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Helane Stein

Vice President, IT
PREIT

Helane Stein is the Vice President of Information
Technology at PREIT, a leading real estate investment
trust headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She
has been with PREIT for almost 14 years, where she is
responsible for developing and leading technology
strategy, innovation, and operations.

Highlights of 2014
Expanding consumer engagement and internal user
experiences was PREIT’s technology focus for 2014.

The retail industry has been trying for some time to
ascertain the best mechanisms for engaging with cus-
tomers. You heard the term ‘click and mortar’ a lot in
2014, referring to how the road to making a purchase
may start online and then end up at the brick and
mortar store or vice-versa. That’s a key component to
omni-channel retailing where shopping is accessible
everywhere and all the time through multiple outlets.
Knowing that many shoppers are open to making
purchases online, we are always looking for ways to
differentiate and elevate shopping at a PREIT mall and
last year rolled out luxury amenities such as free Wi-Fi,
same day delivery and bag-less shopping to make the
experience easier, faster, and more convenient.

To keep in touch with our shoppers we developed
iPad apps and implemented robust social media tools
to support marketing initiatives and drive engage-
ment during the holiday season and for special
events. With these tools, we are connecting more fre-
quently and more efficiently with shoppers, retailers,
and industry influencers. If a shopper is posting about
PREIT, or is talking about a PREIT mall, we have the
capability to personally connect with them and tailor
our response based on the content of their communi-
cation. For example we may send them a gift card for
restaurant week, news about the latest sale, or some
other perk to draw them to the property and keep
them coming back for more. Knowing the shopper
and being able to share relevant, exciting, and varied
content with them to drive repeat visits to the mall
is key, and the proliferation of mobile devices allows
us to provide this content through their preferred
method of contact.

Internally, PREIT focused on using technology for
collaboration and communication, and continued to
utilize automation to streamline key business process-
es. One project included redesigning and upgrading
our employee Intranet, which dramatically increased

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