SaaS and data centralization: What you need to know

With data—and the insights that it can deliver—driving the modern economy, data centralization should be a priority for all companies, including commercial real estate (CRE) organizations. And Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is a key ingredient of data centralization today.

Building a central data source is critical for three main reasons.

1. Better data
   Centralized data is easier to de-duplicate, correct and keep consistent. It also enables better security and compliance because you know where all your data is and only have a single central location to protect. It’s more cost-effective because you need to spend less on infrastructure, maintenance and data management. Centralized data is also easier to plug into new technology and systems, allowing you to maximize its potential and drive digitalization across your organization.

2. Better work
   A central data source enables better collaboration between teams, offices, contractors and even suppliers, with everyone working off the same, up-to-date information. A central data source is also easier and more manageable to scale and grow as your data sources and volumes increase, which they inevitably will.

3. Better insights, analysis and planning
   Having a single complete view of your organization’s data enables better analysis of that data. This in turn means more accurate and speedier reporting, leading to faster decision-making as you respond to the shifts in the market in real time. Longer-term strategic planning also improves as it's easier to spot trends and make forecasts.

None of this is possible if your data is dispersed over various systems and even locked into PDFs, emails and hard copies. But what role does SaaS play?

Software-as-a-Service and centralized data

SaaS both enables the process of breaking down data silos and helps CRE companies unlock the benefits of having their data in a single location.

1. Data in
   SaaS applications often include third-party integrations and other data migration tools to make consolidating data from various internal and external sources quicker and easier.

2. Working with your data
   Because your entire team, wherever they are in the world, is accessing the same data using the same software, the data is consolidated and always up to date, and the calculations remain consistent. It is easy to control who has access to which data and versioning keeps track of the changes made and who made them.

3. Keeping your data safe
   Your single, consolidated, up-to-date version of the truth is better protected by the enhanced backup and data recovery abilities built into SaaS. This ensures you never lose data and you could get back up and running seamlessly in the event of an outage. It also scales seamlessly and cost-effectively making long-term data storage and archiving easy, affordable and compliant.

Alternatives to SaaS?

We're not saying SaaS is the only way to centralize your data and then work effectively with it to unlock its value. But we would argue that it is the most cost-effective, scalable and enabling of future innovation approach to take.

Ultimately, this comes down to core competencies and your business focus. CRE companies are just that, real estate organizations and not tech companies. It is expensive and time-consuming to invest in the range of skills plus the infrastructure you would need to do this yourself. And this is not a once-off project, it requires ongoing investment in maintenance and continued innovation to keep delivering value and return on investment over the long term.

Takeaway for the CRE industry: Of course, there is no one-size-fits-all solution, but it is likely that once you consider the reasons why you want to and need to centralize your data, a SaaS approach is a better option. It is cost-effective and scalable, and contributes to broader innovation and digitalization across your organization.