Leveraging Data and Insights for Strategic Decision-Making

Every now and then a hunch works out. In 1996, for instance, then-Denver Broncos coach Mike Shanahan—on a hunch—decided to give an unheralded sixth-round draft choice a chance to receive regular reps. 

That man was Terrell Davis, who eventually morphed into a two-time Super Bowl winner and NFL Hall of Famer. 

Here and there, a similar story unfolds in the business world. These examples are few and far between, however. The sharpest business decisions are almost always data-driven, according to a panel at the 2025 Entrata Summit session Leveraging Data and Insights for Strategic Decision-Making. 

Panelists from Cardinal Group Companies, a Denver-based multifamily operator, discussed ways the organization has leveraged tech tools to automate processes, gain real-time insights, achieve cost savings and enable teams to do more with less. 

Preleasing conundrum

Cardinal Group was experiencing a 1% drop in preleasing despite more total leases being signed and wanted to know why. Rather than operating on a hunch, the team utilized BI tools to discover what was fueling the slight decline. It turned out that the preleasing percentage was only part of the equation, as it didn’t account for factors such as cancellations. 

In this case, the BI-fueled visual story showed that 55% of Cardinal Group’s no-shows qualified through a prepaid rent addendum. Even though the organization had a hunch that this potentially high-risk qualifying method was negatively impacting leasing, it was hesitant to remove it before seeing the data. 

“We don’t rely on market surveys or data from our external sources,” said Latoya Anderson, Director of Financial Systems and Innovations for Cardinal Group Management. “We rely heavily on our internal data.”

By analyzing the company’s recent performance against its own historical benchmarks, Cardinal Group was able to tailor leasing goals on a per-community basis to reach its targeted audience and recalibrate its preleasing metrics. 

Garbage In, Garbage Out

Relying on internal data is fantastic, of course. But oftentimes in multifamily, organizations have a surplus data—yet cannot utilize it in a strategic fashion.  

“You not only have to have the data—the data has to be useful,” said Brooke London, Systems Admin for Cardinal Group Management. “You can have a lot of data in your system, but if it’s garbage, what are you going to do with it?”

Quantifying which data is relevant and making it actionable takes time, she said, but ultimately is worth the effort.  

“If you’re using a BI tool, that’s great, because you can pull all your data points,” London said. “But you’re going to have to architect how that data is then housed, so a visualization team can then use those data points. It doesn’t happen overnight. It starts with understanding what data is important to you and why.”

The primary recommendations from London and Anderson were:

• Don’t just collect data. Own it and utilize it. 
• Move from anecdotes to actual insights. 
• Use those insights to adjust on the fly in a fast-paced industry. 

Anderson and London also urged teams to make certain that the metrics compare and align. For instance, the budget dedicated to window washing at a garden-style community would be far less than that at a high-rise community, and such property-specific distinctions should be accounted for when assessing average costs. 

Ultimately, having a hunch is fine, they said. Nothing is wrong with intuition. But utilizing BI tools to prove or disprove the hunch should be a standard practice.