The Building Engines team had the pleasure of attending the BOMA 2023 International Conference & Expo in Kansas City from June 24-27. Experts from around the country flew in to discuss, learn, and connect with one other on everything commercial real estate (CRE).  

Sunday morning, Building Engines and JLL kicked off the day with the session, “The Evolving Workplace Requires a Modern Tech Stack.” Panelists included: 

• Brynn Hogan, Director of Product Management, Building Engines 
• Anastacia Anderson, VP Investor Partnerships, Flex by JLL 

In this part one of two for the session’s blog coverage, we’ll recap Hogan’s rundown of what components comprise the best tech stack.

Be sure to read part two, “BOMA 2023: It’s on property teams to provide a better tenant experience“, for Anderson’s discussion.

Building out a universally successful tech stack 

In recent years, CRE teams have discovered they must find the right balance between enhancing their building operations while also hitting home on tenant satisfaction. And in most cases, that means implementing a tech solution to help.  

“Whatever operations system you are using, the basis of it is that you are delivering what you need to for your tenants,” Hogan said.  

Keeping that in mind, the best tech stack should deliver for your property in more ways than one. Continue reading to learn the top things today’s modern tech stack need to include. 

7 ways Building Engines software optimized JEMB Realty’s property management

Learn how day-to-day operations have improved at JEMB Realty since implementing Building Engines technology along with specific areas where the platform has impacted multiple of their properties.

1. The best tech stack should: Balance a reactive workload

Balancing the task of supporting building operations while maintaining the best relationship with your tenants can be very tricky. Because when work orders come in, or engineers are inundated with tenant requests, it is all about how your property team responds and reacts. It is in these moments when workloads are heavy that engineers and property managers must move quickly and efficiently. Tech can help in this way by supporting teams to: 

• Deliver on lease agreements
• Be reliable
• Use automation to cut down costs and drive execution
• Deliver results faster
• Distribute work more efficiently
• Increase revenue on tenant billables
• Create professional invoices for tenant billables 

How to improve response time to tenant work order requests

Is your team slow to respond to tenant work order requests? If so, continue reading to learn three ways to improve response time to tenant work orders.

As Hogan said during the discussion, property teams must, “Get work out to the right person at the right time to be handled quickly.” And with efficiency top of mind, so is accuracy.  

Hogan said that property teams should implement a building operations platform that catches everything – from finding billing errors, to tracking revenue, to sending out formatted invoices to tenants. In other words, you want a system that can do it all, all under one umbrella. This way time can be given back to property teams to focus on other tasks at hand, including fostering better tenant relations. 

2. The best tech stack should: Be proactive and offer a preventive approach

“Separate from your reactive work is the preventive maintenance that is happening,” said Hogan. “Preventive maintenance is necessary and required. It helps prevent disasters with equipment; it helps prevent distractions for your engineering teams.”  

This is where tech comes into play. With the best tech stack, property teams can: 

• Avoid equipment-related distractions and disasters by maintaining assets on a set frequency
• Define maintenance programs and ensure adherence 
• Have confidence in well-performing HVAC units, elevators, emergency generators, etc. 
• Provide proof of maintenance for assets
• Require tenant adherence to preventive maintenance on units they are required to maintain

From the added stressors of getting the right staff in the building, especially with a new workforce entering, avoiding distractions with equipment malfunctioning is critical to enhance the tenant experience.  

“It’s becoming more and more important that your equipment is maintained and that you’re providing the best experience you can to your tenants,” Hogan said. 

Proactively addressing building issues along with maintaining the overall health and safety of the space can be a deciding factor for tenants when it comes time for lease renewals. That’s why it’s a key area to lean into tech. 

Building operations management: How property managers are streamlining workflows

This year, we’re seeing property teams work tirelessly towards improving their work order processes, tenant satisfaction, and building operations management. All three are inherently intertwined.

Key takeaways 

“Your reactive work orders, your proactive maintenance to keep programs running, your scheduled inspections to ensure the quality of your property, […] the communications around messaging your tenants – the real value is having all of that in one place,” said Hogan. And Anderson agreed.  

You don’t want to recreate the wheel, Anderson said. Instead, you want “one dashboard with everything in it.” In fact, Anderson said the right software should do the following for your property (and for its tenants): 

• Collect key operational and tenant data points in one place
• Combine population data with behavioral data 
• Data-driven asset management and optimized retention strategies 
• Integrate data from other technologies to centralized analytics 
• Enable holistic understanding of tenants and relationships with the building

How does your tech stack add up? If you want to improve your current tech stack or you’re looking for more insights, reach out to one of our experts today. They can help you find the software solution that works best for your unique property.