Commercial real estate owners are making a costly mistake by lumping operational technology (OT) in with information technology (IT), according to Bill Douglas, CEO of OpticWise. In a recent statement, Douglas outlined how this confusion leads to inefficiency, lost data, and higher expenses across properties.
Douglas explained that IT manages organizational infrastructure such as servers, email, and cybersecurity, while OT controls building systems like HVAC, lighting, access control, and leak detection. “IT is very skilled and very necessary at running the organization’s systems … but operational technology is a completely different thing,” he said. “Most ownership groups have no idea these two categories exist.”
The problem arises when ownership groups ask who oversees building technology. IT managers often volunteer because low-voltage wiring resembles their domain, property managers step in because buildings are their responsibility, and asset managers remain silent, focused on financial reports. As a result, no one truly owns OT, creating a vacuum filled by vendors.
Douglas noted that vendors step in when owners lack an OT strategy. A property manager, stretched thin, might buy a solution from a trade show that addresses one issue but doesn’t integrate with other systems. Over time, a typical 250,000-square-foot building ends up with a dozen disconnected systems, redundant networks, and data locked in vendor platforms. “They have strategies to build properties, to buy properties, to sell properties … but they often just ignore the digital. So the vendors run the roost,” Douglas said.
This approach not only breeds inefficiency but also causes owners to lose valuable operational data. Every system generates data that belongs to the property owner, but when vendors manage the systems, they retain the data. Owners pay for services without receiving the intelligence that could improve performance.
Douglas emphasized that property managers, IT managers, and asset managers are capable people being asked to do tasks outside their expertise. “We are asking the wrong people to do the right tasks,” he said. “A property manager’s job is to take care of tenants and lease up the building. Not to manage networks they never designed and probably cannot document.” He compared the situation to sports: asking a pitcher to be a pinch hitter or a running back to play linebacker—possible but not effective.
Effective OT management requires a digital strategy, a digital architect, and accountability for the data produced. These roles can be filled internally or through a partner, but they must exist. The Peak Property Performance framework, developed by Douglas and OpticWise founder Drew Hall, provides owners with a structured process to audit existing systems, connect them, collect data, and use it to boost performance and profitability.
The costs of ignoring OT are clear. Utility savings come from understanding energy consumption, not from telling a property manager to use less. Insurance rates drop when owners can document maintenance history and system performance. Tenant experience improves when buildings operate reliably and problems are caught early. Without OT management, lights stay on in empty buildings, water damage goes undetected, and systems run on default settings for years. “You lose control of your expenses,” Douglas said. “And you lose the data you should be able to use to operate more efficiently and drive more revenue.”
For commercial real estate leaders, the message is that OT is its own discipline with its own requirements and return on investment. Recognizing this distinction is the first step toward capturing the data and efficiency that buildings already produce.
