Efficient handling of real estate data represents one of the greatest challenges facing modern asset management. That’s why we employ cutting-edge technologies and artificial intelligence to manage property documents much more efficiently.
The Path to Digital Property Records
Few industries generate such diverse data and documentation as real estate. There are the transactions, investor reporting, property management activities – the adjustments to lease agreements alone produce substantial volumes of new paperwork. A typical office building or shopping centre can easily generate between 6,000 and 8,500 documents annually. At Deka Immobilien, our real estate portfolio has nearly doubled over the past decade. This growth has resulted in a current collection of approximately 2.3 million centrally accessible documents (excluding invoices), with around 250,000 new documents being added each year.
We drive digitalisation forward by utilising technological advancements to optimise existing processes and to set up new, future-proof processes. By doing so, we are already influencing how things will work in the coming years.
Gesa WilmsCOO Deka Immobilien
The requirements for comprehensive, compliance-focused sustainability reporting continue to expand, particularly with regards to scope and quality. These requirements apply to each individual property within our portfolio.
Effectively managing future growth alongside increasingly rigorous reporting and transparency standards has made streamlined real estate data management the central challenge in contemporary asset management.
Real Estate as a Digital Ecosystem
Data Availability, Allocation, and Standardisation – The digital transformation affects every participant throughout the entire life cycle of a property. From developers, asset managers, and investors, to service providers, brokers, and tenants – creating a truly digital real estate economy demands industry-wide data standards. Deka Immobilien is not merely responding to digital transformation – we’re actively driving it forwards.
Pioneering Work
Deka Immobilien recognised the importance of digitalisation across the entire real estate life cycle as early as 2012, well before it became a priority for most of the industry.
By implementing our Document Management System (DMS) with its sophisticated classification framework based on document types and attributes, we’ve dramatically simplified the process of locating specific documents among the countless real estate-related files that are generated during normal business operations.
Our comprehensive system includes over 300 property-related document categories and more than 1,000 distinct attributes, covering both directly held assets and company-relevant documentation for indirectly held investments (such as special purpose vehicles). With just a single click, users can instantly retrieve information such as energy certificates at country and property levels, or verify complete communication records with tenants regarding service charge statements.
Through this integrated document management approach, we are advancing digitalisation, transparency, and efficiency. We are effectively creating digital real estate assets while establishing the foundation for an innovative, forward-looking platform.
Markus KlugHead of Process Management Real Estate
An Industry Standard
Our document classification model was incorporated into the industry-wide ‘gif’ standard for real estate data space and document management systems in 2018. This represents significant progress in addressing core asset management needs.
Since then, we’ve progressively connected external property managers both domestically and internationally to our DMS. The system now automatically imports external data directly from source systems. The result has been a substantial increase in efficiency – by eliminating manual errors and improving data quantity and quality. The system enhances documentation for existing properties and real estate transactions, particularly by highlighting any documentation gaps. This significantly improves cooperation efficiency between external property managers and the management company.
However, real estate as an asset class inherently requires interaction and fungibility. Creating a one-to-one digital representation of a property on a platform, transforming it into a transparent trading object – this encapsulates the digital asset concept. The DMS is fully integrated with our Business Warehouse and other leading specialist solutions (SAP, leasing database, order management). Deka Immobilien’s Enterprise Content Management consists of various fully integrated systems, comprising the aforementioned Document Management System, an Artificial Intelligence for document attribution and a cloud solution for collaboration purposes.
Implementing Artificial Intelligence (AI) Creates Space
Since 2018, Deka Immobilien has been collaborating with PropTech Architrave, a leading intelligent data management provider for the real estate industry. Deka holds a twelve percent stake in the Berlin-based company. Through the application of future-focused technologies like machine learning and artificial intelligence, Architrave aims to become an industry pioneer by creating an automated data platform that covers every process within the real estate value chain.
As part of this partnership, Deka Immobilien has introduced the AI component Delphi for automatic document recognition, classification, and content extraction. This AI solution automatically analyses and processes documents, names them correctly, and systematically files them into appropriate categories.
Artificial intelligence, particularly in its machine learning form, has proven itself especially valuable for handling recurring processes. By integrating artificial intelligence (AI), the system makes document indexing scalable, and external document submissions are automatically converted to match our established document classification logic, enabling seamless system integration.
Reducing Routine Activities: Processing Documents via Drag & Drop
What was once a time-consuming document review and processing workflow has been transformed into a simple ‘drag & drop’ operation for asset managers. This gives our asset management team more space to focus on real estate management and tenant relationships rather than on administrative tasks. The AI functions as an essential bridge technology, enabling truly digital processes with standardised data formats and zero media discontinuity.
Digitized real estate management
1.200+
External users from 20 countries have access
6+
million documents
10+
internal and external systems connected
Collaboration Cloud Ensures Secure Collaboration
Complementing our Document Management System and AI capabilities, Deka Immobilien has introduced the Collaboration Cloud: The Cloud provides a secure alternative for document exchange with external partners, enabling faster, more flexible, and smarter project collaboration across multiple locations. When required, the cloud solution also facilitates efficient document collaboration with external partners while still ensuring perfect integration with our document archive.
