Maintaining a commercial real estate (CRE) property includes everything that happens within the four walls of the building – from the tenants, to the management companies, to the vendors, to the people who work in the building, and more. In short, the list of operational and management tasks is ongoing. The short list includes:
- Service request management
- Preventative maintenance
- HVAC management
- Inspections management
- Building communications
- Tenant experience management
- Metrics and reporting
- Rentable square footage (RSF) measurement and space management
So, what happens when CRE owners and operators don’t have insight into every aspect of their building operations? Or, what happens if property teams don’t have a streamlined way to communicate with one another? You might miss out on a significant portion of billable services and other incremental revenue opportunities.
The following are ways centralizing and connecting data can keep you informed with real-time insights and help you to run better buildings.
1. HVAC Performance
Improving HVAC performance starts with knowing everything there is to know about your HVAC inventory – including how it’s maintained and by whom. Without this full understanding, CRE properties can’t operate at their highest level.
With an HVAC management system that digitizes HVAC data in a centralized location, you can manage multiple portfolios on one platform. And you can get the full picture of your HVAC inventory, including make, model, warranty, tonnage, and more.
When your data is in a central data repository, you can streamline annual budgeting with detailed HVAC asset reports – complete with life expectancy data based on ASHRAE scoring.
2. Tenant Compliance
To guard against potential HVAC compliance issues, property teams must have accurate data from their HVAC units – particularly those maintained by tenants via triple-net leases – if you want to reduce property management risk.
You can diminish regulatory burdens and spot HVAC maintenance issues faster with detailed tenant compliance dashboards and unit-by-unit reports. With this data in your hands, you now have the full picture of your equipment in a place where you can access complete service histories to stay ahead of issues down the line.
3. Connecting Purchase Orders and Work Orders
Centralizing your data gives you the ability to connect teams and work orders across your portfolio. With the right tools, you can create a purchase order directly from a work order and get the equipment needed to complete a job. Once a purchase order is submitted, the approver gets notified and has all the information required for acceptance – all in one place.
When purchase orders are linked to your work orders and a material library, you can track costs and quantities for a single building or your entire portfolio. You will always know how much it costs to complete work when purchase order totals are dynamically updated based on material costs and quantities. That means you’ll always be making decisions based on the most updated price points.
4. CRE Space Management
Imagine this: all your floor plans are in one central (and digital) location. With the right technology, you can create graphic illustrations of digital floor plans for every space in your buildings and keep them in a central data repository.
Easily view building occupation rates, the latest space measurements, tenant satisfaction data, and more. Visualizing problems directly on a digital floor plan makes it easy to spot clusters of issues located in the same area. No matter the issue, property teams’ jobs are made easier when they have easy access to all their floor plans and space data in one digital location.
Now You Know – What is a Centralized Database?
With your question, “What is a centralized database?” now answered, it’s time to think about next steps.
Implementing a building operations platform at your property means all your data is connected in a central data repository. The tech allows you to easily capture the data, manage the workflows, communications, notifications, and billing elements. That information is then shared with your accounting systems. It becomes a seamless process – one where all systems and all your team members:
- talk to each other;
- share information;
- complete work faster; and
- capture additional revenue opportunities.
Download the free guide, “The CRE Tech Guide to Boosting NOI” to learn more about the benefits of centralizing your building data.
