Businesses in America and throughout the world are full of proof that great business intelligence (BI) platforms drive better performance. These platforms enable everyone in the organization to move quickly and make better decisions. They make real the aspiration to “work smarter, not harder.”
The harsh reality is that most rental housing companies (whether fee managers, institutional owners, or owner/operators) rely on multiple independent and, sometimes, linked Excel spreadsheets for their reporting. This is also true for the operations, asset management, and finance/accounting sides of the business.
Living in this “Excel hell,” companies are typically drowning in data yet struggling to get actionable insights. Stuck in this “data-rich, actionable data-poor” environment, executives are frustrated by the explosion of real estate technology applications, each with their own data and many of which do not integrate easily with other systems.
Real Estate Business Analytics co-founder and CEO Donald Davidoff shares seven features every multifamily business intelligence platform must have to harness the power of your data and drive net operating income.
1. Data Modeling
A good BI platform models every metric at its most granular level. This future-proofs the platform as it allows users to aggregate and filter data later in ways that may not be anticipated today.
2. Flexible User Interface
BI platforms should give users the ability to create dashboards however they want to and not be stuck with a set interface that doesn’t meet their needs.
3. A Business Orientation
BI dashboards need to be designed by the business side to serve the business side. Technical resources are critical to implementing those dashboards, but the vision should come from the business.
4. Published Dashboards
While you want the ability to build or modify your own dashboards, one of the challenges of bespoke BI is that you literally start from scratch. If buying a solution, evaluate the breadth and depth of the “out-of-the-box” functionality, which can quickly accelerate your progress.
5. Power-User Access
That handful of associates who are highly skilled with tools like Excel and are the “go-to people” whenever there’s an analytical question to answer need direct access to the entire data warehouse. Usually accessed through a tool like Excel, this allows them to do ad hoc analysis to answer any questions.
6. Ability to Manage Data That Isn’t in a System of Record
Many companies have important data in spreadsheets, text documents, PDF files, or just in an associate’s head. Your BI platform needs to allow for a “data steward” to enter and maintain important data that is not in a system of record.
7. 24x7x52 Access in the Cloud
This should be table stakes in today’s cloud-driven IT world.
Learn more about Real Estate Business Analytics’ business intelligence solutions and how you can spend more time making data-driven decisions and less time gathering data or, worse, basing decisions on a hunch.
