Commercial real estate asset managers are leaving substantial income on the table because they lack access to operational data already being generated by their buildings, according to Bill Douglas, CEO of OpticWise, a commercial real estate digital infrastructure firm. Douglas argues that while property owners invest in systems that collect data, that data rarely reaches the decision-makers who could use it to improve net operating income (NOI).
The standard monthly or quarterly summary report from property management systems shows leasing data, rent rolls, and basic financial KPIs. What it does not show is the operational data behind the numbers—how lighting control systems are operating, how air conditioning demand is trending, or what access control logs reveal about space utilization. Douglas says asset managers are measuring outcomes without seeing the inputs that drive them. OpticWise has spent more than a decade auditing properties and identifying where this data problem originates.
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 utility rate structures apply, reducing utility bills becomes guesswork. On insurance, most owners enter 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. On occupancy, property management systems show lease rates but not which areas are underutilized, what gym usage patterns look like, or how parking availability compares to demand.
When ownership groups recognize a data gap, they typically 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, not operational technology. Property managers are hired to lease space and serve tenants, not to manage data architecture. Asset managers are financial analysts; running analysis across a data lake is not their skill set. The result is that audits never happen, and recoverable income keeps flowing 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—what Douglas calls a data and digital infrastructure audit. From there, the process is sequential: identify which systems generate data nobody is collecting, which represent the highest-value targets, and what a 90-day implementation looks like. A concrete example: one client already had a lighting control system installed that had never been activated. When OpticWise completed the audit and turned the system on, that property saved $70,000 in the following 12 months on electricity alone.
The same logic applies to dynamic parking pricing, sub-metering by tenant, leak detection, and HVAC demand management. Douglas says none of these are exotic solutions, but all require data that is already being generated. The real cost of doing nothing is significant: a 400-unit apartment portfolio that could generate an additional $500 per door per year in NOI 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 in income. With rent growth projected at 1 percent in 2026, the path to value creation runs through optimization, and optimization requires data most portfolios still do not have.
