Chief Information Officer at Brixmor Property Group

Helane Stein began her career as a technology professional in healthcare, before leading IT departments in the real estate industry. She joined Brixmor in 2015 as SVP and CIO, overseeing technology vision, strategy, systems and infrastructure that support business operations. Over the course of her career, Helane’s focus has been to establish IT teams that are knowledgeable, active partners who implement transformational, industry-leading systems, software, and best practices to meet ever-expanding business needs and provide solutions that enable the company to grow.

From your perspective, what are the major pain points or challenges that are prevailing in the real estate business market?

Internally, we’ve seen a greater demand for tools that allow you to work anywhere on any device and with the same user experience, whether you’re on a laptop or a mobile device.  The majority of our employees were working remotely and are now working a hybrid schedule, requiring them to perform all of their work, from property operations to dealmaking, digitally.  Mobile applications for inspecting properties, managing construction projects, and electronic signature of documents are essential for ensuring a seamless working environment. 

Collaborative tools are essential for both internal and external innovation.  These tools have enabled cross-functional teams to work together on key initiatives with minimal disruption and delay. 

The use of advanced data analytics, robotic process automation (RPA), and artificial intelligence (AI) is increasing. At Brixmor, we’ve seen these tools provide actionable insight, greater transparency into operations, and greater agility in adapting to changes in the environment.

For challenges, it goes back to how do we continue to provide the information that people need at their fingertips in the form they prefer?’ With the expansive amount of info, how do we make that actionable, whether that’s through AI, standard reporting or another medium? How do we take all these data sources and tools and create a clear predictive vision that’s easy to consume? These are questions every business has to ask itself.

What are the significant consumer trends that have emerged lately in the market?

Before the pandemic, businesses were rapidly adapting existing processes to digital versions, and consumers were becoming more comfortable with digital or paperless functions. The pandemic intensified the need for fully digital services, and the consumer quickly adopted QR codes in restaurants and buy online, pick-up in store (BOPIS). Although these concepts had relevance in the past, necessity resulted in a sudden spike in usage.

With supply chain limitations and extended delivery times during COVID, retailers realized the importance of being located within the last mile of consumers. Consumers see this change as increased adoption of BOPIS, dedicated curbside pickup lanes or parking spaces, or in some extreme cases, converted store layouts to facilitate online order fulfillment vs in-store shopping.

To optimize supply chains and consumer behavior, businesses are collecting data at an unprecedented rate. Savvy businesses are leveraging data insights for a competitive advantage or revenue opportunities by employing AI, virtual reality, and augmented reality to enhance the user/consumer experience. In the retail sector, smart mirrors and shopping carts are just a few retail examples of innovative, experience-enhancing technology inside the store; augmented reality allows shoppers to “see” how furniture will look in their living spaces as they shop from home.

Early adopters in commercial real estate are purchasing virtual real estate and retailers are exploring options in the metaverse.  Companies are leveraging AI and data science and embedding it in their decision-making processes to create a seamless user/consumer experience, whether the consumer is at a store, at home, or experiencing the company in the digital world.

Another emerging trend from the pandemic’s sudden shift to a mobile, connected environment, as well as geopolitical unrest, is the elevated cybersecurity threat landscape. Everything is connected, accessible, and gathering data, around the clock, which presents opportunities for innovation by both good and bad actors. Cybersecurity threats changed at an unprecedented level since the onset of the pandemic. As both retailers and customers expand the ways in which we access and interact with digital environments, bad actors have more and more opportunities to subvert processes with malicious intent.  A major challenge for all companies is ensuring an adequate, layered security approach of products, processes, knowledge, and end user training that is adaptable and actionable given real-world changes to how, when, and where data is accessed, and the questions of by whom and for what purpose.

Would you like to talk about one of your latest project initiatives wherein you've leveraged these

We’ve used AI for internal reporting. As COVID has shown, it is not necessary to have the most cutting edge technology; it’s more important to be mobile-ready, integrated, and easy to use.

We expanded the functionalities of our internally developed mobile app from collecting internal property management feedback at our assets to enabling employees living near our real estate assets to perform more frequent asset inspections, creating new work orders, and suggesting assets for future acquisitions. We continue to leverage this mobile technology; over time, our IT team is developing new solutions that can be accessed through the app to streamline day-to-day processes.

How do you envision the future of this space in the next two to three years with all these potential disruptions and transformations?

Uncertainty around the economic climate will expedite the exit of weaker retailers and shopping centers from a time span of years to months.  Since our grocery-anchored centers are located in close proximity to where consumers live, and now work, we are seeing increased demand for space from traditional ‘mall’ tenants who want to be located with essential retail.

with a heightened fear of recession, companies may opt to tamp down on spending on innovative technologies in favor of leveraging and expanding on their existing tools to create better user experiences and more effectively use predicative analytics/AI for decision making.  As we have all learned from the past, downturns create opportunities for innovators as well.

Would you like to give some pieces of advice to your fellow CIOs and accounting professionals in the market?

IT is no longer separate from any other part of the business in today's world. Because business decisions have become more collaborative, having an understanding of the fundamentals of the business is a critical prerequisite to creating solutions and technological enhancements that drive business results.