More transparency thanks to synergies: Our process management
Michael Greis
The role of asset management – including all the important processes in property management – will gain in relevance to a much greater degree in the future. This was confirmed by 94 per cent of the respondents in the latest EY Real Estate Asset Management Study. Closely associated with this is the fact that, among other things, ESG criteria are gaining in significance according to the study.
At the same time the tasks in real estate management are thus becoming more complex. One of the key issues identified by the survey respondents is the availability of data at property level. On the whole, 68 per cent of the survey respondents agreed with the statement that “timely data migration and data integration following a property purchase” are among the most important challenges in asset management and property management.
Support for the Technical Property Manager
This high degree of relevance is confirmed by our many years of experience as a fund, asset and property manager. So as to facilitate the greatest-possible transparency and efficiency in the framework of technical processes, such as order processing and contract management or with statutory assessments for our clients, our group of companies already established the Process Management department two years ago. The strategic objective was and is the identification and use of previously untapped synergies in technical property management.
Our centrally-based 10-man process management team in Frankfurt validates and optimises the tasks and processes in the day-to-day activities of the Technical Property Manager on an ongoing basis. Above all when taking over new properties and portfolios, and when establishing a digital data room, the technical property information and the seamless collection and documentation of all details are of major importance.
Among these are expert and specialist assessments such as VDI/VDE (DGUV V3), VdS and GBU tests etc. These expressions, which sound like “gobbledygook”, pose considerable liability risks for investors. In our experience about every fourth or fifth assessment is skipped.
From Excel to iRES+
The fundamental reason for the lack of data transparency on the market is a lack of a database or an incomplete database. If a property or portfolio is purchased, for example, the relevant property information is in part often to be found in hundreds of Excel files. In many cases these Excel tables are incompatible with the reporting standards of the investor, and thus difficult to audit and assess.
This is precisely where the process management of IC Immobilien Gruppe comes into play as an independent and appropriately specialised business unit. With the iRES+ software, which is specially tailored to meet the needs of the market and thus also clients, we are plugging this gap, entering all the information in a standardised database. From this database it is possible to generate specially tailored assessments at the push of a button and in line with our clients’ desires. The decoupling of these processes from the technical property management ensures an enormous reduction in the workload: the property manager can thus focus on his core business, such as the exchange of findings with tenants, clients, service providers etc.. At the same time the knowledge collected in the iRES+ database can be used to prepare a future outlook for the property or portfolio and to identify the potential for improvements.
The future will require specialist teams
That the interdisciplinary collaboration within the entire value creation chain for a property has to be consolidated is a further key result of the EY Study. In our opinion not only are flexible, inter-departmental structures necessary, but also a greater degree of specialisation and professionalization, however.
This means that more and more specialist teams with a very clear tasks profile and focus in terms of content will be formed and established in a timely manner. Process steps which are performed by asset managers or property managers “on the fly” thus gain in significance within the company. And while these developments usually take place behind the scenes, the results are often seen at a totally different location in the form of enhanced work and data quality and ultimately in the real estate performance.
About: Michael Greis is one of the managing directors of IC Property Management GmbH.
