Property managers today have access to a wealth of digital tools to make their day-to-day jobs easier. Rapid advances in commercial real estate (CRE) technology have brought solutions for work orders, vendor management, real-time monitoring of building systems, tenant communication and much more.
Yet challenges often emerge as companies race to adopt new tools from various tech vendors. Property managers lose precious time switching between multiple applications or hunting for data stored in unconnected systems. Some companies find they have redundant technologies and are paying for tools or licenses they don’t need. These are all symptoms of tech sprawl, a growing problem as proptech solutions proliferate.
The need to rein in tech sprawl is becoming more important as companies plan to allocate more funds to technology. In 2025, a full 99% of CRE professionals intend to either boost their software investments (45%) or maintain current spending levels (54%), according to a Building Engines study, “The state of commercial property management technology, 2025.”
In this blog post, we explore the hidden challenges of sprawling CRE technology and provide helpful strategies for solving them. First, we explain tech sprawl and how it originates.
What causes commercial real estate technology sprawl?
Tech sprawl, or IT sprawl as it is sometimes called, happens when companies adopt tools to solve individual issues. This one-off approach results in a disorganized IT environment with data in too many places and point solutions that don’t connect with each other.
Tech sprawl is a natural problem that snowballs over time, particularly during times of rapid technological advancement, as has been the case for proptech. Over the last decade, innovators have raced to solve CRE problems with new tools, taking advantage of advances in artificial intelligence (AI), cloud solutions, virtual and augmented reality, the Internet of Things (IoT) and other emerging technologies.
In many ways, these technologies have unlocked significant benefits, helping property managers simplify building operations, reduce operational expenses and enhance the tenant experience. However, implementing individual tools without a strategy for integrating them can lead to bigger inefficiencies than the initial problems you were trying to solve.
For example, imagine that you’re preparing a monthly energy report for ownership, but the data lives in disconnected tools — smart meters, lighting controls and the building automation system. You have to manually export and merge spreadsheets, increasing the chance of errors and delaying delivery.
This is just one example of how tech sprawl impacts property management. By the end of a day, you have likely used at least a half dozen different software platforms, each with its own quirks, logins and data silos. It’s inefficient, time-consuming and often frustrating. Following are three challenges of sprawling CRE technology and tips for untangling the jumble of tools.
Challenge #1: It takes too long to find critical information.
Knowing where your data lives is essential to running your property efficiently and keeping up with compliance requirements.
If you’re using a different system for each task, you’ll spend your day switching between platforms to check on maintenance requests, track energy use, review vendor bids and complete other duties. Tools that don’t integrate with each other can make some jobs as difficult and time-consuming as working manually.
Additionally, you need to be able to access information easily to keep up with compliance requirements, sustainability certifications and other regulatory matters. When you’re trying to track down certificates of insurance or access the latest energy data for your sustainability team, you can’t waste time looking in multiple places.
Implementing a central building operations platform like Prism can streamline all your data into one interface, so you never have to think twice about where to look.
Challenge #2: It’s too difficult to understand how your properties are performing.
Having a patchwork of tech solutions makes it challenging to integrate data and get a complete picture of your properties. As a property manager, you need to be able to access comprehensive financial information, how fast work is getting completed, historical energy usage and other critical data
To get an accurate report on building performance, you can’t have information sprawled across multiple systems. Getting an at-a-glance picture of what is working well and what needs attention requires a platform that integrates all your data into consolidated reports and dashboards. This will save precious time spent compiling data from multiple sources into spreadsheets.
Challenge #3: The tenant experience suffers.
CRE tech sprawl can lengthen the time it takes to respond to tenant requests as property managers sort and prioritize alerts from various applications.
However, it’s important to remember that your property management team isn’t the only group interacting with your technology. Your tenants likely use some of your systems to register visitors, submit work requests and reserve amenities. They’re likely to grow frustrated if they have to go into a different app for each service, potentially bypassing the desired channel and going directly to the property manager instead.
As tenants continue to demand more out of their buildings, a seamless technology experience can enhance their experience and support tenant retention.
How to solve commercial real estate technology sprawl
Eliminating tech sprawl can help CRE property managers increase efficiencies, better understand building performance and even enhance the tenant experience. It can also improve information security and reduce costs by streamlining your technology investments.
Fixing the problem starts with taking a close look at your tech stack to determine where you have redundant or unnecessary tools, and which systems don’t integrate well with others. For many CRE firms, the answer lies in adopting a central building operations platform that brings together all the information and tools needed to run commercial properties. The right platform will easily integrate with other CRE management systems and give you a central dashboard to view all your data in a single place.
Building Engines’ Prism platform gives you a one-stop shop for all the property management data and applications you need to get your job done. From work orders to contracts and vendor management, Prism brings together your most critical operations into one easy-to-use platform.
Prism helps your building engineers complete work faster with mobile-ready solutions and empowers your tenants with self-service features to schedule amenities. Its open application programming interface (API) seamlessly connects with your in-house systems and our Certified Partner network, creating an integrated user experience.
Streamline your commercial real estate technology stack
The proptech market has grown increasingly fragmented, but your tech systems don’t have to be.
Implementing a comprehensive building operations platform like Prism can help you tame tech sprawl. You’ll benefit from stronger integrations, a central data repository and an improved user experience — making it possible to work more efficiently, understand building performance, keep up with compliance requirements and improve tenant satisfaction.
Learn more about how Prism can help you put an end to tech sprawl and streamline your building operations.
