Embracing automation: GI Partners achieves COI tracking excellence across five properties

Challenge

GI Partners operates three life science campuses spanning five buildings and 330,000 sq ft in South San Francisco and San Carlos. The portfolio serves nine biotechnology-focused tenants with an 84% occupancy rate. While office staff typically work hybrid schedules, scientists and lab personnel maintain daily onsite presence.

Managing this diverse portfolio presents unique challenges for the five-member property management team, which operates primarily remotely with just one person onsite each day. Their biggest pain point centered on certificate of insurance (COI) management for 150 tenants and vendors across the properties.

Before implementing a technology solution, the General Manager relied on Excel spreadsheets with conditional formatting to track certificate compliance and expiration dates. This manual approach was inadequate for effectively managing the expanding portfolio and supporting a distributed team that needed real-time access to compliance information.

Solution

GI Partners implemented Prism by Building Engines to transform their COI management. The platform provides centralized visibility for the remote team while offering transparency to tenants seeking approved vendor information.

The automated system replaces spreadsheet tracking with intelligent compliance verification. Property managers simply input certificate details, and Prism automatically determines compliance status. The insurance dashboard consolidates all information for instant reporting, eliminating weeks of manual Excel formatting work.

This automation allowed GI Partners to roll out an updated compliance excellence program with enhanced requirements and a new audit process. The team can now generate reports instantly to assess portfolio-wide compliance and efficiently coordinate follow-up communications with tenants and vendors.

The time savings have enabled the property management team to redirect their focus toward higher-value activities. Instead of spending hours reviewing certificates, they can prioritize tenant relationship management and strategic initiatives.