StorageMart

Weyen Burnam

In the fast-paced world of real estate, staying ahead of the curve is essential for property developers and managers. As technology advances, so does the concept of property technology, or PropTech. There's a plethora of PropTech solutions out there, all promising to streamline property management operations. But how do you determine the right fit for your team, and more importantly, how do you execute a successful rollout?

As a company, we value creativity and flexibility across every department. In the current climate, this requires dipping your toe and eventually diving deep into the PropTech solutions. We were early adopters of technology and believe it can be the key to uncovering small and large efficiencies. However, we have also learned many (painful) lessons during the process, which are not avoided through some basic planning techniques.

1. Is this a solution looking for a problem? We often get sucked into the glitz and glamour of a cool new toy on the market. The opportunity to see your data more clearly or save on labor costs is strong these days. Unfortunately, the perceived value of these opportunities usually doesn’t pan out after fully understanding all of the integration, support, and cost structures. Identifying the Pain Points is one of the fundamental building blocks of any planned transition. Understanding these issues can help determine if there are temporary solutions to consider before an entirely new system should be on the table. If you do decide to proceed, then working with your various stakeholders to identify the current issues they find for your particular project is

of vital importance as you prepare for the next step of the process.

2. Spend the time formulating an accurate RFP. Even if you don’t use this as part of a formal submittal to vendors, this is a great way to restate the pain points in a clear way that everyone understands and can sign off on. This is also the time when you should start working on identifying Metrics for Success. I can’t stress how important it is to work through this piece of the process. Our metrics typically include onboarding costs and timing, support, reporting, etc., and during this process, we reach out to each department to confirm the accuracy and priority of each.

3. When apples and oranges are equal. Since you have received the RFP responses, you have to try to analyze these against the metrics and potential hurdles you have identified. You’re often considering vendors that provide similar but different solutions to your problems, and usually, there’s not a clear winner. When this happens, we consider a few additional items that can be tiebreakers:

a. Is this scalable? For us, if it doesn’t work consistently in our three countries, then this isn’t a solution we can consider.

b. Is there an open connectivity environment? We like to use many different products, and one of the largest hurdles in the advancement of this can be an integration of technology. We strongly favor those vendors with open. Api solutions give us the most flexibility.

c. Is the vendor pool robust? Especially when it comes to hardware installation requiring onsite labor, this consideration can be crucial in considering the rollout schedule and ongoing maintenance solutions.

4. Now, the work begins. Once you have chosen your vendor, there are still some critical path items that should be front of mind.

a. Identify a project manager: This will be the individual who will communicate to/from the vendor to the departments internally. They must manage the schedule changes and internal requests from departments and ensure that vendors are scheduled properly with onsite teams.

b. Advocate for your project: There are many challenges to rolling out a new PropTech, not the least of which can be internal sentiment toward change. Making sure to request feedback regularly, provide updates, and beat schedules are some ways to ensure that you have the best chance for success.

c. Mark your Metrics: Both during and especially at the end of a project, it’s always a good idea to complete a debrief that includes a review of estimated and actual costs and timing, performance metrics, and any lingering support issues.

I am a big fan of the KISS principle. By following these few basic principles, we have been able to limit our rabbit hole adventures and ensure that when we proceed with a new PropTech solution, it is done with caution and fully process-oriented.