To Drive Engagement With Data, PropTech Firms Introduce Product Partnerships

The rise of PropTech in commercial real estate has redefined the way the industry accesses, shares and distributes property data. Several tech startups have taken asset managers and acquisition teams by storm by providing access to data they didn’t know existed. In a recent survey, 95% of U.K. property professionals identified PropTech as an opportunity.

Despite its increased popularity, PropTech is still experiencing some growing pains. While property professionals rely on technology to gain insight into tenant behaviour and property activity, the data is still relatively disconnected. Property professionals, from acquisition teams to property managers, rely on many different platforms to access data. These platforms are often isolated from one another, and many provide conflicting information. Few products offer an integrated hub where professionals can interact with different property data platforms in one place. 

That was the problem Oli Farago sought to solve when he founded Coyote Software, a platform that offers a consolidated approach to property data. Farago, who in 2009 was working as a technologist at property firm M7 Real Estate, realised there were few property data platforms that had established themselves in the market. He took to a blank sheet of paper and began to design the beginnings of what would eventually grow into an accessible, integrated property platform. Instead of constantly logging into multiple different data systems, property professionals now have a way to access information through one platform. 

“A bounty of new companies, all with their own methods for extracting value from data, have entered the market,” Farago wrote in a LinkedIn article. “Because of this, although data is indeed more valuable and accessible than it has ever been, there are now so many different companies providing various incompatible datasets, all of which contain different versions of the truth.”

In an effort to solve the industry’s most pressing problems and make data more accessible to property professionals, these conflicting and competing platforms have actually done the opposite. The abundance of data options has proven overwhelming for users. 

“If our industry’s ultimate goal is to provide the best possible solutions to property professionals, conflicting data from competing companies goes against that and contributes to a foggy landscape that is increasingly difficult to navigate,” Farago said. 

Forging partnerships with other data platforms was a natural solution. Coyote partnered with commercial property tech firms Realla and Infabode to support the free flow of data between systems. Coyote also integrates with property management systems like Yardi, Qube, MRI and Tramps. This approach enables property professionals to visualise data on a single dashboard. By centralising property data into one platform, property professionals can see their data in one place, as opposed to having to log in to multiple platforms. 

It also integrates tools like Microsoft Word and Excel to assist in the reporting process, a source of frustration for many real estate professionals.

Platform partnerships have become an integral part of Coyote’s business model. The company is currently working to build relationships with other data platforms to help acquisition teams and asset managers better manage their portfolios.

“Without collaboration, all we are destined to do is analyse and reanalyse our own datasets, creating a narrow picture which, over time, spirals concentrically to a pinpoint,” Farago said. “Without being truly open, the value of data disappears.”

The software developers at Coyote have also employed this concept of collaboration to the data-viewing process. The platform allows multiple people to view a single data set at the same time. This has proven particularly productive for teams with multiple people in different offices and time zones. 

As the PropTech industry continues to evolve and emerging platforms begin to take centre stage, Coyote is bringing these resources to their users. 

When done correctly, PropTech has the power to enhance and improve the speed and accuracy of the commercial property lifecycle. Through partnerships and collaboration, the industry is determined to make that happen. 

This feature was produced in collaboration between Bisnow Branded Content and Coyote. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.