This is especially true for Commercial Real Estate businesses. They have diverse data to work with. So, if the data is scattered and unorganized, it can sap off the organizations’ energy and resources. Commercial Real Estate Industry needs easy-to-use interactive dashboards at your fingertips to analyze your real estate portfolio performance data. Let’s find out what are some of the characteristics of good CRE dashboards.

How does CRE Dashboard help in business process centralization and monitoring?

As businesses are getting more complex, there is an increased need for business process centralization. Commercial Real Estate Management involves critical processes such as critical dates associated with portfolio, contracts, loans, and other administrative functions. A good CRE Dashboard allows you to handle business processes from a centralized platform.

As the adage goes “out of sight, out of mind”, you may miss a critical task just because you couldn’t see it. A good dashboard will help you monitor the vital signs of your business effortlessly.

A good CRE Dashboard should provide alerts to ensure compliance

Real estate professionals are very busy. They have lots of critical dates and compliance tasks to manage. It happens sometimes you may forget an important task. You may have to renew the contract or submit compliance documents to legal authorities. An efficient CRE dashboard will have a task alert feature to remind you of important tasks, both at individual and departmental level.

Data can become meaningful via business intelligence dashboard

People often don’t realize that utilizing BI, data can be transformed into valuable insights. Therefore they either don’t understand their data, or continue to utilize cumbersome ways for analyzing data. For real estate industry, a good business intelligence approach can utilize CRE dashboards not only to search data and documents across the real estate portfolio but also notice trends and insights which may otherwise be missed.

CRE Dashboard should be part of real estate Decision Support System

A decision support system or DSS, is a critical component of business process automation. It helps you in making informed decisions. The idea behind this component is that pertinent information is available to managers for formulating strategies. A well designed CRE dashboard can enable real estate professionals follow facts based decision-making processes.

With CRE Dashboard, you get the ability to drill down into details

Just like any efficient data analysis software such as Google Analytics or Facebook Insights, CRE software should enable you to see the details on a micro-level. Only then can you see the big picture. From our example of Google Analytics, you can see the overall website traffic over a month or a week. From there, you can drill down to a more granular level, such as traffic per day or even during a particular hour within a day. Likewise, good CRE dashboards would provide the drill-down feature to see the details. For example, by using interactive line charts you can drill down to tenant level details, by selecting date ranges and volume of activity.

Priority Management with CRE Dashboards

When it comes to standard business processes, they can get quite complex and hard to mange as the business grows. You would have multiple goals to meet and deadlines to beat. There may be conflicting priorities. So how do you cope with it? A priority management system can resolve this issue. It will help you enlist tasks and goals. Then it will prioritize them based on urgency and importance. An efficient CRE software will integrate this feature into its repertoire, such as our CRES Real Estate Solutions software. Our CRE dashboard exactly does the same. It also consolidates Real Estate Data, Documents, Business Processes, and Business Intelligence data on a single platform. It gives a bird-eye view of data from a single dashboard.

Conclusion

CRE dashboards are business intelligence based visualization of real estate data. By utilizing interactive charts and graphs, real estate professionals can decipher the data and make better decisions based on facts. The key benefits of commercial real estate dashboards are centralized visibility, interactive visual analysis, decision support system, prioritization, and ability to drilldown to details. Organizations that value business intelligence are better equipped to rise above competition.

How we can help

CRES Technology provides you with different dashboards so you can interact with your data and documents seamlessly. A robust dashboard will help you manage your documents from a centralized point. You can monitor the vital signs of your business in the form of graphs, charts, bars, and colored pie charts. A good CRE Dashboard will minimize the clutter. Increase productivity with CRES Technology’s customized solutions. Our support team will help you along the process. If you have any query, do write to us.

What is CRES Real Estate Solutions?

CRES is a robust suite of real estate solutions based on Microsoft Office 365 that consolidates data, documents, business processes, and business intelligence. It can be integrated with any real estate system such as MRI, Yardi, Entrata, VTS, or RealPage. CRES Workflow Automation allows efficient management of any type of repetitive initiatives involving real estate, people, and processes. 

About Irfan Butt

CRES Technology – Founder and CEO

A strategic leader with more than twenty years of progressive experience in Business Administration, Finance, Product Development, and Project Management. Irfan has a proven track record with broad range of industries including hospitality, real estate, banking, finance, and management consulting.

The post How CRE dashboard increases productivity appeared first on CRES Technology.

In any industry, selecting the right business process automation tool is critical. A well-defined and well-executed business process ensures high productivity, low cost, and better visibility. But a poorly defined and poorly executed process delivers exactly the opposite. This difference is quite prominent in the real estate industry. Therefore, we will now discuss workflow automation tool specifically for the real estate industry.

The Challenge

Following are the most common workflow challenges organizations must handle.

Data and process silos

Most organizations tend to organize data and processes within their departments. For example, finance, leasing, property management, operations, HR, legal, and other departments perform different types of activities related to their work. And although departments interact and rely on each other, the centralized visibility to the overall business process is often missing. Data silos also block the process of gathering deep, actionable insights.

Lack of systems integration

Departments tend to support their operations using different technology solutions and tools, such as spreadsheets, investment management software, property management software, and forecasting tools. Each solution stores and manages data and processes in different ways, but very often these systems don’t integrate with each other. Therefore, this results in disjointed business processes.

Key Components of Real Estate Workflow Automation Tool

Technology can help with business process management. However, technology alone cannot solve business process challenges. Therefore, success first requires collaboration and willingness to share resources between departments.

• There are plenty of high-tech business process automation tools available in the market.
• Most property management systems, such as MRI and Yardi, also have some workflow management features. But they often can’t be easily and cost effectively integrated with other business systems.

A workflow isn’t just a set of fixed sequential tasks. It is dynamic, always evolving, and requires planning. According to Project Management Institute, planning is a very important management function. 

Following are the key components of a successful business process workflow system.

1. Workflow Steps for Reusability of Real Estate Workflow Automation Tool

Business users should be able to define all possible steps of a given business process, for reusability. Which must also include the flexibility for branching of multiple workflow paths based on user choice or business scenario.

2. Role Assignments

System should allow role assignment for each workflow step, which therefore helps facilitate task assignment, communication, and alerts specific to each workflow.

3. Automation

System must offer Task Automation, Workflow Automation, and Document Automation. These are related, yet different capabilities. Task Automation is the automatic creation of individual tasks related to an Initiative or Project. On the other hand, Workflow Automation is the automatic starting of an Initiative or Project. This type of automation can either be based on any specific date associated with the business activity, or certain conditions being met, or both. For example, Workflow Automation can result in scheduled workflows related to Loan Critical Dates or Lease Options. Thus allowing businesses to stay in control of important initiatives and mitigate risks. Document Automation is the automatic drafting of Word documents based on real estate or departmental data and Word templates.

4. Mobility

People should be able to review, update, or add tasks and workflows while on the move. Executives should be able to approve or reject workflow-based requests with one click, without having to log in to the workflow system.

5. Systems Integrations

For a real estate company, a good workflow management tool needs to associate workflows to properties, tenants, loans, legal entities, transactions, and departments. Although some property management systems do have workflow capabilities, they don’t have integration to non-real estate data, documents, and systems. A reliable and flexible workflow management system should have easy integration with both real estate and non-real estate systems.

6. Business Intelligence

Initiators and department heads should be able to easily view the overall and individual status of business process initiatives via workflow dashboard. This is an operational necessity in order to ensure transparency and productivity across an organization.

7. Operational Maturity

A business process automation tool is inadequate if it doesn’t help organizations improve their business processes. Continuous process improvement should be the goal of any organization as it implements a workflow management solution. The workflow solution must have the ability to track performance of individual tasks and workflows over a course of time. As a result, organizations are able to enhance their processes and achieve Operational Maturity.

Conclusion of Real Estate Workflow Automation Tool Requirements

The biggest challenges facing business workflow automation are departmental silos and a lack of systems integration. Technology can help with business process management. However, technology alone cannot solve business processes challenges. Therefore, success first requires collaboration and willingness to share resources between departments. There are plenty of high-tech business process automation tools available in the market, but you must choose carefully. Most property management systems, also have some workflow management features. But they often can’t be easily and cost-effectively integrated with other business systems. A successful workflow automation tool should allow for reusability, flexible task assignments, automation, mobility, systems integration, business intelligence, and operational maturity.

How we can help with Real Estate Workflow Automation Tool

Workflow Automation is a robust component of CRES Real Estate Solutions, optimized for the real estate industry’s unique needs. It is a business process automation tool that removes departmental silos and integrates systems. Easily define any type of workflow and its steps once. Then use and reuse them on-demand or via a schedule.

What is CRES Real Estate Solutions?

CRES is a robust suite of real estate solutions based on Microsoft Office 365 that consolidates data, documents, and business processes. it can be integrated with any real estate system such as MRI, Yardi, VTS, or RealPage. It includes document management, business process management, business intelligence, and real estate & corporate contracts management. CRES Workflow Automation allows efficient management of any type of repetitive initiatives involving real estate, people, and processes. 

About Irfan Butt

CRES Technology – Founder and CEO

A strategic leader with more than twenty years of progressive experience in Business Administration, Finance, Product Development, and Project Management. Irfan has a proven track record with a broad range of industries including hospitality, real estate, banking, finance, and management consulting.

The post Selecting Real Estate Workflow Automation Tool appeared first on CRES Technology.

With the recent pandemic, businesses now know the importance of equipping their workforce with good tools to work remotely. What are the implications of this shift to remote work from a cyber security standpoint?

Work-from-anywhere was a popular mantra prior to the pandemic. But now it has become an operational necessity. A March 2020 Gallup poll indicated 60% of all employees were working remotely. But now the shift to remote work is increasing. A recent PWC survey indicates that 83% of employers say the shift to remote work was successful for their company. Which is better than 73% who said so in the June 2020 survey.

The Challenges of Remote Work

Following are some of the key challenges your organization needs to handle.

Unmanaged devices and home Wi-Fi

• Home networks do not have corporate level firewalls to protect the network from attacks. But employees often work from home using personal devices. So they may be accessing corporate resources, and critical data on these unmanaged devices.
• Other personal devices connected to the home may not have anti-virus software installed. And viruses can travel from one device to another within the home network and eventually penetrate the corporate network.

Many people do not know much about cyber security:

• Employees are prone to click on malicious emails that appear to be from government agencies or healthcare providers. As a result they might give away critical personal data to hackers.
• Employees may also give away corporate data to spoofing emails pretending to be their colleagues or business contacts.
• Many people use the same password for every account they may have. One password shared by mistake, can allow a criminal to take over all those accounts.
• Regular users often do not consider cyber security a priority. They often assume that the IT department can handle security issues.

The Solutions

It is an understatement to say that maintaining the security of corporate data when employees work remotely is critical. You can meet Cyber security challenges head-on to prevent data breaches and hacking. Following are some of the solutions organizations can employ based on their technology environment.

Implement Strong Password Policies:

Organizations must implement strong password policies and should not allow users to use similar passwords when asked for password change.

Multi-factor Authentication:

Having strong passwords often isn’t enough. For example, data breaches can leak employee’s credentials. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) involves additional steps to add an extra layer of protection, such as a confirmation call or text message.

Prevent Users from Storing Documents Locally:

Organizations can prevent users from storing files locally on their workstations. This prevents the risk of losing data and documents in case of hacking of a workstation.

Backups:

Regular backups can ensure protection of data and documents. For example ransomware, in which hackers lock your files. In this situation, without a backup, you are at the mercy of hackers. One of the most convenient and cost effective ways to save important data and documents are back-ups in the cloud.

Remote VPN:

Remote employees who need to access network resources, should use a corporate virtual private network (VPN). With VPN, encrypted data travels through a secure tunnel between the employee’s device and corporate network. This protects the corporate network.

Firewalls:

To mitigate a lower level of security at a user’s home network, corporate firewalls act as a line of defense . This prevents threats from accessing the network. IT admins must close unused ports. In modern routers, hardware firewalls are built-in, but you need to make sure that they are turned on.

Antimalware Software:

Home based users must be encouraged to have antivirus installed on the devices they use to access corporate resources. However, there is no guarantee that this would happen. Therefore, IT admins must ensure antimalware software is in place and fully updated on all corporate devices.

Public Wi-Fi:

Employees should not use Public Wi-Fi for office work: Most Wi-Fi systems at home these days are somewhat secure. But when outside the home, employees should be aware that unsecured public Wi-Fi networks are prime spots for malicious parties. Because, they spy and collect confidential information.

Encryption:

Implement secure email systems and train your users on how to use them. When employees need to send sensitive information, they should use this encryption. In addition, implement data loss prevention policies (DLP) in your email system. Which can automatically secure the most sensitive corporate data in emails. Using DLP based encryption, prevents hackers from stealing your data.

Employee Training:

End users can be the weakest link in today’s cyber security defenses. Train your employees regularly on following topics:

• Spotting and handling phishing attacks and other forms of hacking.
• Protecting their remote workstations
• Securing home network devices.

Conclusion

Work from home is a necessity as well as a challenge, which every organization is facing today. Organizations must take measures to counter the risks facing the corporate network and data. 

Well thought out IT policies and procedures along with user training and education can protect your corporate environment. It is critical for the real estate industry to renew emphasis on cyber security risk management. Implementing the right strategy can reduce that risk. And allows organizations and their employees to enjoy the benefits of remote work in this connected world.

How CRES can be helpful

To address Cyber Security challenges facing real estate industry, we offer:

1. A free Cyber Security evaluation of your environment.
2. A sophisticated Remote Monitoring and Management, which not only manages but proactively protects the corporate network. 
3. Managed Antivirus and Endpoint Detection and Response system (EDR), which is far better than traditional anti-virus software and includes: 
   • Protection against the latest threats without waiting for scans or updates to definitions.
   • Respond to threats almost instantly.
   • Roll back devices to their pre-infection state, even if they are compromised by ransomware.
   • Allow or block USB and endpoint traffic via policy, customized for your end users.
   • Device control with USB and Bluetooth monitoring for data theft.

CRES Technology’s team includes professionals with deep real estate background. Working directly with them, we can tailor a solution to your needs. We offer great value to your company by providing competitive pricing. For more information about CRES IT Services, contact us.

About Waqar Hussain

CRES Technology -Director IT Services

A technology leader with outstanding knowledge, technical expertise, and a proven track record of leading complex infrastructure projects and managing help desk teams.

The post Addressing Cyber Security Challenges of Remote Work appeared first on CRES Technology.

Document Management is a painful topic for many real estate companies. Many factors can contribute towards poor document management, chiefly among them using a maze of endless folders and lack of data integration with documents. Therefore, addressing these issues can make real estate document management easy.

Is your organization still relying on file servers? Maybe you’re doing somewhat better and using cloud services to store your documents, such as Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, M-Files, or even SharePoint. But are you using these tools as just glorified file servers in the cloud?

What’s wrong with a maze of folders?

Unfortunately, many businesses migrate to cloud-based document repositories by just shifting the same old folder structure from their legacy file servers. I think we’ve all experienced the hunt for files placed somewhere on our file server like a needle in a haystack. You’ll understand if you have often drilldown to a bunch of folders, hoping to find a file but got nothing.

There is nothing wrong with folders, but they must be well organized. A well-organized folder structure is:

• Consistent across portfolios and tied to centrally managed document categories
• Supplemented by automatic metadata tags, so you don’t need to drill down to folders, to find (or not find) your documents

Are your documents integrated with your portfolio data?

Lack of systems integration forces you to house data and documents in different silos, making real estate management difficult. Which therefore causes document duplication across silos. Often there isn’t a single version of the truth, and people are working on disconnected versions of the same document in different folder paths.

A well-integrated real estate document management system has the following characteristics:

• When you’re looking at a property, tenant, loan, or legal entity, you should also see all of their corresponding documents
• When you’re looking at a document, you should be able to see its corresponding property, tenant, loan, and legal entity
• There should be no duplication of documents, which is only possible when you see documents in the context of your real estate portfolio

Are your contract documents alerting you?

As a real estate professional, you may have often come across situations where a contract expired or auto renewed by mistake. With a well established document management system, users should not only be able to handle the complete lifecycle of each contract but also be alerted when contracts are about to expire or auto renew.

A reliable document management system must have contract management features that include:

• Contract Lifecycle Management
• Contracts Linked to Portfolio Data
• Contract Expiration Alerts

Conclusion

Document management is a painful topic for many real estate companies. Many factors can contribute towards poor document management, chiefly among them using a maze of endless folders and lack of data integration with documents. Make sure that your folder structure is based on centrally-managed document categories, documents are integrated with your portfolio, and your contract documents have an alert mechanism to help you stay on top of critical dates. Addressing these issues can make real estate document management easy and allow you to focus on your business.

How we can help

Document Management is a robust component of CRES Real Estate Solutions, optimized for the real estate industry’s unique needs. Securely organize documents with properties, tenants, acquisitions, legal entities, and loans. You can manage them in CRES or access them from MRI, Yardi or any other property management system. Using our Document Extraction Wizard, you can bulk extract targeted portfolio documents for external sharing.

What is CRES Real Estate Solutions?

CRES is a robust suite of real estate solutions based on Microsoft Office 365 that consolidates data, documents, and business processes. it can be integrated with any real estate system such as MRI, Yardi, VTS, or RealPage. It includes document management, business process management, business intelligence, and real estate & corporate contracts management. CRES Automation Framework allows efficient management of any type of repetitive initiatives involving real estate, people, and processes. 

About Irfan Butt

CRES Technology – Founder and CEO

A strategic leader with more than twenty years of progressive experience in Business Administration, Finance, Product Development, and Project Management. Irfan has a proven track record in a broad range of industries including hospitality, real estate, banking, finance, and management consulting.

The post Real Estate Document Management Made Easy appeared first on CRES Technology.