Commercial property owners often make decisions based on incomplete information because data gets filtered as it moves up the chain of command, according to Bill Douglas, CEO of OpticWise. In a recent interview, Douglas described how each handoff in the reporting process strips away detail, leaving asset managers and owners without the full picture they need to optimize performance.
“It depends on how many filters get applied before a decision-maker gets it,” Douglas said. The pattern is familiar: a property manager requests information from a building engineer, who provides only what was asked. The property manager then reports to an asset manager, and again, only accountable metrics are passed along. “Not that it’s being massaged,” Douglas said, “but it’s being filtered.” He emphasizes that this isn’t about dishonesty; rather, people focus on the numbers they are measured and paid on. “They’re not lying,” he said. “They’re performing to what they’re being measured for.”
As a result, corporate teams, especially asset managers, often create their own spreadsheets to recapture missing data. While the data exists, it isn’t reaching them in full. Douglas, who has coached entrepreneurs for 30 years, points out that monthly financials are backward-looking and don’t show how to change future outcomes. “If I want to change the NOI, if I want to change the utility expenses, what’s the data that will actually make it change going forward?” he said. “I can’t change my financials until I look at the inputs.”
Homegrown spreadsheets introduce new risks. When one person maintains the numbers, the information lives behind that person’s login rather than with the company. Emailed spreadsheets can quickly become outdated, leading to decisions based on stale data. The cost becomes acute during a sale or financing when a buyer’s or lender’s diligence team requests operating history. “Anything can happen. Bad optics,” Douglas said. “Most commonly, people stop pursuing it.” Alternatively, owners may start collecting data properly from that point forward, but the usable history begins on day one instead of reaching back years. Gaps in operating data make a property harder to evaluate, affecting both the timeline and the price of a deal.
Many companies try to address these issues by building dashboards around key metrics, but Douglas warns that visibility is not control. A person can realistically track six to 12 measures, while a building produces far more information. “Someone builds a dashboard around it, and they think they have control of everything,” he said. “All they have is visibility of the KPIs. That is not control.” Real control, he argues, comes from accessing source data. “Aggregated data tells you what happened. Source data helps you understand why,” he said.
With the full data set in one place, software can monitor for anomalies and flag issues outside normal ranges. Different stakeholders—from building engineers to CFOs—can view the same data in ways that suit their roles. Douglas stresses that this isn’t about replacing staff. “Your property still needs that many property managers,” he said. The value lies in efficiency and decisions based on complete information. More details are available on the OpticWise blog. Douglas is also co-author of the best-selling book Peak Property Performance®: Game-Changing AI and Digital Strategies for Commercial Real Estate and host of the Peak Property Performance podcast.
