Page 22 - RC18-EDGE Spring.FINAL

most impact on the industry over The reasonable cost of sensor tech- The industry is moving at a rapid
the next three years and why? nology with wireless battery powered pace. There is no longer the question
devices coupled with the lower price about whether the technology works,
Utilization of space occupancy data of storage will continue to push the because it does. The challenge is edu-
for Operations is an area that’s begin- volume of available building data. cation and convincing those respon-
ning to draw attention. Today space Mining this information to extract sible for funding these initiatives that
data is predominately used for project value will continue to be a challenge. the return on investment will produce
planning of restacks and to evaluate Data analytic solutions are saturat- valuable results. Improved perfor-
amenity space activity. The next step ing the market, but I think ultimately mance, system reliability, savings and
for space data would be to administer it will be machine learning through a healthier work environment, to name
operational changes. Adjust confer- artificial intelligence that will help fine a few. There is a need to empower the
ence rooms based on occupancy lev- tune this data. Similar to how your organization leaders that are about
els or, on a grander scale, dynamically home Nest thermostat learns your to take on this bold journey with tools
control systems and services based behavior and adjusts temperatures to develop viable business cases that
upon actual occupancy. accordingly. offer proven returns.

SCOTT ZIMMERMAN

CIO, CENTERPOINT PROPERTIES

Scott Zimmerman has been CenterPoint’s CIO for over 20 years and is respon-
sible for directing the IT Department and aligning IT strategy with company
objectives. He oversees tech support, software development and all things
related to computers and audio/visual or communications. Scott also man-
ages corporate business process optimization and corporate marketing to
drive digital innovation.

What major technology projects were you focused on last year?

We’ve been working the past year with our internal business partners in
investments and operations to refine our proprietary underwriting and
advanced analytics tools. That can help us make better investment and leas-
ing decisions; not only make them better but faster, enabling our team to be
far more efficient and to increase transaction volume. There’s a lot of interest
in the industrial market these days. To compete with much larger institutional
investors, private equity groups, etc., we’ve had to retool. We run both Yardi
and ARGUS Enterprise but needed several tools that go beyond what’s avail-
able in the marketplace today. So, we spent a lot of time working with our
teams to improve our data gathering and cleaning processes as well as the
ways we visualize information. We now have a better underwriting and anal-
ysis process that more appropriately assigns and evaluates risk, allowing our
teams to turn assumptions into hard numbers—so they are making faster and
better decisions.

What are your highest priority technology initiatives in 2018 and what are
the drivers behind those initiatives?

We’ve been proactively focusing on improving our IT security platform. While
we don’t have credit cards or medical information, today that doesn’t nec-
essarily mean we’re not a ransomware target. We’re working with AT&T’s

20