World’s 3rd largest real estate firm replaces Measurabl with Enertiv to get accurate utility & emissions data

Not all utility and emissions data is collected, managed and delivered equally.

The world’s third-largest real estate private equity firm found this out the hard way with Measurabl.

They faced unresolved data gaps, missing bills, and missing utility accounts, forcing busy property managers to do manual updates.

To top it off, customer service was awful. They had no point of contact and often waited weeks for responses, only to receive generic replies that didn't fix the problem.

The situation got so bad that they had to cut off Measurabl's access to stop them from overwriting corrected data. Despite efforts to fix data, Measurabl would push incorrect data back, creating a vicious cycle. Finally, they removed Measurabl’s access to Energy Star.

Fed up, the Managing Director and Head of U.S. Commercial Asset Management decided enough was enough.

They turned to Enertiv to fix it. Our team dug into years of mishandled data, addressing issues no one had caught before.

Today, Enertiv has completely replaced Measurabl across 67 properties, covering 217 utility accounts to push into Energy Star, and delivering accurate data utility data for water, electricity, gas and trash that underpins their energy management and sustainability efforts.  We started in January 2024 and completed the transition in about 4 months.

Before Enertiv: The Challenges with Measurabl

When Enertiv stepped in, we dug deep and found years of data errors that had gone unnoticed. While the client knew of some missing accounts, data gaps, and duplicates, they had no idea how widespread the issues were. Without access to utility bills, they couldn’t verify the data. Here are the specific problems we uncovered:

• Repushing of Data: Corrected entries were often overwritten by Measurabl, causing deleted or amended meter data to reappear incorrectly.

• Missing and Incorrect Data: Electricity data was frequently missing, and incorrect total costs were reported by combining water and electricity data. Bills that needed to be split between properties were only split by cost, leading to over-reporting.

• Data Gaps and Unresearched Issues: Gaps and missing data weren't investigated, compromising the reliability of reports. In some cases, Measurabl didn't get a copy of the utility bill and didn't try to obtain it, resulting in gaps in Energy Star data.

• Cycle Mismatches: Consumption data was mismatched to billing cycles, with current cycle consumption noted on the previous cycle, leaving the current cycle blank.

• Unauthorized Data Pushes: Despite attempts to turn off Measurabl’s data push functions, they continued to push incorrect data, necessitating the removal of their access entirely.

• Accounts on the Wrong Property: Accounts were assigned to the wrong properties and incorrect units of measure.

• Estimated vs. Actual Bills: When utility providers estimated bills and later issued corrected ones, Measurabl pushed both bills into the system without fixing or deleting the estimated bill, causing data inconsistencies.

This flawed data was rolled up to executive-level dashboards for scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions and climate risk reporting. But with so many errors, how could they trust these reports?

From data dumps to white glove service

The issues with Measurabl might be tolerable for a small company that sticks with an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” mindset, but for one of the world’s largest real estate firms, it just wasn't acceptable.

The scale and stakes required a much higher standard for data accuracy and proactive quality checks.

The crux of the issue with Measurabl is that they act as an intermediary, pushing data from utility providers to Energy Star with little post-processing, quality control, or oversight. This led to data gaps, missing accounts, and frequent errors that went unnoticed.

If the utility provider didn't issue a bill, nobody looked into it. If they issued a corrected bill, Measurabl didn't fix it in Energy Star. If usernames and passwords failed, the properties weren’t notified.

In contrast, Enertiv offers a white glove service, always present and focused on data quality. We don't just push data; we meticulously capture, verify, and continuously QA it. We flag any issues, prompting immediate checks and corrections.

Clients can directly access, verify, and download their utility bills on our platform, with detailed bill history and breakdowns for electricity, water, and natural gas.

Best of all, you’ll never face a generic customer service email or speak to a chatbot. Enertiv's support is handled by real people who aim for a 4-hour response time.

We’re pretty maniacal about it. There’s always someone watching the website chats. Notifications are set up so we respond quickly.

Step-by-step implementation process

Here’s how we transitioned 67 properties away from Measurabl in 4 months for the world’s third largest private equity real estate firm:

1. Preparation Phase

We started by gathering all the account logins we were already using for utility billing and made a list of what we had to see what we were missing. Then, we obtained all the logins that Measurabl had and cross-compared them with ours to identify any gaps.

2. Cross-comparison and Onboarding

After comparing the logins, we onboarded all the ones we didn’t have. We followed our regular onboarding process, including data quality assurance (QA) and connecting the systems.

3. Transition Management

We tackled any conflicts with Measurabl, particularly issues of them overwriting our data. To ensure a smooth transition, we set a firm date to turn off Measurabl from all properties, making the switch to Enertiv.

4. Handling Remaining Accounts

We managed any accounts that didn’t transition smoothly by reaching out directly to properties for any missing logins.

5. Monitoring and Error Handling

To maintain data integrity, we set up automated alerts for accounts that hadn’t been updated for over 45 days. When an account went down, we manually checked and emailed the properties to resolve the issues.

6. Utility Bill Processing and QA

We verified that the utility bill data was correct and matched our utility bill object in the system. To ensure accuracy, we performed QA on several months of bills.

7. API Integration with Energy Star

We created an API link between our system and Energy Star for each account or meter. After an initial mass push of data, we verified that everything matched up correctly.

8. Ongoing Monitoring and QA

The system was set up to automatically push new utility bill data to Energy Star every month. We reviewed the data monthly to catch and address any flags or errors.

9. Proactive Alerts

We implemented additional flags to monitor changes in cost, consumption, billing cycles, and anomalies. Continuous monitoring allowed us to fix any issues flagged by the system promptly.

This step-by-step approach allowed us to smoothly transition from Measurabl to Enertiv, ensuring data integrity and compliance with Energy Star requirements.

Takeaway: The Illusion of Safety in Choosing the Incumbent Solution

“Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM.”

This notion suggests that sticking with well-known mega-vendors like IBM or Microsoft is a safe bet, one that shields decision-makers from scrutiny.

Nowadays, it’s used with a hint of cynicism and for good reason: there’s an insidious type of too-safe thinking buried in the message.

Measurabl deserves major credit for building the category of real estate ESG data analytics. They brought attention to the importance of managing and reporting on environmental, social, and governance metrics, setting a foundation for the industry.

However, they have become the megavendor of the real estate world.

Their emphasis on scale over quality and acting as a middleman for utility data has caused major issues for this client, including data errors, poor customer service, and unresolved problems.

This switch from Measurabl to Enertiv shows that the real safety net is not in the vendor's size but in the quality and responsiveness of their service.

Sticking with the "safe" choice can result in underperforming technology, wasted time and higher costs.

If all you need is utility bill synchronization and you’re comfortable handling everything on your own, fixing mistakes, and managing with minimal support, then Measurabl is enough.

Enertiv lies on the other end of the spectrum. We offer a high-quality, white-glove service for companies that can't afford to make mistakes and waste time double-checking everything continuously.

If you need more than a data intermediary but a team obsessed with getting you 100% accurate data the first time, every time, then you may need a fully managed solution like Enertiv.