Tech: Do it better and cheaper, or perhaps do different things

Current economic trends, such as the high level of interest rates, mean that real estate players are switching focus to existing portfolios and the way that they are managed, said Richard Gerritsen, Senior Director, Yardi Systems.

He said two things are really important at the moment: “To reduce operational expenses, which means a focus on technology to automate, to operate faster and to operate more efficiently. Second is better management information. You need to know what you have.”

Speaking to Real Asset Insight’s Richard Betts, Gerritsen said it is important to understand the properties in a portfolio and their leases along with all the underlying detail in order to make the right decisions whether for operational purposes or regarding disposals.

He draws a parallel between the current state of the market and the global financial crisis. “What we’ve seen back then and what we’ve seen now is that the first reaction of the market is everyone hits the brakes and wants to figure out where we are as an industry and where they are as an organisation.”

He said that as in 2008 to 2009 there is an increasing interest and focus on technology as a facilitator to operate more efficiently and therefore more cheaply as well as to use data and improved quality of data as a driver for better management information.

This requires companies such as Yardi Systems to innovate. However, he pointed out that digitalisation and innovation are two different things.

“Digitalisation is doing the things that you do today but trying to do them more efficiently and trying to do them better, cheaper, faster etc. That is the operational side, driving down your opex.

“The Innovation side is using technology, not to do the things that you do today, but to do different things. That is where things such as technological developments like AI come in.

“You really start using technology to do things differently, or to do different things.”