Altus Group’s recent innovation research survey, Accelerating the Innovation Agenda in Commercial Real Estate, asks whether key transformative technologies are driving change in the industry. The response, from 400 CRE C-level and senior executives was lukewarm at best about some of the disruptive technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and predictive analytics, that are seeing a lot of hype in the media, at conferences, and from analysts. It seems our industry is not entirely convinced about the role these “buzzwords” will play today and in the future.
More than 50% of the executives surveyed thought that most major CRE processes and workflows can be significantly or completely automated
One thing they did seem sure about though, is the impact process automation can have on business operations, with more than 50% of the executives surveyed saying they think most major CRE processes and workflows can be significantly or completely automated. The challenge for these executives, the report suggested, is to look beyond their own firms’ boundaries, and think of how technology advances could impact the industry as a whole. For instance, with automation, while we typically think about the processes and workflows that can be streamlined, we need to also start thinking about how an entire industry’s process can be fundamentally changed.
Unsurprisingly, here at Open Box, we agree about the transformative power of process automation, especially as we have been seeing the astonishing results that our clients achieve. These results are not only the large cost and efficiency savings, but also the way automation sets these companies up for ongoing innovation. So, based on the Altus report’s finding, we took a deeper dive into automation, to explore the power of automation in your business. We also ask, how can you start moving away from “that’s the way it’s always been done” thinking, to explore if, powered by process automation, there isn’t a better way to do things that might fundamentally change our future.
This sounds a lot like innovation and disruption, doesn’t it? And at Open Box we like to think about process automation as the key that can unlock the potential of the “buzzword” technologies that many of us are still unsure about. Indeed, we consider process automation to be the “operating system” that the CRE industry can run on.
