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Leading Multi-Property Real Estate Portfolio Real Estate

Enterprise Document Management at Scale

A leading multi-property real estate portfolio centralized 700K+ documents across 20+ properties into a single AI-powered platform — saving $6M in operational costs with automated workflows, intelligent search, and full compliance tracking.

$ 0M Operational Savings
0K+ Documents Centralized
0% Faster Search
0+ Properties Unified

Document Chaos Across 20+ Properties

Managing hundreds of thousands of documents across a sprawling real estate portfolio meant fragmented storage, failed searches, and compliance nightmares.

Hundreds of thousands of documents scattered across disconnected file shares, email attachments, and local drives with no single source of truth.

Regulatory compliance and retention tracking required manual effort — audit preparation took weeks of searching and compiling documentation.

Documents lacked consistent metadata, making classification and retrieval nearly impossible across a 20+ property portfolio.

Finding a specific lease, amendment, or insurance certificate meant searching multiple systems — often taking hours per request.

Document approvals happened over email with no tracking, no audit trail, and no enforcement of review sequences.

Before vs. After DocuArc

Drag the slider to reveal the transformation across every dimension of document operations.

Multiple disconnected file shares
700K+ docs
Single unified SharePoint platform
Hours to find a document
80% faster
AI search returns results in seconds
Manual metadata entry
Zero errors
Automated tagging and classification
Weeks for audit prep
$6M saved
Instant compliance reports
Email-based approvals
Full trails
Automated Power Automate workflows
Before After DocuArc

Building DocuArc in 6 Phases

A structured, phased approach ensured zero disruption to day-to-day operations while transforming document management across the portfolio.

01

Information Architecture

Designed a governed taxonomy aligned with the property hierarchy, retention rules, and compliance requirements — the foundation for every feature that followed.

02

SharePoint Platform Build

Built the core SharePoint Online document management platform with content types, metadata schemas, and role-based access controls across all properties.

03

Wave-Based Migration

Migrated 700K+ documents from legacy file shares and mailboxes in controlled waves — property by property — without disrupting operations.

04

Automated Workflows

Deployed Power Automate workflows for document approvals, retention enforcement, and notification routing across the organization.

05

AI-Powered Search

Integrated Azure Cognitive Search for intelligent document retrieval — employees find any document across all properties in seconds.

06

Analytics & Optimization

Power BI dashboards for document usage analytics, compliance status, and storage optimization — giving leadership operational visibility.

Inside DocuArc

A modern, governed platform that empowers every stakeholder across the portfolio.

Unified Document Hub

All 700K+ documents accessible from a single SharePoint-based portal with property-level navigation and enterprise search.

  • Property-level site hierarchy
  • Cross-property search
  • Bulk upload & migration tools
DocuArc All Documents Properties Compliance Search 700K+ documents... 700K+ Total Documents 20+ Properties 100% Compliance NAME TYPE STATUS Lease-Prop7-2024.pdf Lease Active Insurance-Cert-V12.pdf Insurance Expiring Amendment-03-Prop14.pdf Amendment In Review

AI-Powered Search

Azure Cognitive Search enables natural language queries across the entire document corpus with faceted filtering.

  • Natural language queries
  • Faceted search & filters
  • Content extraction from PDFs
DocuArc Search Find all insurance certificates for Property 7... 12 results found in 0.4 seconds COI-Prop7-Vendor-ABC.pdf Insurance Certificate · Expires: Dec 2024 · 98% match Insurance-Renewal-Prop7.pdf Insurance · Last Updated: Oct 2024 · 94% match Umbrella-Policy-Prop7-2024.pdf Insurance · Valid through 2025 · 91% match

Automated Workflows

Power Automate handles document approvals, retention enforcement, expiration alerts, and stakeholder notifications.

  • Multi-level approval chains
  • Retention policy enforcement
  • Expiration alerts & notifications
Workflow Automation Upload Document received Auto-Tag AI metadata applied Review Approval chain Notify Stakeholder alerts sent Active Workflows ▸ Lease Approval — Property 3 — In Review ▸ Insurance Renewal — Vendor XYZ — Pending ▸ Amendment Signed — Property 14 — Complete ✓ Retention Enforcement Next scheduled: 47 documents flagged for retention review · 3 approaching expiry

Compliance Dashboard

Power BI provides real-time compliance status, audit readiness scores, and document lifecycle analytics.

  • Audit readiness tracking
  • Retention compliance reports
  • Usage analytics & insights
Compliance Dashboard 100% Audit Readiness 0 Audit Findings 98.7% Retention Compliance Compliance by Property Property 1–5: 100% Property 6–10: 99.2% Property 11–15: 98.1% Document Types 700K+ Documents

Built for Every Stakeholder

From property managers to C-suite executives — DocuArc serves the entire organization.

Property Manager

Quick access to leases, vendor agreements, and insurance certificates for their properties.

Legal Counsel

Full-text search across all legal documents with version tracking and approval history.

Compliance Officer

Automated retention tracking, audit reports, and regulatory compliance dashboards.

Executive Leadership

Portfolio-wide analytics on document operations, compliance, and cost savings.

Operations Staff

Day-to-day document access with role-based permissions and mobile-ready interface.

Measurable Outcomes

DocuArc delivered transformative results across cost savings, efficiency, and compliance.

Operational cost savings

Documents centralized

Reduction in search time

Compliance tracking coverage

Properties unified

Audit findings since launch

Al Rafay Consulting was an outstanding partner in developing our internal systems. They took a detailed upfront inventory of the team's existing tools and processes, as well as areas our overall system could improve. ARC was extremely communicative throughout the development process and instrumental in the successful launch.
Adam Goldblatt Director, Investments — BioMed Realty

From Discovery to Launch

A phased approach ensured zero disruption while migrating 700K+ documents across the portfolio.

Phase 1

Discovery & Data Model

Weeks 1–4

Stakeholder interviews, information architecture, and taxonomy design across all 20+ properties.

Phase 2

Core Platform Build

Weeks 5–10

SharePoint site hierarchy, content types, metadata schema, and role-based access controls.

Phase 3

Wave-Based Migration

Weeks 8–18

Property-by-property document migration from legacy file shares and mailboxes.

Phase 4

Workflows & Automation

Weeks 14–20

Power Automate approval workflows, retention enforcement, and notification routing.

Phase 5

AI Search & Analytics

Weeks 18–24

Azure Cognitive Search integration, Power BI dashboards, and compliance reporting.

Phase 6

Hypercare & Handover

Weeks 24–28

User training, documentation, runbook handover, and two-week hypercare support.

Technology Stack

DocuArc runs entirely within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem — no extra licensing or data egress.

DocuArc
SharePoint Online Document Platform
Power Automate Workflow Engine
Azure Cognitive Search AI Search
Power BI Analytics
Microsoft 365 Ecosystem
Azure Cloud Platform
  • SharePoint Online — Document Platform
  • Power Automate — Workflow Engine
  • Azure Cognitive Search — AI Search
  • Power BI — Analytics
  • Microsoft 365 — Ecosystem
  • Azure — Cloud Platform

Frequently Asked Questions

How long did this implementation take?
Multi-phase implementation spanning several months with iterative releases throughout. The governed content types, metadata schema, and core SharePoint site architecture shipped first, followed by wave-based property migrations, Power Automate workflows, and AI-powered search.
What was the team composition?
A cross-functional team of SharePoint architects, migration engineers, Power Automate developers, an information architect, and a search and AI specialist worked alongside the client's property operations leads, compliance officers, and IT stakeholders.
How is this different from off-the-shelf document management tools?
Off-the-shelf DMS products assume a generic folder-and-permissions model. DocuArc is built around the client's property hierarchy, retention rules, and compliance needs — including metadata, workflows, and audit trails that line up with how a real estate portfolio actually operates.
How does DocuArc handle regulatory compliance at scale?
Every document carries automated metadata, role-based access, and a full audit trail, so compliance tracking is a byproduct of normal use rather than a separate effort. The platform is designed for very large libraries, with AI-powered search keeping retrieval fast even as the corpus grows across dozens of properties.
Can DocuArc integrate with existing systems?
Yes. The platform integrates via Power Automate connectors and Microsoft Graph APIs. The implementation connects with the client's property management systems, ERP, and email infrastructure for seamless document flow.
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