Overview
Zubatkin, part of Cumming Group, is a New York-based owners representation firm that has managed over $7 billion in capital projects with a specific focus on not-for-profit institutions. In 2022 they started working with one of the biggest property owners in the New York City area, managing approximately 2,000 properties in and around the city.
Zubatkin was forward thinking and knew that a data-driven approach to owner representation would be the best way to create value for their client. They partnered with Gryps to configure our platform to: 1) understand the existing data available within the owner’s systems and network drives, 2) identify gaps in the current setup, 3) implement new workflows to improve data quality and visibility into key information such as project and building KPIs, and 4) automatically parse and organize the owner’s historical project documents.
The Challenge
When Zubatkin engaged with the owner to provide owner representation and facility management services in 2022, they got access to disorganized and potentially unreliable information collected by different parties over the years. This is a common issue across the industry, with one report finding that 80% of respondents said at least a quarter of their data was unusable due to factors like inaccuracy or missing information.
Prior to Gryps’ and Zubatkin’s involvement, the owner’s project management information system (PMIS) was being used as an online filing cabinet rather than a structured information system, with no real workflow management in place. Furthermore, the owner’s historical files had been corrupted during a migration, making it difficult to find important project and building information.
Zubatkin knew that without consistent and reliable data, it’s impossible to create baseline KPIs and provide effective decision making support. They made it a priority to achieve clean, usable data to start delivering results.
The Solution
Gryps connected to Trimble Unity Construct (eBuilder), OneDrive, and several other systems to pull all of the client’s data into a single knowledge graph, including unstructured data from files such as approval requests, submittals, and change orders. We then worked with Zubatkin to build dashboards that visualized what information was being tracked across each connected system, allowing them to quickly identify gaps in their asset, project, and financial data.
One critical gap the client had was tracking city violations. Before Gryps, the client only had the bandwidth to check violations for about 50 properties each month, meaning a violation could be open for years before being addressed. Gryps connected to the New York Department of Buildings (DOB) online database and automatically pulled in violations for all 2,000 properties every month. We created a violations dashboard that flagged any open violations as soon as they were posted, and Zubatkin implemented a new Unity Construct workflow to make sure they were quickly addressed.
Gryps also delivered a dashboard for process management, tracking items such as open approval requests, documents needing signature, and the amount of time a project spends in each stage. This created internal transparency around which project managers were moving projects forward efficiently, which Zubatkin used to adjust operational processes and help the client hold their team accountable.
Finally, Gryps provided a unified search that allows all team members from owners reps to facility and finance managers to quickly find project and facility information such as drawings by address, product warranties, and DOB approvals for specific components such as elevators.
The Results
Using Gryps, Zubatkin was able to quickly get organized and up to speed on all their client’s information so they could start projects that created tangible value.
With the violations dashboard and accompanying processes, they’ve saved their client tens of thousands of dollars per month. Because of the accountability and process improvements based on Gryps dashboards, the client is now meeting their standard operating goals. They’ve reduced invoice approval time by 38%, reduced budget approval times by 37%, and increased contract insurance compliance by 68%.
Zubatkin continues to use Gryps on an ongoing basis as they manage the client’s capital program and identify new ways to unlock value for one of New York’s largest property owners.
