Transforming Lease Management for a Leading Real Estate Investment Trust with Alpha Alternatives

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The Situation

A prominent player in the real estate investment trust (REIT) sector faced inefficiencies in their lease management and reporting process. The firm operated with over 90 manual Excel sheets to manage leases and generate reports, resulting in prolonged timelines and heightened risks of human error. This cumbersome traditional method hindered their ability to adapt quickly to market changes and effectively report to leadership.

The Challenge

The firm’s reliance on manual Excel sheets presented significant operational challenges:

  • Prolonged Timelines: Time consuming manual processes in completing critical tasks like daily updates and quarterly reporting, hindering timely access to vital information.
  • Compliance Risks: Extensive use of over 90 spreadsheets increased the risk of data entry errors, resulting in discrepancies, financial compliance risks, and increasing audit readiness challenges.
  • Basic Analytical Capabilities: The client utilized basic analysis on their leasing activities and lease forecasting that limits their ability to adapt to market changes effectively and manage future leasing strategies.
  • Siloed Information: Fragmented data across multiple spreadsheets limited collaboration, making it difficult to gain comprehensive insights into lease performance.
  • System Instability: As the number of leases grew, the Excel sheets frequently crashed, further complicating lease management process.

These challenges underscored the urgent need for a comprehensive overhaul of the lease management process, focusing on improving efficiency, accuracy, analytics, and regulatory compliance to maintain competitiveness in a dynamic market.

  • Industry Name: Real Assets
  • Company Size: $12.9 billion real estate portfolio, including 39.6 million RSF of operating assets and 4.0 million RSF of Class A/A+ developments across North America
  • Project Duration: 1 year
For more information, contact:

Vicky Ma

Senior Manager, Enterprise Performance Management

LinkedIn

Douglas Eaton

Director, EPM Real Assets, North America

LinkedIn

The Objective

The client sought expertise to modernize and automate their lease management process, significantly improving efficiency, accuracy, and analytical capabilities. They aimed not only to better manage existing and future leases but also to incorporate advanced analytical capabilities that would provide much deeper insights to their leasing team.

This transformation would ensure timely reporting on a daily, quarterly, and yearly basis, empowering the client to make informed strategic decisions that enhance their competitive position.

The Solution

Alpha Alternatives designed a comprehensive lease management model that automated critical leasing processes. We leveraged a leading EPM solution platform to develop and implement the lease management and reporting solution, effectively addressing the client’s unique challenges. The solution included the following key components:

  1. Customized Lease Management Model:
    • Established a strong and trusted relationship with the client, leading to collaborative design and enhancement of lease management solutions, which their leasing team is now very satisfied with.
    • Developed a user-friendly, point-and-click interface that significantly increased usability, allowing the team to manage new and existing leases seamlessly without the complexities of manually maintaining over 90 Excel spreadsheets.
    • Implemented features that enforced the standardization of the leasing process, ensuring consistent user inputs through field validation and imports in a consistent format, thereby maintaining data integrity across all leasing activities.
  2. Automated Reporting:
    • Created a powerful reporting system capable of generating over 30 different lease reports for leadership in real time, including daily, quarterly, and yearly reports.
    • Enhanced the accuracy and timeliness of reports, ensuring that stakeholders are equipped with current data for strategic planning and informed decision-making.
    • Improved data integrity through the implementation of rigorous checks and validations, which greatly reduced data entry errors and enhanced reliability in financial reporting
  3. Advanced Leasing Activity Forecasting and Reporting Analysis:
    • Introduced advanced analytical capabilities, particularly in market rent analysis and lease forecasting, empowering the leasing team to visualize the impact on their portfolio under various scenarios with just a click of a button, enhancing their strategic planning capabilities.

The Impact

The transformation led to substantial improvements in the client’s operational efficiency and decision-making capabilities. Key outcomes included:

    • Enhanced Data Integrity: The implementation of rigorous validation and checks significantly reduced data entry errors and discrepancies, fostering greater confidence in their lease reporting and compliance.
    • Advanced Analytical Capabilities: The introduction of sophisticated analytical tools improved the client’s overall analytical capabilities. This enhancement allowed the leasing team to gain deeper insights into their leasing activities, including the ability to conduct complex market rent analyses and lease forecasting. They can now visualize the impact of various scenarios at the click of a button, enhancing their capacity for strategic decision-making.

These advancements have positioned the client to respond swiftly to market changes and optimize their leasing strategies, further enhancing their competitive edge in the dynamic real estate sector.

Conclusion

The new lease management model developed by Alpha Alternatives continue to enhance operational capabilities and strategic foresight. The client and their leasing team have expressed high satisfaction with the transformation, emphasizing increased efficiency and competitiveness.

Alpha Alternatives will continue supporting the client in enhancing their lease and revenue forecasting capabilities, leveraging our real estate best practice solutions for further improvements.