AMELIA ISLAND, FL - This October marks the launch of Maximize: the 2014 Multifamily Asset Management Conference, the industry's first event singularly focused on apartment asset management and value-creation from multifamily communities. From revenue management to predictive analytics, business intelligence, environmentally sustainable building, utilities management and building performance, Maximize is dedicated to providing full insight into the tools, techniques and tactics for today’s asset manager to gain NOI improvement through savings and new revenue.
As an official media sponsor of the event, MultifamilyBiz.com visits this week with three members of the Maximize advisory board to see where the industry is headed with business intelligence and big data. Here's how the experts weighed in:
Kevin Huss, Director of Revenue Management, Harbor Group Management Company
I don’t know if multifamily is big data or little data or somewhere in between. I still don’t think the industry knows how much data is out there. At this point it seems that only the larger companies are doing the best job at using most of the available information from marketing sources and rent and traffic data and customer surveys. Our transaction cycle is one transaction a year for a basic lease term, whereas if you look at hotels and airlines there are many more transactions. We’re discovering more and more data every day though—there’s so much potential and we as an industry are just starting to understand that.
Elizabeth Karl, Director of Asset Management, Bonaventure Realty Group
We’re on board with big data. We recently restructured our asset management department and added a business intelligence manager. We believe this role is critical to improving our operations; specifically creating efficiencies to impact the bottom line by using real-time data. Our industry has always waited on data – from monthly financials to weekly occupancy reports. We see the management and strategic integration of big data as key to staying ahead of the trends and make decisions in a timely manner.
Ken Veltri, Senior Vice President Asset Management, AMLI Residential
I think we are still a little data industry. I do believe in big data and discuss business intelligence with some of the leaders on that subject in the industry. At AMLI, we have 18,000 units and another 10,000 units in development, so we can take the big data idea and apply it and see if it works for us. Business intelligence involves a little bit of being like the weather man – before you give the forecast you have to look out the window and see if these things are really happening and having an effect at your properties. That being said, I don’t think multifamily has embraced big data at all yet. I think part of that is generational. We still have a lot of senior leadership that is old school in the way they approach operations. I think that will change over time and I think big data is the wave of the future, but we are years or decades away from it being embraced and utilized, similar to where we were with revenue management 10 years ago.
To earn more about Maximize: the 2014 Multifamily Asset Management Conference October 10-12 at the Omni Amelia Island Plantation Resort and to save on discounted registration through September 1, visit the official MAXIMIZE Conference website.