Over the past year, Kiwi Property has created a digital strategy to transform its business from ‘a bricks and mortar’ company to one that brings together the human, physical and digital to create connected communities. 

Historically the property sector has been focused on buildings. There is now an expectation that the same buildings are more than that – they are a place where people can shop, live, work and socialise. “Our opportunity is to optimise how we create and support these modern-day communities,” says Kiwi Property’s general manager for digital, Angela Henderson. 

Under her leadership, the digital team has evolved from an operational team providing IT support, to a product-lead, data-focused team partnering with the business to deliver efficiencies in the ways they work. 

“Bringing together the impact of new technology with a change in mindset towards how digital can support the business, has been our critical change,” says Henderson. “This ensures we have the foundations to support the wider business through this transformation.”

The buy-in from the executive team and board has been crucial to get financial backing to deliver a best-in-market customer experience and create competitive advantage.

After reviewing resourcing to support the transformation the team has increased from four FTE to 15 FTE in under a year.

There are four key programmes driving innovation across the business:

• Data Warehouse: The team implemented the latest dataware as part of its roadmap to implement a data ecosystem. “This is a ‘greenfield site’ for us,” says Henderson. “There were no processes to gather, store and analyse critical data to drive better decision-making and innovation. The data warehouse will change our business by providing all team members access to centralised data, enabling improved decision-making to drive increased revenue growth and improved customer experiences."
• Core system replacement: Though called ERP, this system impacts all business areas and will support direct engagement with Kiwi Property customers - tenants, vendors, visitors, and team members. This includes systems for the organisation’s innovative build-to-rent development, the largest in New Zealand. “These systems will allow our residential tenants to self-serve: providing them information and services to make everyday living stress-free,” she adds. 
• Customer Hub: This is a programme to deliver omnichannel engagement platforms for all of the company’s customers, transforming static customer engagement via websites to interactive, real-time, or personalised experiences. “Partnering with global tech giants to leverage AI and develop systems that are future ready will ensure that what we are implementing today will be around to serve our customers for a long time,” adds Henderson.
• Microsoft 365 release: This was a critical step in the journey to innovate, according to Henderson, as it allowed the team to set the foundation to streamline how they work across the business. “Moving from disparate systems used for similar work across different departments, to one integrated system that streamlines our current data and processes will ensure that we have line of sight on our processes, systems, data, security, and costs,” she adds.

The programmes are designed to improve both internal and external customer experiences, encouraging increased time spent across the company’s assets, leading to increased revenue. 

“Over the last year, our digital team has been evolving from an operational team focused on providing support and security to a digital team that partners with the business to deliver efficiencies in the ways we work and ultimately improving how we serve our customers,” says Henderson.