Asset Managers Are Leaving Millions on the Table by Ignoring Operational Data, Says OpticWise CEO
Commercial real estate owners are missing significant NOI improvements by failing to access and utilize operational data from building systems, according to Bill Douglas of OpticWise.
A structural problem is hiding in plain sight across commercial real estate portfolios. Asset managers are held accountable for NOI performance, insurance renewals, utility spend, and occupancy trends – yet they are routinely making those decisions with incomplete, delayed, or vendor-controlled data, according to Bill Douglas, CEO of OpticWise, a commercial real estate digital infrastructure firm.
Douglas, who has spent more than a decade auditing properties, identifies a pattern: property owners invest in systems, collect the data, then never use it. The standard monthly or quarterly summary report from the property management system shows leasing data, rent rolls, and basic financial KPIs, but it does not include the operational data behind the numbers. Properties send management what they are asked for – nothing more. Asset managers receive what they requested, but often do not know what else to ask for. They are measuring outcomes without seeing the inputs that drive them.
Douglas identifies three major expense and revenue drivers that asset managers consistently lack visibility into: utilities, insurance, and occupancy. On utilities, the challenge is understanding the demand curve. Without knowing when large motors draw peak power or what the utility rate structure looks like for surge demand, reducing the utility bill becomes guesswork. On insurance, most owners walk into annual renewal reviews without a coherent data package. A property that can demonstrate standard operating procedures around water leak detection, alarm response, and occupancy management – backed by actual system logs – presents a different risk profile. Underwriters respond to documentation, but most properties cannot produce it. On occupancy, the property management system cannot show which areas of the building are underutilized, gym usage patterns, or how parking availability compares to demand. Those are revenue and experience drivers that remain invisible.
When ownership groups recognize a data gap, the response is typically to hand the problem to the IT manager, property manager, or asset manager. Douglas argues none of these is a workable solution. IT managers focus on information technology – firewalls, directory services, corporate access policies – not operational technology. Property managers are hired to lease space and serve tenants, not manage network architecture. Asset managers are financial analysts; running analysis across a data lake is not their skill set. The wrong people are being asked to do the right tasks, and the result is that audits never happen, data sits inside vendor systems, and recoverable income flows away from owners.
The starting point for a practical data strategy is not a technology purchase but an honest inventory of what data exists, where it lives, and who has access to it – a data and digital infrastructure audit. From there, the process is sequential: which systems generate data nobody is collecting? Which represent the highest-value targets? A concrete example: one client had a lighting control system installed that had never been activated. When OpticWise completed the audit and turned it on, the property saved $70,000 in the following 12 months on electricity alone – no new hardware, no significant capital outlay.
The real cost of doing nothing is significant. A 400-unit apartment portfolio that could generate an additional $500 per door per year in net operating income is passing on $200,000 annually. An office building with 250,000 rentable square feet that could recover 50 cents per square foot is forgoing $125,000. With commercial real estate owners in 2026 facing roughly 1 percent rent growth, not four or five, the path to value creation runs through optimization, and optimization requires data most portfolios still do not have. Owners who address the data gap now are better positioned to act on cost recovery, renegotiate insurance terms, and improve NOI without waiting on market conditions. Those who do not are leaving income on the table year after year.