Why Large Real Estate Brokerages like JLL Choose Consulting Services by Ascendix

After nearly three decades in the CRE technology industry, I’ve seen countless real estate companies, both individual brokers and big enterprises, struggle with the same fundamental problem: when choosing a tech partner, they look at their years of experience, team size, and geographical presence, but very rarely at their CRE industry expertise.

The results are predictable and rarely positive: poor user adoption, systems that don’t fit how brokers actually work, switching from legacy systems to complex and inappropriate modern tools, and technology investments that don’t deliver their promised ROI.

At Ascendix, we’ve built our entire business to solve CRE-specific challenges.

We know the industry inside out, from broker workflows to investment analysis. And we design solutions that actually work for people who use them every day.

Here’s the key difference between generic consultants and Ascendix:

Generic consulting agencies oftentimes bring universal solutions to your business and hope they will work and adapt somehow to real estate.

At Ascendix, we start by understanding your business model and how CRE workflows operate in practice. This allows us to tailor solutions that align perfectly with how your teams work.

When you get the industry expertise right, everything else follows: suitable software, better adoption, faster implementation, streamlined workflows, and visible business impact.

Common Challenges in CRE Technology Without Industry-Specific Expertise

Here’s what we see happening across the industry: companies hire consultants who understand Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, or other platforms, but who fundamentally don’t understand commercial real estate.

They approach CRE challenges with the same templates they use for manufacturing, retail, or financial services.

As a result, CRM implementations end up with 10-15% user adoption rates because the system doesn’t match how brokers work. Some common issues we see include:

• Property searches require ten clicks and half an hour of filter setup when brokers need instant results.
• Deal tracking does not take into account the nuances of how CRE transactions actually flow and what the stages of the deal are required.
• Marketing tools don’t generate leads because they are set up to target everyone – and not the specific audience at CRE.

These challenges aren’t technical. They’re business challenges that require deep industry knowledge to solve. When technology is designed with CRE workflows in mind, adoption improves, processes are streamlined, and teams can focus on driving results.

This is exactly why companies like JLL and CRESA sought out Ascendix – a partner who spoke their language from day one.

Why CRE Expertise Changes Everything

At Ascendix, we don’t just implement technology – we solve CRE problems. When we approach a project, we start by understanding how properties relate to availabilities, how deals flow through approval processes, how brokers actually search for comps, and how marketing materials get created under deadline pressure.

This industry knowledge changes everything about how we design solutions. Instead of forcing CRE workflows into generic templates, we build systems that match how the industry actually operates. Property records that automatically link to lease comps. Search functionality that understands square footage ranges and building classes. Deal tracking that reflects how CRE transactions actually progress from prospect to closing.

The difference becomes obvious in user adoption rates. When systems match how people work, they use them. When brokers can find what they need in seconds instead of minutes, they keep coming back. When marketing materials are generated automatically with current data, teams stop reverting to manual processes.

But expertise goes beyond just knowing the industry – it’s about understanding each client’s specific challenges within that industry context. A global firm like JLL has different requirements than a specialized tenant rep firm like CRESA, even though both operate in commercial real estate. That’s where our consulting approach becomes critical.

How JLL Increased CRM User Adoption by 6 Times with Ascendix

Let me share how we approached the case of JLL – a Fortune 500 real estate and investment management company – when they partnered with us over a decade ago.

JLL is focused on real estate industry, so from the very beginning it was extremely important for them to get a partner who is well-aware of the industry and who is equally knowledgeable in technology and real estate business specifics.

For this reason, Ascendix Technologies came into play.

The initial challenge in this case was poor CRM adoption. Our main task was to help JLL integrate real estate information into their system to track properties, leases, sales, and opportunities, while also adapting the CRM specifically to CRE workflows to increase adoption.

Instead of building a custom CRM software from scratch – which is the best option for customization but would have taken years to accomplish – Ascendix team offered JLL an optimal solution in terms of cost-effectiveness and adaptability: use the existing AscendixRE platform, built on Microsoft Dynamics, but customize it for the JLL specific needs.

This buy-and-build approach allowed them to focus on their core business while we handled the technology challenges.

As a result of such hybrid implementation, which took months rather than years, JLL managed to increase their CRM adoption by six times and get significant competitive advantage in the market.

The success of our partnership with JLL comes from the combination of our deep CRE industry knowledge with development expertise and a solid base of AscendixRE. By uniting all three, our team could provide maximum value in minimal time.

This is the Ascendix advantage: we don’t just build technology – we solve real estate business problems because we understand both sides of the equation.

How We Built a Custom Database for Cresa and Achieved 95% Data Migration Success

Here’s yet another example of when an off-the-shelf solution or mere technical knowledge were not enough for a real estate company.

Cresa New York is one of the largest commercial real estate firms in the world specializing in representing tenants and occupiers. At the time, the company used Salesforce, which was a great choice in terms of scalability and given the company size, but significantly lacked customization and personalization for the real estate data.

Robert Sattler, Principal at Cresa New York, explained their challenge:

From the very beginning, Robert let us know what he expected: Cresa needed full control of their information and real estate-specific customization which Salesforce couldn’t deliver.

To help Cresa, we used our AscendixRE platform and subsequently made the addition of Ascendix Search, which is designed for convenient data search in Salesforce.

Ascendix also needed to import the existing company data and organize it the way it could be easily used.

While Robert first supposed the success rate would be around 50%, in reality it reached closer to 95%, which came as a result of thorough work of Ascendix Technologies principals and three teams who were directly involved throughout the process of migrating Cresa’s data from Excel spreadsheets and csv files to centralized CRE database.

As a result, we successfully transferred more than 8,000 records, over 2,500 lease comps, and another 1,000 accounts with associated contacts, which instantly saved only Robert 3 hours a week on managing data.

Cresa mentions three things that set Ascendix apart from other generic consultancy providers: our deep expertise in commercial real estate, our hands-on approach, and absolute commitment to excellence in every aspect of collaboration.

It was the direct involvement and knowledge of our team and the industry that made the company representatives feel confident that we weren’t going anywhere when support needed to be provided.

For now, CRESA has been successfully using AscendixRE for four years and Ascendix Search for 18 months, and they continue to add features as their business grows.

What These Cases Mean for You

So, when you’re evaluating consulting partners, the key question isn’t just whether they know your technology platform. The right partner must understand your industry deeply enough to deliver solutions that actually work for your business.

Here are some of my ideas of what you can look for while choosing a partner:

• Expertise in the CRE industry. Can they speak your language? Do they understand property types, lease structures, commission flows, and deal progression without needing extensive explanation?
• Successful cases and results in CRE. Look for specific metrics from similar companies. Adoption rates, time savings, process improvements, and visible results of advancements in CRE are all signs of a reliable partner.
• Approach to the consultation process. Are they asking questions about your business processes, or just about your technical requirements? The best partners challenge your assumptions and suggest improvements you haven’t considered.
• Long-term partnership mindset. CRM implementations aren’t one-time projects. Choose partners who provide ongoing support, system evolution, and strategic guidance as your business grows.

Ascendix Technologies matches all the checkboxes – we’ve built our entire practice around these principles.

Our team speaks commercial real estate fluently, understanding tenant rep workflows and deal progression and does not need further educational effort from clients.

This expertise translates into measurable results – our case studies demonstrate measurable results, which is why our clients stay with us for years – they know we view every project as an ongoing partnership, not a one-time delivery.

Why Ascendix Brings Real Results to Our Clients

At Ascendix Technologies, we know for sure that deep industry expertise drives better technology outcomes.

With nearly 30 years focused exclusively on real estate and capital markets, we understand why your business is unique and how to make technology work for it in the best way.

Your business is at the heart of our collaboration: we’ll always start not with the technology or method, but with defining what problems you need to solve.

Only after defining your needs, wants, and requirements will we suggest the combination of technology, customization, best industry practices for your specific case, and a roadmap to implement this idea in reality.

This approach helps us deliver truly remarkable results that really matter for businesses across different types of CRE – whether you’re a global enterprise like JLL or Cresa or a smaller brokerage.

The rule stays the same: when you get software to solve actual business problems, you get solutions that people actually use and that deliver measurable business value.

This is what we do. We solve business problems with technology and bring results for your business.