iShack Ventures announces partnership with MRI Software 

Integration will deliver enhanced capabilities that save time and money for real estate owners, managers and occupiers

26/042024

Johannesburg – iShack Ventures, a South African outfit with a strong track record in proptech, are pleased to announce an integration partnership with MRI Software, a global leader in real estate software solutions. The integration of iShack Venture’s Smart Building and iProp.Solutions digital platforms with MRI Property Central gives real estate owners, managers and occupiers in the South African market access to enhanced property management functionality and real-time processes.

Wayne Berger, Joint Chief Executive of iShack Ventures, says: “The integration of MRI Property Central with our Smart Building and iProp.Solutions platforms presents next-generation enhanced end-to-end property management capability. Our customers enjoy real-time information, market-leading AI capability, increased functionality, and better asset management in a digital twin environment. This collectively delivers enhanced value by saving time and money, while effectively connecting communities such as tenants and suppliers.”

Available through the MRI Partner Connect programme, the easy-to-use integrated solution offers end-to-end capability for all property types, including commercial (retail, office, industrial and logistics), residential and sectional title, and occupiers of space. The combined capabilities are well suited to property owners, managers, occupiers, and other users of any type of property or infrastructure.  

Sean Slack, VP of Partnerships at MRI, says: “We are excited to welcome iShack Ventures to the MRI Partner Connect programme, which will give MRI Property Central clients in the local real estate market access to the complementary functionality in the Smart Buildings platform.” 

iShack Venture’s platform brings complementary functionality to MRI Property Central, including facilities management, energy and ESG management, lease management, visitor management, procurement management and community management together with real-time portfolio and industry information. 

Peter Levett, Joint Chief Executive of iShack Ventures, says: “MRI has a longstanding and successful track record internationally and in South Africa. This is an important milestone for iShack, and we are excited to partner with MRI. Our focus has always been underpinned by delivering world-class solutions to our clients, and our current offering is bolstered by a strong partnership with MRI.” 

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About iShack Ventures

iShack Ventures is a South African company that has a strong track record in incubating and developing technology companies. It is focused on the property technology space developing two extensive platforms, namely Smart Building and iProp.Solutions. 

Smart Building is a next-generation asset and property management capability including digital twin and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities providing real-time information and intelligence for real time communication and proactive management.

iProp.Solutions is a platform supporting all aspects of leasing, sales and auctions including CRM and lease management capabilities together with relevant industry information to support asset management solutions.

 For more information, please visit ishackventures.com, smartbuildingapp.com and iProp.Solutions. 

About MRI Software 

MRI Software is a leading provider of real estate software solutions that transform the way communities live, work and play. MRI’s open and connected, AI-first platform empowers owners, operators, agents and occupiers in commercial and residential property organisations to innovate in rapidly changing markets. MRI has been a trailblazer in the PropTech industry for over five decades, serving more than six million users worldwide, including social, affordable, public and community housing organisations. Through innovative solutions and a rich partner ecosystem, MRI gives real estate companies the freedom to realise their vision of building thriving communities and stronger businesses. For more information, please visit mrisoftware.com. 

Smart Technology is already shaping real estate and will continue to do so into the future, as major innovations like 3D printing, Blockchain, the Internet of Things (IoT), Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR), Artificial Intelligence and even drones find useful applications in everything from building management to customer engagement. There are two main reasons for this, namely the human need to innovate and an increasingly enabling environment (catalysed by COVID-19).

Innovation – or the drive to do things better, if you will – is part of the human psyche. Socrates said that “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but building on the new.“ From the invention of the wheel to today’s advances in AI and Machine Learning, the human desire to strive for improvement is alive and well. 

From an economic perspective, innovation and economic growth go hand-in-hand. William Brody, ex-president of Johns Hopkins University and renowned scientist, radiologist and academic administrator discusses the calculus of innovation, describing it as follows: “… Knowledge drives innovation, innovation drives productivity, productivity drives economic growth.“ And Steve Jobs – widely acknowledged as one of the great innovators of our time – said that to be a leader, you also need to be an innovator.

The realm of smart technology is ideal for thinkers, innovators, leaders and businessmen to develop, fine tune and implement ways to improve their businesses and the lives of people affected by those businesses. In the real estate space, it’s about better experiences for tenants and employees, which lead to customer and employee loyalty, improved efficiencies, cost savings and, ultimately, profits. Whether you use AI to improve your customer service journey, or 3D printing technology to build more sustainably or save on costs in fit-out, smart technology is rapidly entering into the industry with their promise of improvements across the board.

Of course, the second factor – an enabling environment – is critical to successful innovation. In the case of smart technology and its application in various industries, internet connectivity is critical. IoT, AR, VR and AI are dependent on cost effective, reliable and far-reaching internet connectivity to function. In fact, all the smart technologies that are finding application in real estate are enabled by quality cloud services and high-speed, high-volume internet access.

Today, we’re seeing smart technology and digital transformation being discussed at C-Suite and Boardroom level. It’s no longer the purview of a few technically-minded specialists in the IT department. In fact, executive committees and Boards that are not actively looking at ways to transform digitally and leverage smart technology are positioning themselves to go the way of Kodak during the rise of digital photography and the birth of the camera phone. Though Kodak has managed to rebuild itself since it filed for bankruptcy in 2012, real estate players would do well to learn a lesson from this tale of caution and embrace innovation in their businesses.

New, more cost effective technologies have added to engineering efficiencies. Cloud computing and blockchain technology have made massive storage infrastructure and computing power available to any user at a fraction of the historic costs. Open APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) allow for different systems to connect and integrate, leading to greater collaboration, automation, and innovation across all industries and especially for real estate professionals. We’re seeing the Software as a Service (SaaS) model gaining traction, too, allowing real estate developers to reduce Capex requirements and time to market, and mitigate against a lot of the risk involved in digital transformation.

Value creation, cost savings and risk management are not the only drivers behind smart technology adoption in real estate. Tenants are becoming much more demanding, too, as customer service and engagement standards continue to rise and consumers’ tolerance for mediocre service continues to diminish.  Digital has become an expected part of the tenant experience.

With so much innovation available to transform businesses, we’re seeing real estate companies begin to appoint innovation managers to help them choose the right technologies and implementation strategies. And we believe the industry is only getting started.

In next month’s article, we will kick off with a look at the impact that 3D printing is having in the construction industry.

ChatBots are getting better and better at handling customer service queries. More and more businesses are finding opportunities to automate processes and analyse datasets using AI. And in Real Estate, the opportunities to streamline and improve processes are already taking shape. In general, AI can be used to automate repetitive tasks, analyse large datasets, and make predictions based on patterns in data. All of this can help property managers, agents, and landlords make better decisions and improve the overall efficiency of the real estate sector.

For example:

1. Chatbots: AI-powered chatbots are already being used to deal with first-line customer queries in many industries. The more the bot engages with customers, the better it gets at finding answers to simple queries that don’t require a human being to answer. In real estate, this technology could be used to assist potential tenants in finding suitable properties and answering basic questions about the properties listed on the site. This could help to better qualify leads before a human agent gets involved. For example, by answering questions about unit size and cost, a Chatbot could redirect a person enquiring about a 2-bed rental going for R 11 000 per month, that only wants to spend R 6 000 per month, towards suitable properties in their price range.

1. Image recognition: AI is capable of analysing property photos to extract information such as the number of rooms, square meterage, and other details that could be used to create more accurate property listings. More accurate data like this could also be useful in property development planning, helping to determine the appropriate number of units to be built on a brownfields refurbishment for example. 

1. Pricing analysis: AI can analyse market data to provide landlords with insights into the most competitive prices for their properties. AI can gather and assimilate bigger volumes of historic data much faster than a human can – such as current rental prices in the area, how long space has been on the market at each price point, and what space used to go for. More accurately collected data like this could help a human being spot trends in the area and use this to set more appropriate rents, in turn attracting more appropriate tenants.

1. Building Management: AI can support more proactive building management by alerting facilities managers to opportunities to optimise the use of resources and offering predictive maintenance recommendations. In essence, the AI analyses data from building information systems and sensors to spot inefficiencies before they become a problem. Inefficient water use could indicate a leak, for example, that would reduce utility costs when fixed. Similarly, inefficient energy use could indicate an HVAC system using more power than it should, and potentially in need of maintenance. A well-built AI could not only warn you of the energy consumption increase, but pinpoint the air conditioner at cause. A good example is www.smartbuilding.mob – our cloud-based property management software that benefits from our AI module integration to deliver predictive maintenance, energy optimization and document storage recommendations and information extraction.

A good South African example, that combines a number of AI capabilities to improve user experience for both landlords and tenants is www.instantproperty.co.za. As a commercial and industrial listing platform, InstantProperty.co.za  uses AI to provide more accurate and useful data on the properties listed. We have incorporated ChatGPT to use our data and data available on the internet to write vacancy-specific copy which improves the experience of the tenant looking for space as well as the landlord listing on Instant Property. It drastically improves the searchability of Instantproperty.co.za listings on Google from an SEO (search engine optimisation) perspective, which in turn results in more leads and more traction.

Locally and Internationally, companies are using AI to improve business operations in real estate by providing more accurate data, better insights, and more efficient processes. International examples include Zillow’s “Zestimates”, which can help homeowners and agents price homes more accurately. Cherre’s data platform helps real estate professionals make more informed decisions by providing a comprehensive view of the market, and Bricklane.com’s investment platform helps investors find the best opportunities by analysing large amounts of data. 

By using AI to automate repetitive tasks and analyse massive amounts of data, these companies are making the real estate industry more efficient, transparent, and accessible for everyone involved. As the technology continues to advance, the timing is ideal for real estate professionals in South Africa to leverage the benefits in their own businesses.