What is commercial real estate data governance, and how does it support better workplace and portfolio decisions?
Commercial real estate data governance is the framework of standards, ownership, processes, and technology used to keep property, floor plan, space, occupancy, and employee data accurate, consistent, and usable. When these data sources are connected and maintained, corporate real estate and facilities teams can reduce manual reconciliation, improve reporting, and make more confident decisions.
In this Apex42 presentation from the Realcomm webinar, “From Data Chaos to Clarity: Governance Practices That Support CRE Portfolios,” we explore how organizations can move from fragmented workplace data to a trusted foundation for space management and portfolio planning.
Viewers will learn how to:
- Connect HR employee data, security badge data, financial information, floor plans, space data, and occupancy records
- Establish consistent standards for square footage, space types, assignments, workstyles, and organizational structures
- Define clear data ownership and accountability across CRE, Facilities, HR, Finance, and other teams
- Keep workplace information current through moves, employee changes, drawing updates, and portfolio changes
- Improve space reporting, occupancy planning, operational coordination, and long-term portfolio decisions
Effective CRE data governance is not a one-time data cleanup project. It becomes valuable when standards and responsibilities are built into daily workplace operations. By connecting foundational data, adding spatial context, and continuously learning from operational changes, organizations can create a repeatable cycle: plan, operate, learn, and plan better.
Learn how Apex42 combines space management software, workplace data expertise, and ongoing services to help organizations build and maintain a more trusted real estate data foundation.
Full Transcript:
Welcome and Introductions
Moderator:
Hello. At this time, I’d like to bring in Julie Henline, EVP of Apex42, and Christi Van Maanen, VP of Operations at Apex42. Welcome, and please take it away.
Why CRE Feels Chaotic
Apex42 Presenter:
Thanks, Sam, and thanks for the opportunity. Lots of great examples and approaches have been shared so far today. I think we’re at this really unique time where we’re all testing and learning together, which really adds to this feeling of chaos.
I was pondering that point of chaos myself in preparing for this webinar, and I have one additional consideration. I believe the reason things feel so chaotic is simply because CRE has one of the hardest jobs in the enterprise.
CRE is accountable for an expensive, relatively fixed asset that is slow and expensive to change, yet there is very little control over the demand side. Actually, there is none. The people, the business, the work patterns, and even the way we work are all changing.
At the same time, we have leadership asking for product modernization and adoption of AI, and many of us are still thinking, ‘We don’t even have the basics in place yet.’ It feels chaotic because it is, which makes it really hard to know where to start. But we’ve had some great examples already today, and we’re going to talk about that as well.
Moving Beyond the Monolithic CRE Platform
Apex42 Presenter:
We believe some of this chaos comes from an old assumption: to make sense of our real estate, we first have to get everything related to the physical workplace under one massive CRE platform. That was the promise of traditional ERPs and IWMS platforms, bringing all CRE functions into one monolithic system to obtain the best efficiency and insights.
As we’ve heard today from others, this isn’t reality anymore because technology has advanced so much. Today, things no longer have to live in the same place. That’s the opportunity in front of us: improving the connections between the systems and information we already have. Next slide. If the answer isn’t putting everything into one big system, what should the ecosystem look like?
A Connected CRE Ecosystem
Apex42 Presenter:
Even though titles don’t always reflect it, there are a lot of different jobs to be done within CRE. Sam mentioned it when he kicked off today. Just through the corporate lens, you have leasing, workplace strategy, design strategy, guidelines, occupancy planning, facilities, maintenance, employee experience, and the list goes on and on.
These jobs all have different needs and different end users and may be better served by different sets of tools. Some of the most valuable information CRE relies on actually sits outside of its control. For utilization, Security has the access data. IT has Wi-Fi and network information. On the demand side, HR and business units understand who works where and under what sort of work mode. Finance carries cost information, and information about the environmental conditions of the physical space comes from building systems and sensors.
In all likelihood, the data exists, but both the challenge and the opportunity are connecting it in ways that turn it into information we can trust and use, as we’ve heard many times today. That’s what we mean by synergy being greater than the silos.
Connectivity Is the Architecture
Apex42 Presenter:
The architecture isn’t one gigantic system. It’s the connections between the systems, functions, and information. More simply put, connectivity is the architecture. With AI, those connections aren’t just allowing the data to move. They’re increasingly allowing the work to move across systems and functions as well.
Start with One Decision
Apex42 Presenter:
How do we actually do that? First, don’t try to boil the ocean. I think we’ve heard that again and again. The best place to start is by identifying one decision or one problem you’re trying to solve, or perhaps a workflow you’re trying to improve, and asking, ‘What do we truly need to make this work?’
What information is required? Do we have the information? Is there a data gap somewhere? If we have it, where does it live? If we don’t have it, how can we get it? Who owns it if we have it? Can we trust it? We’ve heard a lot about that as well. Another thing to ask is where human judgment is required when we actually have that data.
Connect Data Without Recreating It
Apex42 Presenter:
Once we have a better understanding and have completed that inventory, we want to look at how we can connect the information without recreating it. If HR already has the trusted employee data, use it. If the Security team has the badge data, connect to it. If Finance owns the cost information, don’t create another version just for CRE to do its exercises. Use it.
Then add what CRE uniquely brings, which is typically the spatial context. Connecting that information across buildings, floors, and even individual spaces makes it useful for real estate decisions.
Establish Basic Data Governance
Apex42 Presenter:
Finally, you need to establish some basic governance. Identify how the data connects and the common fields. Agree on what things mean. We’ve talked and heard a lot about definitions today. Determine who owns the information and how it stays current. That’s another really important piece of making sure your data remains current.
Operations Is How the Workplace Learns
Apex42 Presenter:
But there’s another part of this foundation that’s often missed. Operations isn’t just about how we keep the workplace running. It’s also how the physical space learns.
If you think about a corporate real estate project, the planning often starts with assumptions. Then people move, the organization’s priorities change, other projects happen, and we often find that spaces don’t always get used the way we expected or the way they were originally designed.
If we maintain that operational data on an ongoing basis, we don’t have to start over with every new project. We can plan, operate, learn, and plan even better the next time. When we maintain what actually happens as changes occur, it becomes evidence for what we should do next. That evidence can also help us make the next decision even better than we made it the last time.
Why AI Requires Trusted Data
Apex42 Presenter:
That brings us to AI. Everybody wants it. Everybody’s talking about it. But what’s the point of getting an answer faster if the answer is based on information you can’t even trust?
If definitions and context are inconsistent across systems, floor plans are outdated, or data simply isn’t maintained at all, AI is only going to help you make the wrong decision faster. AI needs that context, and that often means more than one data point and multiple systems are involved. It needs reliable information and an understanding of how those pieces relate. Again, context and definitions become so critical for the system to learn and make sense of the information.
AI as an Orchestration Layer
Apex42 Presenter:
This is where AI makes connectivity even more important. The opportunity isn’t only AI inside individual applications. Increasingly, AI agents are becoming an orchestration layer across many functions. AI can be used to bring data together across systems. It’s also improving workflows and bringing together people from different parts of the organization.
Think about a portfolio decision, where informed decisions often require data from Real Estate, HR, Finance, Security, and other building systems. All of that information doesn’t need to live together, but it does need to work together. When Sam was rattling off that long list of different applications and tools, I’m sure all of you were nodding your heads. We need to figure out how to make it work together.
AI can help gather that information. It can help identify patterns. It can even be a strategic brainstorming partner to help you generate options. It can coordinate pieces of the workflow. Ultimately, that gives CRE leaders more bandwidth to apply the context and judgment that humans bring to major real estate decisions.
A Trusted Starting Point
Apex42 Presenter:
That’s why getting the basics connected matters even more in an AI-enabled world, not less. I know we’re short on time, so I’ll add one final point. When this cycle works, CRE doesn’t have to constantly recreate its understanding of the workplace because it has a trusted context and a trusted starting point for whatever comes next.
Moderator Takeaways and Panel Transition
Moderator:
Thank you both. I appreciate it. I think we’ve heard a couple of things. We’ve heard that we don’t have a data problem; we have a data quality problem. The data sits in the right places, and how to use it is one of the challenges.
We also heard that we don’t have the right data or the right quality, and we have to clean it up before we start using AI. Those are interesting observations and interesting ways of looking at things. With that said, in the interest of time, I would like to jump into the panel conversation. We have a lot of questions to cover.
All right. Thank you so much. Thanks, everyone, for your presentations. Amazing. It was such a great learning experience for me.
One of the questions that came up when Tim was presenting is: What is your most advanced customer doing within the AI space? I think this applies to anybody and everybody here. I’ll start with Tim because it was addressed to Tim, but I’d like everybody else to take a shot. If you are not a software vendor, I’d like to hear about the most advanced AI use case you have done. With that, Tim.
Panel Discussion on AI Adoption
Tim:
I’m going to answer like I’m in AI. The answer might surprise you. The reality is that a lot of folks actually aren’t as advanced as you would think. A lot of folks have been trying the Copilot tools. A lot of folks have been using AI for the day-to-day things we typically do, like augmenting human work and using GPTs, et cetera.
Some folks are using AI to build applications internally. They have people doing vibe coding internally, but they also recognize that, at scale, a lot of these things might be more challenging to support. The intern who’s really good at it is now gone, and things like that. That’s the majority of folks.
I talk a little bit about the movie Forrest Gump, where he’s running through the forest and makes it out into a clearing, and everything is super happy, right? That’s kind of where a lot of us are with being ahead on the technology. We have so many cool technologies today that can solve a lot of problems.
The reality is that everybody else is still in the jungle, fighting for their lives to get out of paper processes, get off spreadsheets, and get off documents. Some folks are doing some pretty interesting things, but you asked what’s the most advanced. The reality is that it isn’t the majority.
I answered the question from my lens, but the reality is there’s still a lot of room to go here. For people who are just thinking about it now, I commend you. It is important to see, and there’s a lot you might see on social media about people being able to do this, that, and the other thing. Take it one step at a time, and we’ll all hopefully get to where we need to go.
Moderator:
Thanks, Tim.