HOUSTON—Long before the advent of smartphones, tablets, and cloud-based apps, CRE was a data-centric industry. According to Dr. J. Nathaniel Holland, chief research and data scientist, NAI Partners, “CRE has a rich history filled with data, but the industry is just beginning to tap into its full potential through actual statistical analyses and data science. It is critical for stakeholders to move beyond historic ways to embrace new data-driven approaches, success of which will ultimately be gauged by knowledge-driven entrepreneurship derived from the data analytics. Gut instincts and experiences lead to the important ideas, hypothesis and alternative hypotheses that are worth testing through rigorous statistical analyses, results of which produce knowledge that complements (and sometimes contradicts) the initial gut instincts and experience.”

To be sure, momentum is building as commercial real estate professionals discover new ways to benefit from increased global connectivity, data transparency and the speed of information exchange, says NAI Partners. Enterprise technology will continually evolve, but the core tenets of business remain: research, due diligence, networking, relationships and transactions. Today, many are using sophisticated data and analytics tools and exploring social media to enhance these core competencies, not replace them, says RealMassive.

Placing more accurate and accessible data at the heart of commercial real estate is the key to addressing the challenges facing the industry, while also opening up huge potential for profit growth and delivering impressive results to professionals. Ultimately, success in the digital age lies not in the efficiency of technology, but with the people who wield it, NAI Partners observes.

Holland tells GlobeSt.com: “At NAI Partners, I am using leading statistical and analytical tools to test hypotheses and merge data from different fields such as real estate, population demographics, economics and the oil commodity industry. For example, I have shown that we can forecast office demand as measured by net absorption based on Houston's job growth. I have also shown how Texas rig count is a good predictor of manufacturing employment in Houston and in turn, vacancy rates of manufacturing buildings.”