How Dottid Helped Bolster TriGate Capital's Operational Efficiency and Prepare the Team for the Future of Commercial Real Estate
Founded in 2008 and headquartered in downtown Dallas, TriGate Capital focuses on the acquisition and recapitalization of quality real estate assets and companies. From the outset, TriGate desired efficiency in all they do.
Throughout the years, TriGate has fielded a catalog of PropTech solutions – most notably, VTS. According to TriGate Senior Vice President, John Mearns, TriGate had third-party service providers and people within their own team who had signed up with VTS, individually. But, for TriGate, VTS was not a good fit for companywide adoption. Thus, John and his team continued with their manual processes and got small glimpses into other platforms through partners in the space. “We had partners and talked with VTS over the years, but really didn't feel like it was that effective,” John explains.
Today, TriGate utilizes Dottid. Dottid enables the TriGate team to gain valuables insights, have transparency throughout the entire leasing process, and grow their portfolio. So, why did TriGate partner with Dottid?
“We can now track the construction managers, the costs, and whether those costs are actually coming in where we contracted...”
Before Dottid, John used Excel sheets to manage his leasing processes, get updates from his team, and conduct leasing meetings. When TriGate caught wind of Dottid and began a pilot, John took a break from his spreadsheets to give the software a chance. What he experienced included: streamlined workflows, consistent communication amongst teams, and more time to do other work. Throughout the pilot, John and the TriGate team found Dottid to be their tool of the future to drive asset performance.
TriGate made an active, purposeful effort to have everyone learn Dottid and get plugged in on the platform – from brokers, to executives, to construction personnel. In doing this, Dottid has empowered John – and TriGate – to keep everyone accountable, from inquiry through buildout. With every team member active on one centralized platform, nothing gets lost and complex, moving pieces are managed with ease through standard processes.
“We can now track the construction managers, the costs, and whether those costs are actually coming in where we contracted,” John explains. “Recently, with costs going through the roof, that’s been especially important. Then we've got the portfolio management side – with Dottid we can compare things across the portfolio that we couldn't do very easily before.”
Now, John – along with other TriGate executives – leverages Dottid’s visual stacking plan for his leasing calls. John trusts Dottid to get things right and deliver everything he needs to be aware of – in real-time – minimizing lag periods, delays, miscommunication, and blind spots.
John Mearns
Senior Vice President, Trigate Capital
“We're all using it and we're all more aligned on things – we're running the entire process through Dottid.”
“Having that stacking plan through Dottid has made it a lot easier to look at all the relevant info in real-time,” John notes. “For example, I've got leasing projects on Dottid, in multiple markets, and we've got the brokers using it, the construction managers using it, the property managers using it. So, we're all using it and we're all more aligned on things – we're running the entire process through Dottid.”
Simultaneously, Dottid helps eliminate uncertainty for John. “My spreadsheet was great in tracking the process up until we signed a lease, and it became a bit of a black hole,” John says. “I could look at the property manager reports once a month, and that's usually when I would find out whether things were or were not going according to plan.”
“Now, when things go wrong in the build-out process, we're getting the info earlier – that was a huge roadblock before, and Dottid has alleviated the stress associated with it…in addition to helping any issues be resolved more quickly. It's helped us stay on top of our construction managers to make sure that the tenants are going to take occupancy as we originally expected, which means they're going to be paying rent when we expected – not two, three, or four months later.”
There’s a massive difference with Dottid, because the head of client success is a seasoned commercial real estate professional – he understands, he listens, he takes customer feedback. Then, he relays that info to Dottid’s product and engineering teams in a way that they understand, so that a solution can be implemented.
“You brought in someone to spearhead client success who is kind of the nuts and bolts,” John states. “He can understand what it is that I want to do and what it is that I'm doing, and he can go back to the software engineers and get a remedy put in place. That didn’t exist at with our prior software – it was just this big piece of software, with a bunch of guys out there just trying to sell it. Once you signed, there was no way you were going to be able to give feedback – and actually see it.”
Lastly, John and TriGate trust that Dottid will grow as they do – signing on with Dottid helps them prepare for the future of CRE and their business in a proactive way. The first iteration of the integration between Dottid and Argus Enterprise Cloud will go live this summer. This is a massive milestone in PropTech and something that has never happened before.
“This partnership with Argus Cloud will only push us to use Dottid even more, and to integrate absolutely everything with the platform.”
“The Argus integration is really key for us,” John explains. “With the integration, our hope is that we're able to take all this data that we're putting into Dottid and have it reflected in Argus – and move on it in a way unlike anything before. This partnership with Argus Cloud will only push us to use Dottid even more, and to integrate absolutely everything with the platform.”
Dottid met TriGate where they were, eliminated lengthy Excel spreadsheets, salesperson fatigue, and uncertainty throughout the leasing process. Dottid now enables TriGate employees to work more efficiently and collaboratively – ultimately driving greater value inside their portfolio. We’re honored to call TriGate Capital our customer.