Challenging commercial real estate markets call for powerful management software

David Weisman

Commercial real estate (CRE) is complex to oversee, and the more assets a company owns – the more demanding the task becomes: decisions have to be made at the levels of entire buildings, particular floors, as well as single rentable spaces. One must handle vast volumes of data and documentation, react to the market in a timely manner, and choose the appropriate, profitable policy. In such challenging environments, any streamlining is a blessing. “Point of Contact (POC)’s” space management solution helps CRE companies of any scale organize documentation, clearly visualize assets, and efficiently generate informative reports and charts. The cloud-based service acts as a unique radar for the managers, improving their awareness to the current situation, bolstering autonomy and adaptability.

The definition of real estate may be “immovable property;” however, in fact it is unexpectedly dynamic. Commercial real-estate managers and marketing personnel can testify that it is a fast-paced, competitive environment, which demands maximum freedom of action, flexibility, and full access to critical information. Successfully managing their property requires them to simultaneously keep an eye on multiple assets, monitor the inventory in each of them, and address individual tenants’ needs. Thus, CRE managers must be able to present offers to customers in real time in an attractive format, to be autonomous in their decision making, and to have full-time access to the entire records, easily analyzing all relevant information.

This is why commercial real estate managers cannot simply rely on traditional property plans, documentation, and spreadsheets: these contain information in a fragmented manner in addition to being unwieldy and unimpressive when making a proposal to potential tenants. Now more than ever, managers must keep time to market as short as possible, and without an accessible, systematic, and comprehensive archive, performance deteriorates. Failure to instantly retrieve needed data or identify suiting available spaces inevitably leads to unacceptable delays and mistakes, decreasing efficiency and even harming profitability.

POC’s space management system is a unique solution for yielding real estate companies, which creates a dedicated interactive digital archive encompassing the company’s entire assets. POC’s experts will convert your facilities’ floor plans into detailed, simple to use interactive cloud-based maps. Then you will be all set to enhance your work.

The system’s intuitive graphical interface allows managers to work freely, without special technical training and without dependence on AutoCAD sketching experts to perform routine work. To paraphrase the well-known adage, ordered knowledge is power. This layout orderly concentrates all the vital data for property managers to review. Individual rentable sections are clearly color-coded according to their attributes, such as current status (“rented”, “under negotiation” or “available”), property designation (rentable area, shared spaces, storage area etc.), property use and more. Location, area sizes and dimensions, as well as rental end dates are all effortlessly accessed. This autonomy boosts action speed and flexibility, two attributes which are indispensable in this sector.

Though the space management system is easy to master and use, it is highly capable. In addition to data organization, the system enables the user to perform in-depth analyses, search for properties by different criteria, and create rich reports. It can generate customized reports based on any relevant parameters – for example, segment the total area into rented spaces, shared or non-rentable spaces, and indicate differences in municipal taxation while being aware of net rented area size as opposed to total area. This functionality can be used, for example, to calculate rent rates, relevant management fees or even to reduce applicable taxation, generating precise measurements of the actually used territory. These tailor-made reports are versatile and can also be used to impressively showcase proposals to potential tenants, to publish legible marketing simulations, or even be used to create formal documentation: appendices to rental contracts or documentation for the authorities.

Using the system’s search engine, one can locate specific assets by a variety of search terms and keywords, including business name, tenant’s name, property number and more. Once a property is selected, it is possible to delve into its characteristics and usage pattern, examining its present rental status, its rent, profitability, and current and previous leasing contracts, among others. To better visualize the chosen property, it is also possible to browse through associated photos and sketches. This way POC’s space management system provides valuable insights from any desired perspective, and facilitates sharing data with customers, partners, and local authorities alike. Furthermore, POC’s space management solution can communicate with existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Having such control over the information provides property managers with confidence which older technologies could not provide.

Additional handy features of the system are its built-in editing tools, which allow the user to accurately simulate different space layouts and scenarios right on the property chart: virtually create or dismantle walls to simulate merging or division of spaces, calculate area sizes by attribution, designation, etc., all without consulting AutoCAD professionals. These functions support informed and rational decision making: this way property managers and marketing personnel can consider alternative policies, seeing the expected effects from proposed arrangements before actually changing anything. This functionality improves efficiency, saving precious time for the company and increasing the chances to choose the optimal course.

To grasp how crucial an intelligent management system is for yielding real estate companies, consider the following example: when you buy a soft drink at the local supermarket, the barcode on the can tells the cashier all the relevant details about it – the product type, brand, package size, and price. This way, the supermarket’s systems continually register purchases, monitor the remaining stock, and can notify when a restocking of the specific product is required. For retail businesses these inventory management systems have been standard for decades already, but in letting commercial real estate the stakes are, obviously, much higher – so how can a yielding real estate firm operate without dedicated space management software?

In conclusion, POC’s space management system captures the present performance of commercial real estate, keeps track of past operations, and helps to make optimal decisions for the future. The system is a potent instrument which helps owners and administrators visualize and demonstrate their assets, increasing their freedom of operation, and strengthening their confidence. Just as we live in smart homes, drive connected cars, and communicate using smartphones, upgrading to space management software is the next wise step.