How CRE Firms Can Overcome the Challenges of CRE Technology Growth
Today, the subset of fintech solutions catering specifically to the real estate industry is rapidly growing. Forward-thinking owners, operators, and property managers now have a prime opportunity to gain a competitive advantage by assembling the right tech stack. But with so many options, the issue lies in the fact that assessing which options are best for a firm can be challenging. So how do you accurately identify which technology to implement and then successfully leverage it to scale your firm?
RealPage IMS recently partnered with AvidXchange and National Real Estate Investor to discuss the evolution of the market as new solutions continue to appear and how firms can overcome the challenges of selecting the vendor that is best suited for their specific needs and challenges.
Click here to watch the on-demand webinar: The Challenges of Fintech and How Real Estate Companies Can Overcome Them.
Openly Embracing the Benefits of Technology
The commercial real estate industry has historically been slow with regards to adapting to and leveraging new and advanced technologies, particularly surrounding advanced data management and analytics. Fifty-four percent of respondents to an AvidXchange survey indicated that they are not planning to use data and analytics techniques in the near term and 56% had no plans to even have data available in a data lake in order to run some data and analytics. However, the rise and prevalence of CRE technology (and the opportunities that it provides) has become increasingly difficult to ignore, forcing firms to both embrace and adopt it so that they can keep up with market demand and investor expectations. Once the idea of technology is welcomed, it is easier to understand how it can be used to break down disparate systems and then aggregate and normalize the data. Grasping these concepts and understanding how they can be used to create efficiencies within the firm can make adopting new technologies more appealing to slow-adapting firms.
Accurately Assessing Tech Solutions and Evaluating Vendors
Deciding Between All Purpose Vs Purpose Built Tech Solutions
The process of assessing all purpose and purpose built tech solutions can become a tedious task – especially since adopting technology usually involves multiple decision makers who must agree on both the strategy and investment. When assessing and building out a tech stack, taking the easy approach by implementing an all-purpose tech solution can be tempting. However, a one-size-fits-all approach often requires additional customization to make the technology relevant to the CRE industry. On the other hand, a purpose-built tech solution has been designed specifically to meet the demands of the market. Additionally, purpose-built solutions reduce front-end costs, deliver substantial return on investment, and significantly increase the speed to market by shortening the onboarding and implementation process.
Selecting the Right Tech Vendors
After assessing the available kinds of tech solutions, selecting a tech vendor who truly understands the industry and its corresponding pain points and challenges and has the capacity to grow with the industry is important. Also, the vendor should provide opportunities to set the firm up for success by providing ongoing product onboarding and training, assisting with the data migration process, and updating the product regularly and consistently.
Successfully Leveraging the Technology After Adoption
Diving in and using technology is one of the most critical ways that firms can overcome the challenges of CRE tech growth and remain afloat as new solutions continue to appear. Because of the industry’s slow adoption, firms that leverage tech gain a competitive advantage and become somewhat immune to the future challenges that may arise for those who have not yet done so. These challenges could include a loss of data due to disparate systems or a lack of significant data aggregation caused by using a system that is not capable of processing heavy volumes of data. When technology is successfully leveraged, firms can avoid future problems and focus on scaling their business and creating more efficiencies.
In an industry such as commercial real estate where digital innovation was pushed off for as long as possible, many new technologies are no longer “nice to haves” but rather “must haves”. And as the industry’s available solutions evolve, this statement from MIT Sloan Management Review applies: “Adopt new technologies effectively or face competitive obsolescence”.
To learn more about overcoming the challenges of CRE technology growth, watch the free on-demand webinar.
