The rise of big data and business intelligence continues to push the real estate industry into unfamiliar territory. Never has the industry seen such a seismic shift toward digital technology adoption. Much of it focuses on the collection, management and analysis of data. Real estate is a spatial business, and firms must increasingly tie internal building information with larger market trends. Data sharing and analysis is central to this knowledge creation, and consequently, so is interoperability.

The Concept of Interoperability

Interoperability is the capacity for different programs and technology platforms to exchange information. It’s usually a technical term that focuses on technology systems and software architecture. However, it is increasingly used more generally to define the exchange of information within an organization.

This type of interoperability focuses on how different business drivers and larger processes interact with each other. Organizations are starting to recognize that corporate interoperability is just as important as technical interoperability. Many firms talk about breaking down information silos across departments.

For commercial real estate professionals, the term can mean a variety of things. While data centralization is the underlying goal, there are a number of business areas that are seeing the benefits of this emerging concept.

Building Performance, Sustainability and the Internet of Things

For real estate, the Internet of Things (IoT) refers to the use of sensors, hardware and smart devices to track building performance. Digital technology can track energy use, occupancy levels and even parking availability.

The relationship between the IoT and interoperability is typically through the centralization of hardware data. IoT often involves sensors, systems and devices with different manufacturers and systems. That means interoperability is critical in making the most of this data.

Market Data and APIs

An API, or application program interface, is a set of tools and protocols that allows software to communicate with each other. In general terms, it’s a set of clearly defined methods of communication between various software components. Real estate professionals can use APIs to extract and transfer information across different data generating processes. Examples include CRM, facility maintenance, project management and building systems. Then they can aggregate this data at the portfolio level to drive larger asset management decisions such as capital planning and performance monitoring.

The benefit with using APIs as a common communications language is the ability to configure how and where information transfers happen. For instance, some programs leverage APIs to automatically push information to an external system and choose whether to transfer data at the the application level or database level. Flexibility is what makes APIs an important (and attractive) aspect of interoperability.

Building Performance

Interoperability can also help organizations understand the operational performance of their buildings. Energy efficiency, water consumption and capital expenditure data is often spread between multiple data sources. Organizations typically need to centralize this information to understand overall building and portfolio performance. Interoperability helps transfer and centralize information so it can integrate with performance software and analytics.

The term interoperability continues to gain importance in real estate, especially as the industry increasingly focuses on how to use data to inform investment decisions. For firms looking to enhance their overall data and analysis capabilities, it is critical.

For more information on this concept or on how your organization can leverage centralization of data, contact 4tell™ Solutions.

Photo by Denys Nevozhai