Set up your real estate data foundation

as a corporate and start building

Five key areas to focus on to start leveraging Data & Analytics

Corporate real estate management is more than a support function and is a value-adding asset for
organizations, quite like IT or human resources. While this statement is widely recognized and has further
highlighted the role of corporate real estate management in recent years, there are still gains and
improvements to be made. In the anticipation of the future, efforts have been initiated to digitize and
future-proof the function - with ambitious goals being set such as central monitoring of real assets’ energy
consumption and costs, insights into workplace utilization and the management of space optimization.
To reach these goals and to fully unlock the value-adding nature of corporate real estate management, an
effective Data & Analytics approach and a strong Data Management foundation are key to the picture.

Due to ad-hoc data collection on real estate assets, data is Laying a solid foundation for data collection
often fragmented, incomplete and not fit for further analysis, The potential of Data & Analytics, and the added value for a
leading to an increased difficulty in effectively and strategically corporate real estate organization, is dependent on the quality
monitoring a real estate portfolio. The causes of this of underlying available data. In other words, if data input lacks
unstructured data-landscape are often the lack of clear data quality, the usability of data will presumably not be sufficient to
standards, guidelines and processes and inadequate and accelerate the achievement of goals of a professional
expensive legacy tools. This ultimately leads to data collection corporate real estate department. This is, however, often the
and storage becoming unmanageable; where ownership case. Real estate departments start with promising technology
among the company and its external service providers is solutions but the essential data foundation is omitted.
unclear. These challenges occur for both large and smaller
According to KPMG, this foundation comprises of 4 elements.
organizations, such as corporates, but also among healthcare
Availability of data, including access to data and clear
providers. Effective real estate management can translate into
ownership agreements with service providers. In other words,
lower operating expenses and improved utilization, not to
it has to be clear who makes use of data, who has access to
mention the organizational effectiveness and employees’
what data and what are the underlying rules on data usage
satisfaction. The solution requires a structured approach in
and access. Granularity of data ensures that all data points
which first and foremost the organizational data collection and
can be traced back to its most elementary form and source.
quality must be put in order, after which the ambitious future
This enables analyses to be done on the smallest level.
Data & Analytics plans are a logical consequence.
Energy consumption data, for example, has no added value if
Data & Analytics in time of Covid-19 it is displayed at portfolio level. It should be traceable back to
Recent problems surrounding the outbreak of the COVID-19 its original building, department or even workplace to be able
virus emphasize the relevance of effective real estate data to analyze, steer and monitor. Compatibility of data requires
insights. Especially now that companies are experiencing what data to be gathered, stored or transformed to the same format,
working from home truly means, there is a need and also with Excel files without matching date quotations is a notorious
space to reconsider corporate real estate; for example the example. Last, Sustainability of data implies that data should
amount of workplaces. An example where the Covid-19 be derived from a sustainable source which maintains a
challenge emphasizes the importance of data collection is a constant inflow of data over time, with equal formats.
Dutch employment agency that, due to the quarantine Therefore, an ad-hoc, on-off workplace utilization count is
situation, found that working remotely better matches the insufficient for real-time analysis for space optimizations.
employee's need for flexibility. This made the company Constant and continuing data inflow is a necessity.
reconsider its entire CRE policy and reduce the number of To reach an appropriate level in each of the four elements,
workplaces in order to offer remote working in the future. The key dimensions of a business and operating model must be
focus will now be on the collection and management of data oriented toward supporting effective data management in
with which the optimum occupancy rate of a smaller portfolio corporate real estate management.
can be guaranteed. This requires intelligent technology,
significant swaths of data but also the right organizational
commitment.

© 2020 KPMG Advisory N.V. All rights reserved. 1

5 key focus areas to build your Data & Data itself, as mentioned before, is the basis for effective real
Analytics foundation estate management and decision making. Decisions based on
There are five important areas that determine the success of a the best analytics are only as good as the quality of the data.
real estate department’s Data & Analytics ambition: Organizations need to be able to trust both the quality and
security of their data. To determine the maturity of your
Vision & Ambition requires companies to align their
organization, the Availability, Granularity, Computability and
corporate real estate vision with the ambition of the greater
Sustainability must be guaranteed, and organizationally
company’s strategy. Executive sponsorship of Data &
complemented by centralized management and secured
Analytics initiatives is essential in enterprise-wide adoption of
storage.
supporting tooling and expertise.
The People & Culture within the organization determine the Multinationals’ maturity assessments
willingness and required data literacy to successfully use and KPMG hosted a round table for real estate decision-makers
understand the potential of Data & Analytics. Data literacy is from multinational corporates in 2020 where maturity
the ability to understand, engage, analyze and reason with regarding Data & Analytics in the real estate departments was
data. This is, therefore, a key factor for successfully discussed. The figure below summarizes the companies’
implementing a data-driven culture within an organization. positions on the five focus areas. The spread of scores across
the scale highlights the varied awareness and attention to data
Governance of data requires clear organizational structures,
driven decision-making within real estate.
guiding principles and decision-making and supporting
processes. Assigning pre-defined ownership and mandates to KPMG often sees high scores in the Technology area, where
(sub)departments enables efficient data management scores in other focus areas are trailing behind. This is typical
workflows. for the way in which companies approach Data & Analytics:
allocating large amount of financial and organizational
Technology seems an obvious prerequisite but is often not
resources on expensive and complex standalone tools, but
suited to the specific organizational needs. Proper research
without further elaboration on and integration with the
and weighted decision-making leads to fit-for-purpose tooling.
organization, governance and people.
A single data management tool that is able to process,
combine and visualize all different underlying data sources Maturity levels of Data & Analytics in corporate
and data formats is often the best solution. An IWMS, real estate
combined and visualized with an intelligent dashboard When the targets from the 5 focus areas are met, corporate
represents a proper real estate management tool. This is fit for real estate departments can explore beyond the ad-hoc data
portfolios with a diverse set of assets, in which all real estate management state and future opportunities in the field of Data
data is captured, like workplace occupancy, sustainability and & Analytics. Figure 2 shows the journey from low (ad-hoc) to
maintenance. As many organizations admit after successfully high (optimized) maturity in Data & Analytics in 5 consecutive
transforming their data organization: you have to dare stop levels.
using Excel.

Figure 1: Multinational’s scores on the 5 areas

29% 25% 25% 31%

35%

Vision & People &

Governance
Ambition Culture
61%
8%

36% 50%

8% 8%
16%
7%
15% 31%
Very poor
15%
Poor

Fair
Technology Data

Good

Very good
54%
46%

Source: Scores of CRE roundtable participating companies

© 2020 KPMG Advisory N.V. All rights reserved. 2

Figure 2: Maturity levels of Data & Analytics

(4) Advanced
5
ꟷ Clear vision & ambition and actively used in communication and
decision-making
ꟷ Data-usage incorporated in training and workforce
ꟷ Clear ownership of processes and roles
4 (5) Optimized
ꟷ Technology roadmap exists based on RE requirements ꟷ Full alignment and adoption of vision and ambition with
ꟷ Continuous quality improvements on data and tooling corporate strategy
ꟷ Strong data-driven culture
ꟷ Proactively managed and continually improved data
management processes
ꟷ All data management and visualization embedded in
(1) Ad-hoc
ꟷ No vision or ambition on data usage
3 tailored technology solution
ꟷ No data-literacy ꟷ Data collection, quality, security and storage guaranteed
ꟷ No processes or documentation (3) Managed
ꟷ Data usage limited to Excel ꟷ Clear vision and ambition, but no overall awareness
ꟷ No data ownership or collection ꟷ Consistent understanding and interpretation of data
and analogue document storage ꟷ All key processes and roles defined and documented
2 ꟷ Moving away from Excel using predefined, suitable applications
ꟷ Sustainable flow of data collection and documentation

1 (2) Repeatable
ꟷ Basic vision and ambition but no alignment
ꟷ Little data-literacy and interest among workforce
ꟷ Some IT related processes are defined
ꟷ Scattered interlinked and differing data formats exist
ꟷ Basic data collection and quality checks

KPMG provides services across the maturity scale and for uses this data to pro-actively display valuable insights to make
different issues. At level 1, it is often the question how to better business choices, manage risks, and improve overall
become digitally enabled when all lease contracts are performance and real estate decision-making. The Sofy
analogue and energy and occupancy data is stored in dashboard is build on Planon’s IWMS (in a partnership with
incompatible Excel files. A time-heavy roadblock for real KPMG).
estate managers is extracting digital data from contracts and Level 4 is the preliminary phase of a complete data
the managing of lease data during the full lease life-cycle. This management and analytics roll-out within the organization.
is, however, something that can be automated using machine Employees are trained in data usage and the broader strategy
learning. The KPMG Lease Abstraction Tool helps and ambition is actively used in communication and decision-
professionals to digitize and extract every unique lease making. The position of data management and analytics in
contract, even if it’s currently printed in your drawer. relation to the overall strategy is fully thought out and
Level 2 is characterized by the cautious presence of an early responsibilities and division of roles are connected to this.
digital vision and a shift to the first data literate within the Level 5 is a top maturity example where professional datasets
organization. First attempts at interlinked Excel files are made, are used in day-to-day business. For the assessment of
but above all the awareness of the necessity and possibilities locations, for example, advanced analytics tools can be used
of intelligent data management emerges. that can predict the optimal locations for company stores,
Real estate departments that are around level 3, the warehouses or offices based on pre-set qualifications.
‘managed’ level, are able to derive interesting sets of data By combining owned, contracted and public data, implications
from multiple sources that largely meet the data requirements can be drawn on property-level with an accuracy over 95%.
Availability, Granularity, Compatibility and Sustainability. This Yet, gaining control over your data in corporate real estate
requires a tool to combine different sources of data. At KPMG, management is a prerequisite, before benefiting from the
for example, an overarching dashboarding tool was numerous opportunities that effective Data & Analytics
developed: the Sofy Suite; a completely configurable platform presents.
generating smart overviews about all kinds of business data. It

Key takeaways from industry’s best practices

Having the correct initiatives in place in all the five areas will set the basis for companies to further expand their data journey.
Key learning points from companies that have successfully deployed a data management strategy include:
1. Focusing on user experience and provide the information 3. Picking your data battle by prioritizing ambitions and going
necessary for self-service to enable usage and promotion for the quick wins. Don’t underestimate how effective and
by users. To get users to assimilate to data management encouraging the successful employment of a single, small
they have to trust the data; initiative is;
2. Visualizing data for gaining trust. Users have to 4. Articulating the team’s knowhow by finding the right
understand the data and therefore it must be visualized, balance within a team between product owners and
for example by using an IWMS with the KPMG dashboard; developers. In other words, hire the right Data DNA.
Source: Extract of CRE roundtable participants’ experiences

© 2020 KPMG Advisory N.V. All rights reserved. 3

Contact us
Control over data and trust in data quality is often the crucial first step towards realizing
Data & Analytics ambitions. To improve organizations’ data literacy and to become truly
data driven, a change management approach with trainings and workshops focused on
People and Culture is needed. Maturity in real estate data management allows real
estate to grow from a support function towards a business partnering role for
organizations.
KPMG has wide experience and thorough understanding of the real estate market and
the potential of Data & Analytics within this market and helped many clients enhancing
their maturity level by creating a concrete and realistic Roadmap to achieve their change
ambitions. For further inquiries please contact one of our specialists or visit kpmg.nl.

Sander Grünewald
Partner Real Estate Advisory
T: +31 6 5069 2013
E: [email protected]

Michiel Beijersbergen
Senior Manager Real Estate Advisory
T: +31 6 1334 5669
E: [email protected]

Bas Overtoom
Senior Manager Data & Analytics
T: +31 6 2231 3154
E: [email protected]

Sybren Geldof
Consultant Real Estate Advisory
T: +31 6 2203 6621
E: [email protected]

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