of an expanding body of information including such non-real estate sources as weather and traffic information. Companies are creating digital twins of everything from their buildings to their tenants and the environment surrounding them. The best prescription for managing change, he said, is aligning IT resources with a company’s strategic direction. “When there’s a nice marriage of business and IT, there’s stronger direction and execution on investments, efficiencies and other actions,” Stanton said. Other participants and their thoughts on managing change included: Sam Wong, head of analytics and data science for global real estate manager QuadReal Property Group. When building its data platform from scratch, QuadReal focused on gaining insight and action, not just reporting, and its attention to the information management and database portions of the solution stack equaled that devoted to business intelligence and analytics. “We also sought a platform that could grow in capability and size so we don’t just worry about what we need to do in the next year or so,” said Wong, who managed both the business and technical teams...

“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...

What does “digital transformation” mean to commercial property management beyond a catchphrase? Six thought leaders including Alex Stanton, Yardi’s commercial industry principal, provided clarity on the subject in a recent Realcomm-hosted webinar. Digital transformation extends technology beyond acquiring and managing property.  It’s driven by business factors such as profitability, occupant satisfaction and productivity along with new technologies including the cloud, data analytics and the Internet of Things. Digital transformation is “a strategy lever to achieve broader business agendas and create new levels of value,” according to panelist Marc Petock, chief communications officer and vice president of marketing for IoT technology builder Lynxspring. Digital transformation aggregates business, operations and IT practices into a common platform for people, processes, best practices and services, Petock said, with new technology embraced not for its own sake but to change thought and organizational culture. Executed properly, digital transformation can foster better resource planning, empowerment, technology collaboration and risk mitigation. With heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment comprising a major expense, for example, commercial building owners and operators are incentivized to adopt intelligent building technology that provides new insight into operations and equipment performance. Commercial real estate has traditionally been slow to adopt transformative technology; when the panelists were asked how much of the industry understands digital transformation, no estimate exceeded 30 percent. But that’s changing in the face of pressures for profits, high sustainability expectations and consumers’ technology sophistication. “Technology used to mean ‘support’; now it’s at the forefront of driving revenue and services,” said Sandy Jacolow, chief information officer for real estate developer, investor and manager Silverstein Properties. “It has shifted how we do business.  For example, mobile capability is no longer a luxury; tenants say ‘Is there an app for that?’  A poor interface or customer experience...

A panel of corporate security experts held a recent Realcomm-hosted webinar to discuss strategies for managing cyberattacks to buildings that are increasing in frequency, sophistication and impact. Don Goldstein, senior vice president of IT for CBRE, recounted how the “Not Petya” ransomware attack of June 2017 encrypted hundreds of thousands of computers around the world and shut down whole networks and systems for weeks.  With the damage still being added up, the initial $850 million economic cost estimate could rise. “Not Petya hit all verticals, from nuclear plants and pharmaceutical firms to steel makers, consumer lenders and law firms,” Goldstein said.  Cautioning against disaster fatigue, he added, “We need to get people to think about and prepare for this type of event.” Ryan Allbaugh, business initiatives consultant for Wells Fargo, said that because internet of things (IoT) connected devices don’t have traditional IT operating systems or antivirus and antimalware, cyberattacks are “no longer an IT problem, but an operational problem” for every part of the economy. As we see more IoT connections, everything is vulnerable, from remote lighting control to elevator and video surveillance controls, Allbaugh noted.  “The challenge with IoT is that these systems often lack centralized visibility, and doing something as simple as getting a physical inventory can be a challenge,” especially with widely dispersed properties.  He outlined the National Institute of Standards and Technology Cybersecurity Framework, which offers guidance on assessing and improving prevention, detection and response to cyberattacks. Lorie Wigle, general manager for Intel, noting that “one company can’t solve this on its own,” urged collaboration and information sharing among IoT participants.  “We need to have ongoing lifecycle security management services in place to continue to measure and detect compromises to components of end-to-end services,” she said. Given that there’s...

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...

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...

By 2025, 75 percent of the workforce will be comprised of workers from the Millennial generation. A Thursday webinar hosted by Realcomm: “Technology in the Workplace – Managing the Needs of Multiple Generations” focused on managing that transition successfully and effectively for team members of every generation. Realcomm CEO Jim Young was the moderator. Panelists included: Esther Bonardi, VP of Marketing, Yardi Porschia Parker, Founder, Millennial Performance Institute Shalaya Shipman, Sr. Manager, Operations, SalesForce Kevin Able, President, REALTY|Share Elizabeth Dukes, CMO and Co-Founder, iOffice John Spindler, VP Marketing and Product Management, Zinwave The panelists covered a variety of topics relevant to the escalating generational workforce shift, among them work ideology, preferred methods of recognition, communication platforms and technological expectations. Esther Bonardi, vice president, marketing for Yardi, focused her comments on differentiating the workplace personalities of the Millennials and the Baby Boomers and facilitating constructive communication between the two groups. “I would say to the older generation – reach out and let the younger generation teach you something. Let them know you are willing to learn from them and see what they have to bring to the table. This process starts with the older generation opening up and saying: you mentor me and I’ll mentor you. Let’s teach each other,” Bonardi said. The best way to start such a conversation? Find a neutral subject of interest to both groups, like giving back to the community as a company. “If you’re looking for a place to have these groups where people can exchange information, you might consider corporate social responsibility,” Bonardi suggested. Coming together for the greater good is always a unifying experience that can create professional bonds. Yardi’s workforce in North America is made up of nearly 50 percent Millennial employees, she shared. That has...

Editor’s note: Jim Young is the Founder and CEO of Realcomm. At a recent Yardi Executive Briefing, he spoke about CRE 5.0. In this guest blog post, he further expands on the subject. The commercial and corporate real estate industry has many moving parts. Change is the only constant as companies around the world continually add and subtract from their organizations and portfolios. A merger today and a disposition tomorrow requires a complex network of individuals and processes to keep up with the changing real estate needs of a company. The people and processes involved in keeping a real estate portfolio moving smoothly require a significant amount of technology, automation and innovation. It is no longer possible to keep asset, lease, utilization, energy, operations and other data in spreadsheets or other disconnected information silos. In addition, there are four primary categories of technology associated with commercial and corporate real estate, 1) Real Estate Operational Information; 2) Transactions; 3) Smart, Connected, High-Performance Buildings; and 4) Next Generation Space. Over the course of the last 30 years, there have been five major phases of automation that have impacted the commercial and corporate real estate industry. Following is an overview of this CRE Tech evolution: CRE Tech 1.0 started over 25 years ago. Companies like Manhattan, Tririga, Yardi, MRI, CTI, J.D. Edwards, Argus, Angus and others, were the first to enter the real estate technology space. Their primary functionality was targeted on lease administration, asset management, accounting and property management. CoStar, which was founded in 1987, emerged as an industry giant, although the company has focused more on transactional and market data. Comps Inc., another market data company (acquired by CoStar), was also an early pioneer as were DataQuick, Damar, MetroScan and others. On the smart building...

Where does real estate technology go from here? The answer lies in the development pipelines of innovative companies like Yardi, but the journey so far has been inspiring. A thought leadership video presented at the recent Realcomm/IBcon Conference includes clips from tech pioneers like Steve Jobs (Apple), Larry Ellison (Oracle) and Larry Page (Google), as well as real estate leaders like Andrew Florance (CoStar) and Lew Horne (CBRE). Bridging the two industries is none other than Anant Yardi, CEO and Founder of Yardi Systems, who offers perspective on the app-based economy that has become the modern norm. “Let me suggest two things that have really taken all of us by surprise: Uber and Airbnb,” Yardi says. “Both of them are interesting because of the technology and what they bring to all of us is quite unique. But the transactions and the functions that they perform are commonplace – a way to get from A to B and a way to rent a room. The question that we puzzle over is this: Does this apply to the real estate industry? And, what message should we be taking away from these companies?” Watch the video here – and prepare to be inspired about technology and real...

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...

Realcomm recently announced the winners of the 2013 Commercial Real Estate Digital Innovation Awards (AKA the “Digies”), including an award for Best Real Estate Technology Innovation, which was won by Yardi’s Commercial Leasing Pad. Additionally, numerous Yardi clients using the company’s products to automate and improve their companies’ digital efficiency were honored. This year, one of the main Digie categories was Best Use of Automation, described by Realcomm as “for companies that have significantly automated traditional business processes or impacted their industry segments.” Yardi Commercial Leasing Pad is a trendsetter when it comes to use of mobile solutions for the property management industry. Realcomm singled out the application as an “intuitive mobile tool for managing the lead to lease process,” noting that it “takes advantage of full integration with Orion and the Voyager platform.” Leasing professionals are able to use Commercial Leasing Pad to aid them in the leasing process anywhere, whether touring a building with a prospect or meeting with them over lunch down the street. Real-time data is provided from Yardi Voyager, meaning agents are never without the information they need to answer a question or make a sale. The entire leasing workflow is accessible and the product is intuitive and easy to use. Simply sign in with your Voyager login and get started. This is Yardi’s fifth Digie in eight years, following citations in 2005, 2008, 2009 and 2012. In addition to Leasing Pad’s Digie Award, numerous other Yardi clients, and one consultant were recognized by Realcomm for their automation efforts, digital impact and intelligent building development. Among the projects honored for Best Use of Automation, Commercial Real Estate was Prologis’ consolidation of its entire portfolio of 4,000 properties into single technology platform, using Yardi. The effort was deemed “a real...

Jim Young has taken his industry-leading commercial real estate technology conference, Realcomm, all over the globe to learn from the latest innovators. Now, the company is sending a mission to the final frontier – space. In February 2013, a Russian Soyuz rocket will blast off for the International Space Station carrying a new round of science projects from around the globe, and a Realcomm and CALIT2–funded, high-school student designed experiment will be among them. “Big ideas really do come out of the space industry, and those technologies that are being used in the space station probably will make their way to buildings over the next 10 to 15 years, a good example of that is Solar/LED lighting systems” noted Young. “Given that the ISS is the ‘most intelligent building in the universe,’ this fits very well with the mission and vision of Realcomm. “ But the real impetus behind this educational venture in outer space was motivated by a concerned dad’s desire to improve the education of his two daughters – and that of other American kids, too. During his first Realcomm international intelligent buildings tour in 2004, a trip to a classroom in China pushed Young to take a hard look at the U.S. education system, where it was falling short, and seek out opportunities for innovation and elevation that Realcomm and its community could fund. Over the years, the Realcomm community has donated significant amount of dollars to math and science. The students who will devise and create the space experiment are part of Better Education for Women in Science and Engineering (BE Wise), part of the San Diego Science Alliance. Young’s oldest daughter Grace, 14, is a participant in the program, which pushes young women to see math and science as...

With a commitment to deliver the most relevant, up-to-date insight and technology available for the commercial real estate industry, Realcomm attendees typically seize the chance to investigate the latest tools. With over 100 vendors, searching for a product with the breadth and footprint to fit your business was a top priority for many attendees at this conference, held June 13-14 in Las Vegas. The vendor expo was alive with buzz, and hot topics included smart building technology, CRM, and mobility. Historically, a major hurdle for commercial real estate has been the brokers’ reluctance to share their contacts.   After all, a positive (and often long-term) client/broker relationship has consistently proven to be a driving force behind closing deals. For brokerage firms, this has been a constant obstruction to the industry’s adoption of technology: figuring out how to secure the information available inside a CRM to a point where brokers feel their relationships can remain intact while still allowing the firm to access the decision making information they need. Fortunately, improved technology has led to convergence: being able to see the pipeline, discover possible closes, and most importantly increase revenue by lowering vacancy rates all the while maintaining a secure database of clientele that’s available on the go. Mobility is transitioning from a luxury to a necessity and as a result was an equally hot topic.  In part due to increased security concerns brought about by the recent mobility and BYOD (bring your own device) trends have left commercial real estate IT executives in perpetual problem solving mode.  There’s a lot to think about when it comes to incorporating the consumer driven tech fads we see today; security being at the forefront.  At our recent user conference, Yardi Voyager clients learned about the syncing and wiping...