Unified Building Data: Thoughts from CREation’s “Disruption in Real Estate”

Unified Building Data: Thoughts from CREation’s “Disruption in Real Estate” Recently, the CREation Property Network hosted an evening event “Disruption in Real Estate: How is Technology Changing Our Industry?” in London. I had the honor of sitting on the event’s panel, along with industry experts Bronny Wilson (Equiem), Kadine James (Hobs 3D), Ben Hunt (DLA Piper), and Rachel Norris (Lockton Companies), to explore how technology is changing, and will continue to revolutionize, the CRE industry. One aspect that I enjoy about panel discussions is the diversity amongst panelists, and the CREation panel did not disappoint. From the development of VR and AI to deliver services within a facility to the legal impacts of technology, our panel was able to dive into the entire building lifecycle ecosystem and provide attendees with a holistic view of what we can expect to see in our industry’s future.

Where are we going?

The discussions we had with the audience began as engaging hypotheticals, as we delved into questions surrounding job security in the age of AI and how smart sensors could be better used within a facility. However, I soon noticed that I represented the only organization on our panel that dealt with the design, construction and handover stages. While the conversations were fascinating, I wanted to address a question that many in the industry aren’t asking themselves: “How do we collect, aggregate, and manage our building asset data from design so that we have the information to analyze performance data and develop down the line services that meet tenant demand?” This valuable data must be collected early on, and without this information, any down the line analytics will only represent half of the big picture. In order to build tenant services, you must have visibility into your building, its assets, and its functionality. Bringing unified building data together is something that we haven’t been able to do before, but with the development of technology which can integrate and consolidate data and documents across numerous silos across design, it’s easier than ever to gain insights into performance dynamics, deliverability, and agility for tenants.

Unified building data - how do we get there?

So, how, as an industry, do we get to a place where we have the capability to provide personalized tenant services? As millennials, many of our building tenants are willing to share personal data to improve services available to them. But if those services don’t meet expectations you run the risk of losing tenants and negatively impacting your business. To minimize risk, we begin by understanding our data sources and the quality of these sources. How will your data collection practices impact the quality of your data down the road? If you don’t know the quality of all of your data, you run the risk of turning a quality database into a poor database. How can you ensure the quality of your data? With an information management plan that defines your data validation practices. By taking these steps early on in a project, you can not only analyze your building data to improve tenant services, but also harness the information to better improve overall lifecycle costs, ensuring the financial health and viability of your building. While discussing the importance of early project planning may not sound as exciting as AI/VR, technology solutions can no longer operate in their own silos within the CRE industry. Instead, technology is beginning to impact every decision we make, and unless we understand the strengths and weaknesses of each technology and can create a set of unified building data, we run the risk of becoming dinosaurs. Ready to improve your business information management and reduce costs throughout the building lifecycle? Contact Invicara today to schedule an initial conversation with one of our solution consultants.

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