Why Smart Storage Operators Win with Better Data - OpenTech Alliance

Jared Gabaldon: [00:00:00] welcome back to the podcast. We're really happy to have you. And today we actually have Kimberly Robinson and Justin Johnson of Open Tech Alliance. And also from our team we have Bray Allen with us as well. So welcome Bray. And so, you know, this podcast comes on the heels of a partnership that we've recently announced where we will actually be pre punching our doors.

So that way it's much easier to install the Insomniac Smart Lock Line from Open Tech Alliance. And so, you know, I think before we dig into any of this, let's, if you can just talk about, you know, Kimberly or Kim, what do you do at open tech? And then same thing for Justin.

Kimberly Robinson: Sure, yeah. Um, Kim or Kimberly is fine. Not, uh, particular in that regards, but I am our VP of marketing, so I oversee, um, most of our US based marketing as well as support our international global marketing as well. Um, and I have been super fortunate since I started to work on our self storage data white paper.

So it was a really cool introduction to [00:01:00] our products, to our industry. I work with each of our product managers now, um, that we have those. That's been a cool evolution, um, to really dive into that data and figure out what we have learned or what we have access to through all of our solutions that might be beneficial to our operators. Um, so that's just a little bit about me.

Justin Johnson: I am Justin Johnson. Uh, I'm one of the product managers here at Open Tech. My lights just turned off in the office, so that was fun. Um, I, I, I dabble a lot in all of our products. My, my main focus right now is the Smart Locks. Um, I've been with Open Tech about 13 years. I, I've seen a lot of cool things, uh, take off and develop here.

So it's been, uh, it's, it's been a pretty good journey. Um. To get to this point that we're at right now with a lot of our technology, uh, we have a lot of great backing from our marketing team. Uh, our product team's very strong, and so we're always out there just trying to see what else we can do, where we can innovate, what we can do more [00:02:00] of.

Jared Gabaldon: before, you know, we dig in, talking about the white paper and , the white paper is just full of all this really useful data. All this data comes from your product lines. And so I just would like a preview of, what are really the flagship products that you offer?

Uh, 'cause there's quite a few.

Kimberly Robinson: Yeah, sure. Um, so we cover a range of technology and automation, right? Everything that we offer is essentially designed to help operators run their businesses more efficiently, grow their revenue or serve their customers better. Those are kind of the three tenets that everything is built around. Um, we began with kiosks, which is probably what, many people know us for. Back in 2003. Um, we got a patent for those and started rolling those out and really quickly discovered they needed some human support behind them, which led to the, uh, introduction of our call center solution, which, fields both the video calls on kiosks as well as supports just general calls for operators. Um, one thing that we're probably most known for, came out back in 2018, and that is our access control [00:03:00] solutions. CIA, a lot of people lose the open tech brand and just kind of know us in that regards. Um, and it was, we'll talk more about this later, but it was one of the biggest catalysts for the evolution of the white paper and the data that we have access to. Another solution that we is pretty well known, but a lot of people dunno, that we're a part of is s Storage Treasure. So that online auction platform we have owned and managed that for, um, I wanna say eight years now, back since 2016. Don't test my math. So nine years. Um, we've got others, right? We have, uh, an AI security monitoring solution.

We have recently rolled out smart locks, which I know Justin is very proud of and it's gonna share more about. Um, and then we have a whole host of, um, other sort of smaller supporting solutions. But I would say that's probably the core.

Jared Gabaldon: Excellent, excellent. And yeah, so, you know, talking about Insomniac Smart Locks, um, I gotta see it at the trade show. We had it in our booth. I know Bray put together a really cool, uh, display with it on there and we can really tell that it was designed for, [00:04:00] the user, keeping the user in mind.

And I think, you know, Justin, if you could just talk to us a little bit about what it was like to develop it and what are some of the key features that you're excited for the operator at the end of the day.

Justin Johnson: Yeah, I, it, it's definitely been a labor of love. Um, this, this product, I mean, really the development of it spans back about seven years, six or seven years. I was not necessarily part of the product team at that point, but I was around for our initial rollout doing support and a lot of training around it. Um, I think it took us a while to get to the point where we were ready to bring something that was innovative and competitive to the market. The, there's really been an arms race the last few years, uh, as far as electronic locks and smart locks go. Uh, as you can see by, by Bray's wall that you just mentioned that you have at your booth, right?

There's a lot of different options that are out there based on was available at the time, uh, [00:05:00] and what the operator wanted. What we bring to the table, I think is a lot more accessibility for the tenant. one of the most standout features of that smart lock is our touch pad. So e even if the facility, if the tenant doesn't have an, an app or they don't want to use an app, they can still get into their unit. We don't force anybody to interact, um, with our products a certain way. We wanna make sure that we meet them where they're at. So if they don't wanna download an app, um, or maybe they don't in this day and age forbid they had, they don't have a cell phone for some reason. They're still able to interact with the property, um, get into their unit and, um, not have to worry too much about something they, uh, about interacting with it with the way they don't want to.

Um, the other really key benefit is on the operation side. Storage facilities are pretty notorious for having poor cellular reception, uh, having poor internet connection. And so our locks can actually operate [00:06:00] while the internet is down because we store a lot of our data on the lock itself and it's all encrypted. But if the internet's down, a tenant can still walk up, punch in their code and get into their unit, it doesn't have to talk to the cloud and come back down and check with this service. It doesn't have to do all of that. I think those are two of the really big things that have helped us, um, really get ahead in the market with the smart locks.

I could talk about 'em for hours, but I think those are, those are two of the really big sticking points as far as the, the tenants interaction and, um. Their adoption of the technology in the market has just been ease of use and convenience.

Jared Gabaldon: I think another sticking point on those has been, generally from what we've heard about, you know, the marketplace on these is the, battery life

Justin Johnson: Yep.

Jared Gabaldon: uh, was that an obstacle you guys had to overcome with these as well?

Justin Johnson: I think that was the big bulk of it, was how do we develop an efficient piece of technology that doesn't consume a lot of battery life? And [00:07:00] we get about six years worth of battery life. Out of our, our, our battery packs. They're just double As. We don't use lithium ion, don't use really expensive, um, proprietary, uh, batteries that you have to replace in a year or two years. It's very much off the shelf. Duracell, AA batteries. Um, we're seeing six years. That's the number that I can safely promote really. The batteries themselves. Um, depending on what quality of battery life you have, you could get even, or what quality of battery you buy, you could get even more out of it. That's something that we're really proud of and I think is a big talking point, um, as we're working with operators.

'cause it, it really brings down kind of the total cost of ownership of that lock. They're not having to go out and spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars every couple of years on batteries.

Jared Gabaldon: Yeah, for sure. How about you Bray? What's your take on the, partnership and their lock that I know you got to experience it yourself as well?

Bray Allen: thanks Justin and Kim for participating. We, we, we are excited about the future opportunities that we have to work and collaborate together. [00:08:00] So super stoked about it. Yeah, so, you know, I was fortunate, I got to go out and visit, open tech last year.

Robert and team there just kind of walked us around and showed us some of their features. And look, I, I'll be honest with you, as a. As a product, engineer and individual, some of it was very, very impressive. Like, I didn't know that that technology existed without having, you know, dove into the deep end, so to speak, to get, uh, immersed in some of it.

So it, it, it was very, very impressive. And, and I, I can see as the market's trending and shifting in a direction to where all the technology and, and the, the capabilities to being, being able to show trends and how things are utilized, that that is becoming more and more prevalent in the market every day, right?

I mean, it's like Excel sheets on steroids now, right? We just, data junkies, we, every decision we make is, is driven off of data. And so that actually brought up a question. I'm curious. Sorry, Jared, I, I hope this is interactive. So I'm curious, you know, Justin, your reference to the keypad, I think that's [00:09:00] a great feature in being able to access that regardless of what the outside world, you know, for lack of a better term, is doing with internet and service and whatnot.

Do you have data to show, uh, how many users are using the keypad feature as opposed to the, to the, the, the Bluetooth or not, not necessarily Bluetooth, but whatever the smartphone app feature is. Do you have data to show what the percentage of usage is there? And, and I'd be curious to see if that's, uh, if that's driven even geographically.

Uh, I'm from the south and we have, you know, we're kind of touchy feely. We wanna be able to put a key in it or, you know, type in a code and,

uh, you know, and, and so I'm just curious if that data exists and what, what's that look like? How, how, how do you guys know what your best solution is?

Justin Johnson: So we, we do have that, that data. I, I think a lot of it is still kind of in its infancy right now as more of the market starts to adopt the locks. Um, our, our sample size is [00:10:00] relatively low. I, I think that on the last time I actually went through and looked at that, um, probably about 20 to 25% of users, or sorry, of tenants I should say, are actually interacting with the locks in that fashion. Um, Kim has done a big push instructing operators and helping, instructing tenants on how to use our mobile app, which is Storage Genie. And so what we're trying to do is add more features, make it more feature rich, add more functionality, um, to help drive more adoption of that by the tenants, because we rely a lot on the facility as well. push that to their tenants. And if they don't have good collateral and they don't have a good grasp on, you know, how to light, how to lead them through that process, our numbers are not gonna be very authentic. So yes, we, we do collect that data. It, it is something that we're harvesting and I think as we get towards the end of 2025, we're gonna have a much more realistic [00:11:00] picture of what that means. Um, I work with a lot of new operators in the space that have done that. This, they're, they're doing their very first build from the ground up, or maybe they're dipping their toes into a second facility. Um, and so they're still kind of learning the world of self storage in general, all technology that's out there. And so as, as we lead them down these paths to use different technology like, um, our mobile app or the smart locks, they start to engage and learn what means to engage with.

Kimberly Robinson: I had love to, I'd love to chime in on this though. So Justin's super, right? We don't have that for smart locks. We do have it for CIA. So that's one of the things that used to jump out at me more and more every year as we put this white paper together, our storage gene adoption has grown exponentially. Um, and it's not a direct correlation to platform growth. Users are using it more more but it still only represents 14% of all gate opens. So that is one of the things that really drove our inclusion of the [00:12:00] keypad on these smart locks. And we occasionally catch some flack for it because it does make them bigger.

They're not as sleek and as, you know, small as some of the other solutions on the market. But it was driven by that tenant preference for that keypad, regardless of the, um, availability of that Bluetooth app. Uh, you asked about regional data too, again, we don't have it for smart locks yet because of the amount of solutions in the field systems in the field.

We do have it for CIA and some of that is in the white paper. Um, and you do see it kind of shift, uh, across different regions. The East Coast actually has more adoption of the mobile app than some of the other regions as well as Europe. So this is the first year that we've been able to pull it out um regionally, and I think it was London. London's, about 64% of their users are utilizing the mobile app. So there's some drastic differences between, um, our market here and the market overseas, and you can kind of see that regional breakdown. Um, if you wanna dive into the data.

Bray Allen: Yeah. And I think that's, you know, what you said, Kim, I think is, is wildly important. The fact that [00:13:00] you used your data from CIA as part of your decision making process for your smart labs, that that's relevant to how much, uh, benefit this technology brings, right? It enables you, again, you have data to be able to make conscious decisions, not, I hope it works.

You know, you, you know, going in, here's what our usability is going to be, you know, here's what our access is going to be. So, again, kudos to you guys for, for generating that and or having that forethought and, and, and mindset to be able to go out and bring something to the market that, you know, is going to be a success out of the gate.

Right. That, that's, that's huge. So, yeah, again, kudos to you.

Kimberly Robinson: I say it's one of the reasons it took us so long to come to market is 'cause we wanted to do it right. So we took the time to learn, took the time to test and figure out, yeah, what do people want and what do people need to make the solution successful

Justin Johnson: to that!

Jared Gabaldon: And yeah. Cheers. And another kudos to you, especially, you know, Kim, is you know, your white paper from 2025 [00:14:00] my favorite type of marketing is the kind that gives value for value's sake. And I think I brought that up to you at the trade show as well. And so, you know, this is something that you've undertaken for the past six years.

It's been around even longer than that. And so. I guess just go into a little bit of the history and how you kind of made it your own over this period of time and, um, yeah, I know, I know that Justin loves to give you your kudos for this.

Kimberly Robinson: Yes, he's very kind. Um, and I can take no credit for the idea behind why we have a white paper. This is something that, um, Robert Chiti actually introduced back in 2006. Uh, now we haven't done it every year. I think this is only our 14th edition. We've done it every year for the last six years. Um, and part of that was really driven by the data we had access to.

Um, and that's really how I've been able to make my own. Obviously I am a marketer, so I've wanted to kind of really ensure that it's the best representation of our brand and our products and make it really visually pleasing. Um, but the first one that I did was in 2019, which means we were looking at [00:15:00] 2018 data.

'cause we're always looking a year behind. Um. And what came out in 2018 was our IOE platform. Uh, and that really forms the backbone of CIA, the backbone of our access control solution. Uh, and we developed that solution yes, to address a lot of the issues with hardware and installation and support that operators were having, but also to really be able to add a layer of value in terms of the data that operators had access to in terms of the access to their properties that they had or could have when they weren't there.

Um, and that was really one of the biggest catalysts for how I've been able to make this white paper, uh, my own in a sense. We had so much more data, so it went from a 15 page document to a 40 page document. Yes, some of that is pictures, but a lot of that is the data that we had from these solutions that we developed or the solutions that we acquired.

Um, storage Treasures is another one. We have so much data on that platform to really be able to share with operators how to manage their auctions better to. Recoup more of that [00:16:00] lost rent and lost revenue. Um, so those are the biggest pieces for me. And I know as, um, everyone continues to look at how do I add more value?

How do I operate more efficiently? You know, um, we have, we have many operators that have begun using this data to achieve six figure savings, to learn when they can potentially push rental increases. I know ECRI has been a huge topic for the last couple of years. Um, they're being able to see when tenants are on property, how long they're staying, um, when they're calling to rent a unit, all of these different things that are gonna let them either capture more revenue or improve the tenant experience, or again, to that point, operate a little bit more efficiently. so it's been an exciting journey. and it's one that we continue to work on. So Justin and I have been having conversations for the last, I wanna say, year and a half, around data do we. Or could we collect with smart locks? That is going to add another layer of value for operators. Um, what don't they already know from their access control solution?

I think one example [00:17:00] we landed on is how often people are visiting your property or visiting an operator's property and not opening their unit, because if they're doing that, they're probably not there for a great reason. Um, so it's been a, a good, great journey and we've, again, I mentioned earlier, we kind of have continued to add more product managers who really own these solutions and really are trying to understand how we're adding more value for the operator with them and with the data.

Justin Johnson: I think we're trying to really think ahead, right? As opposed to reacting to someone asking, do you have this kind of data? And go, well, lemme see how we can put it together. We're trying to predict, you know, things that we want to see to help drive the business and help drive the development. But what we think is gonna be beneficial, Bray, you bringing up the, the request of saying, Hey, how many people are using the app versus the touch pad. That's something that Kim was like, Hey, do we have something like this? You know, and turn my light back.

Kimberly Robinson: There we go.

Justin Johnson: Oh, this is

Bray Allen: Upside is, is even if the lights go out, your product still works, [00:18:00] right?

Justin Johnson: So, so, you know, even

Bray Allen: Right there.

Justin Johnson: you asking that question, it's like, well, you know, we, it, it makes me feel good because I know that we're on the right track because people that don't have any involvement in what we're doing in our day-to-day are saying, Hey, it would be cool if we knew what this

Bray Allen: Yeah.

Well, and I think, yes, sir, and I think Kim hit on something that I, I. You know, as with, with you guys in marketing and product development, I, I know that there's a fine line in, in, you know, customer facing versus internal, what we do, right? At, at the end of the day, we're all salespeople, right? We're all promoting the brand that we represent, uh, uh, and our partners.

And so I think, I think Kim hit on something there that I thought was very important and, and it was the fact that this product was developed not only to help operators increase revenue, but also as a service to the tenant. Uh, you know, sometimes we lose focus on how does this help, you know, how does this help SteelBlue, [00:19:00] right?

Or how does this help open tech? Or, or how does this help, you know, the, the facility owner? Uh, and sometimes there's no weight added to, how does it help the entire. Uh, the, the entire spectrum of people involved. And so the fact that you took into consideration, what can we do to make the tenant, uh, that, that, that user, uh, a, a more user friendly atmosphere as well as increasing potential revenue for the operator, as well as how do we work with, you know, with our partners in the industry to, to put their product, uh, you know, our product on, on their, on their doors, and vice versa, right?

How do I sell my product with your product on our doors, right? It's all in service to the industry as a whole, not just an individual group. But the industry as a whole, and I think some of that's been lost, uh, over the years. So again, kudos to the team there at, at OpenTech for identifying how do we best service the industry, [00:20:00] uh, not just OpenTech, not, not just SteelBlue, not just the industry as a whole.

So again, I think that's, there's a lot of value in that. So I appreciate, from a personal and professional, outlook. I appreciate that, that focus and sensitivity to, again, the industry as a whole. So,

Justin Johnson: Well, thanks.

Kimberly Robinson: I think we, return that kudos though, because your willingness to partner with us has helped us achieve that goal, right? Um, by pre punching your doors, we can

Bray Allen: sure.

Kimberly Robinson: solution that's going to work at the end of the day and on day one for the tenant, for the operator, and work the way it's intended.

Bray Allen: Yeah, fine point, right? All the way down to the guys installing, the guys out in the field, the crews putting the, doing the, the physical and manual labor to get it done right. They're part of the industry and, and we as, as partners, are trying to facilitate the best solution for everyone involved.

So, I love this, right? This is what I live for, so

Justin Johnson: We wanna make it easy. And to

Bray Allen: [00:21:00] That's right.

Justin Johnson: Kim said, our partnership and your willingness to collaborate with us on that is what helps, is gonna

Bray Allen: Well,

Justin Johnson: I've installed thousands of these things myself and lemme tell you, drilling holes for that long in a door in, in 120 degree heat at a storage facility outside, it's not fun.

Bray Allen: end of the day you have to go get hand massages, right? You're just, you all cramped up, so.

Justin Johnson: we, we wanna make sure that we're cultivating all these relationships, not just with the operators who are buying it, but with our dealers, with our vendors, with our partners that are spread out all across the globe.

Bray Allen: Yes, yes.

Justin Johnson: it's, it's, it's been really fun the last year or so as I've been kind of working on a lot of this to see how willing everybody is to, to collaborate and throw in ideas and just be part of the experience,

Bray Allen: Right?

Justin Johnson: be part of making sure that we're all delivering a good experience to the operator and ultimately the most important thing, the tenant.

Bray Allen: Mm-hmm.

Justin Johnson: they have frictionless experience with the

Bray Allen: Mm-hmm.

Jared Gabaldon: So we've [00:22:00] talked about this white paper, you know, and the value that it brings to everybody. , I think, there's so much data in it and I guess, from both of your perspectives, you've been in the business for a while, you've been, working on this white paper for years now,

Kimberly Robinson: Hmm,

Jared Gabaldon: so what are some of the findings that really stick out to each of you?

Uh, you think really matters to the operators.

Kimberly Robinson: for sure. I say, do, do you want me to go first,

Justin Johnson: No, I got it. So, so my, my favorite things are, are really what kind of show, um, tenant interactions at scale. again, there's a lot of data. I, I picked a couple of points out, especially, uh, the first one focused around the kiosks. So as I've been a part of this organization for so long and I've seen the evolution of our technology and the way that people are interacting, uh. With our products, it, it blows my mind to see numbers like this. So what stood out, what stood out for me the most was [00:23:00] how many payments are being taken during office hours from a kiosk, right? So it's about 64% of tenants, um, are choosing on their own to use the kiosk to self-service, to, to make a payment even though the office is open, even though there's somebody there. there's a couple different reasons why that really resonates with me. One of them is because it really helps our narrative in that we provide solutions not necessarily just for automation, unmanned facilities. We are providing solutions that will help meet these tenants where they're at. Some of them don't want to interact with somebody.

They don't want to necessarily call, they want to just stop by after work, walk up to a machine, put their credit card in, they're done. so. As I talk to operators a lot, they're like, well, we want to, we wanna make sure that we hold onto that human element of our business and say, well, you can, with a kiosk, you can [00:24:00] have two-way video calls. They can call somebody at the headquarters for the, for the operator, they can call our call center. Um, you know, we have somewhere around, was it 300,

Kimberly Robinson: 320.

Justin Johnson: 320,000 calls from kiosks to our call center or using live help is what we call it. and that shows that there is a good balance. That's something we, we, we've been talking about for years and years and years and trying to evangelize say there is a balance that can be struck with not having to have somebody sitting at the property eight hours a day, but still getting that human element. Um. of the business. And the fact that the, the public is kind of just showing us, showing us that on its own is, is great. Because now we're not having to kind of put this idea into the operator's head to help them understand what could be possible. We can show them and go, this is what's happening. think that's, I, I, I think that's really cool. You know, the, of payments and the amount of, [00:25:00] uses and touch points, they're gonna fluctuate over the years. there's always been, there's been this steady growth for a long time of just interacting on their own with the technology in lieu of necessarily needing to speak to somebody face to face. So I think that's really awesome. I know, Kim, you've got a lot to go to say on.

Kimberly Robinson: see, I could, I could definitely talk about the data for hours. I will not bore you in that regard. I do wanna caveat that last number though. We do have a few larger operators who have auto dial enabled. But it, it doesn't remove the point, right? Um, so what auto dial means essentially is when somebody's opening the door to their rental office, it's triggering that call to an agent at either their call center or ours. Um, but it is still enabling kind of that on demand service that Justin mentioned. Um. But it's not always necessarily the tenant hitting a button saying, Hey, I need some help. A lot of times they don't want the help. Um, and we've heard that from the operator. They're like, Hey, I'm here to rent. I showed up.

I just wanna do my self-service transaction. And I think [00:26:00] that's something that we have seen across the board. Uh, when we look at our data every single year is kind of that increase in, tenants opting for self-service transactions. Um, one that I love to look at every year is related to our call center payments.

We took, oh God, I've lost the number, but we took, I think over 380,000 call center payments last year. 88% of those, the tenant opted to fulfill their payment on their own. So via a self-service payment portal over the phone, they're still calling to make a payment, which still kind of flabbergasts me.

You're picking up the phone and calling somebody to create a or make a payment over the phone. But when they're presented with a self-service opportunity, they're taking advantage of it, which results in labor savings for the operator and a smoother experience for that tenant. Um. Another one that I love, and this is kind of one of the, oops, see there's the bright light.

This is one of those, um, kind of more hidden data points. It's not one that I think many people look for. Um, but it's one that I love year after year. 'cause I think it really speaks to that customer convenience, [00:27:00] uh, Bray that you were talking about for that tenant. Um, there's this feature called Text Me My Code.

And that number has, or of that feature has continued to grow year over year. Basically what it is, if a tenant rolls up to a storage property and they've forgotten their access code, which every time I ask this question at a a trade show event, every single operator's like, yes, this happens all the time. They can punch in their cell phone number as long as it's in the property management system, they're gonna get a text with their code and be able to get into the facility. Uh, what that's doing is removing that friction in the tenant experience. They don't have to find a number and call a manager. They don't have to hope that manager has access to that access code in that moment. Um, they're not disrupting the operator's life if they're the one on call and it's eight o'clock and they're, you know, at dinner with their family. Um, so it's really kind of full circle, made everyone's life easier. And we had over, um, people use that over 240,000 times last year. Um, just again, forgetting their code.

Super simple feature, but it's something that I think, um, [00:28:00] was one of those intentional pieces of the development of that product that was really designed to make both that operator and that tenant's life easier. ooh, another fun one, and this is, I know kiosk can be polarizing. Not everyone loves kiosks, but they collect a lot of data that tell us a lot about how tenants are interacting with properties. Um. And I have two related to kiosks that year over year kind of blow my mind. The first one is related to cash payments. And I know a lot of people do not like to take cash. We all want everyone to be on auto pay. Uh, you want to have that credit card locked in. Um, this number actually grew last year to this year. Uh, 25% of people that are doing a transaction at a kiosk or paying cash.

Jared Gabaldon: That's insane.

Kimberly Robinson: the option, right, they're opting to use cash. Now, um, again, you may not wanna offer a cash payment, that's fine, but I think it continues to come down to your ability to serve tenants where and how they wanna be served. Um, 25% of people still wanna be able to pay cash at least [00:29:00] of those interacting with a kiosk. Um, that second kiosk fund fact is related to, again, serving the tenant where and how they wanna be served. A lot of people do continue to just show up at a property and expect to be able to rent. The question always comes down to, do you have a way to serve that tenant, whether it's a kiosk, whether it's an after hours call center or someone on call. Do you have great signage that directs them to, Hey, this is how you make a rental when we're not here. In 20 24, 76% of all kiosk rentals purely walk up. So they hadn't called, they hadn't gone online and started a reservation. They just showed up at the property and said, there will be a way for me to get a unit. And if there wasn't, they're moving on to a competitor.

Bray Allen: I would've, that number is shocking.

Jared Gabaldon: Yeah,

Justin Johnson: No,

Bray Allen: Se you said 76%.

Kimberly Robinson: Yeah.

Bray Allen: Wow.

That, that, uh, that means there's only [00:30:00] 24% that preplanned what they were going to do that day.

Justin Johnson: Kevin, are you surprised by that at all?

Bray Allen: Well, you know.

Justin Johnson: But I mean, you have to really put that into perspective, right? At that 76% of Walkups, and I, I know we're gonna touch on this a little bit, um, as we get towards the facility being accessible, but your average tenant is, you know, what's the value in 2024 1,600 dollars, $1,600 is your lifetime value of an average tenant? That's a lot of money that's getting left on the table. So those, those statistics and being able to see those from the kiosk and put them out for everybody to really consume, like, that's huge, right? The amount of visibility is just mind blowing to me.

Bray Allen: I've heard you throw out a couple of numbers, big numbers, right? The, the 240,000 I think it was, and then 320,000 call center calls. And, and so I'm curious, uh, h how many, and, and I'm not gonna hold you to this, how many kiosk interactions. Or technology [00:31:00] interactions did OpenTech have in the full calendar year, like as a whole, like how many engagements work

with your open tech products

Kimberly Robinson: 664,000.

Justin Johnson: Across

Bray Allen: so that in it?

Kimberly Robinson: about the data, right, it's not a

Justin Johnson: Yeah.

Kimberly Robinson: data set.

Bray Allen: Yeah,

Kimberly Robinson: and it ranges across all different types of portfolios, right? We serve the largest rates down to the single individual owner operator. So I know everyone kind of likes to say, um, I have my own secret sauce. I don't do it that way.

This doesn't apply to me. And we love your secret sauce. And I, I think, yes, everyone does things a little bit differently, but somewhere in this subset of data, there is someone that looks like you. There's someone that operates

Bray Allen: sure. Yeah, and, and I, again, that's the reason that I asked the question, when you have 660 plus thousand points of data. Man, I, I'm like a kid in a candy store with that. Right. I just, you know, you're talking about pivot tables and whatever, just sorting stuff and [00:32:00] just seeing what all there is there Justin's phrase of swimming in the data that would, that would be fun just to scroll through that and see, you know, how many different configurations, how much data is there.

Again, I think that's an, that's remarkable. 660,000 points of data.

Kimberly Robinson: Well, and I should caveat that too, that's transaction. So that's somebody actually conducting a point of business, purchasing something, uh, making a payment. Uh, in terms of the data points, it's far more

Justin Johnson: Yeah,

Bray Allen: Yeah, I was gonna say, so that's not even counting, accessing,

Kimberly Robinson: Yeah,

Justin Johnson: you wanna look at access control. I mean, 2024 we had 40 million some odd gate

Bray Allen: oh, see,

Justin Johnson: opens. And that's just through, that's just through storage.

That's just

Kimberly Robinson: just mobile.

Justin Johnson: That's just mobile. That's,

Bray Allen: yeah.

Justin Johnson: a billion opens since 2018.

Bray Allen: Yeah, and see that, again, to my point, that's an enormous amount of data that you can trend and graph, you know? And, and when you get that down to the, the, the, [00:33:00] you know, the macro level, uh, for an operator so that they can see that data and to your point, uh, even if they still want the human interaction, right?

I mean, some, some do that, right? That's their secret sauce. I think some still want that, but it would be beneficial to them to have the data to know when the peak times are to man that facility, right? And, and you can't do that, uh, you can't do that to its, uh, full potential without the information that you guys provide.

So, yeah. That's insane.

Kimberly Robinson: No, that's a great point. Bray actually, uh, if you're not answering your phones between 10:00 AM and 1:00 PM you're missing the bulk of your rentals.

Bray Allen: Yeah. See, that's true.

Kimberly Robinson: And Mondays, Mondays is always a spike. I don't know if people just go to work and they're like, I don't wanna work today. But every year we see a spike in rental calls on Monday.

Bray Allen: It's 'cause they cleaned the garage out over the weekend.

Kimberly Robinson: Fair point.

Justin Johnson: Mondays and Fridays and Fridays are payday, right.

Jared Gabaldon: Mm.

Bray Allen: Go,

Justin Johnson: You've always gotta be staffed [00:34:00] up on Fridays or you're gonna miss out on

Bray Allen: there you go.

Justin Johnson: of thousands of dollars. Kim mentioned earlier, six figures

Jared Gabaldon: there's a couple points that I kinda wanted to talk about, and I'm gonna move something into my question about automation. So Kim, I've been listening to your webinars on this for a few years, basically since I started working with SteelBlue three years ago as a vendor. And, uh, you guys were always like a information source.

Some point that you brought up was that we're not very far removed from a period of time where there was literally almost no level of automation in this industry. you know, we're talking about, uh, if you do a percentage, you're talking about adoption over time.

It's kind of exponential, uh, when you talk about how many years it's really taken. And so. You know, I drive around, this local area and I see, nice new facility and I'm like, oh, for sure. This thing's all, suited up with the climate control and access control and all just the, the bells and whistles, and not far down the street is the facility that you can tell is from a different time period, [00:35:00] and I think of myself as just being, an end user.

Which one would I go for? I know that maybe the newer facility might cost a little bit more, but is that a little bit more gonna gimme a little bit of peace of mind? I think it does. So I think I will go for that. and so what I'm curious of is where do you really feel like just automation in general is as far as adoption in the industry?

How many non-automated facilities are there? And is um, I guess automation, the standard now in your eyes. And then just real quick also, you know, before we jump into this, is you said kiosks are polarizing and I think, I thought that was really interesting. So what's, you know, polarizing about kiosks to folks?

Kimberly Robinson: That was a lot of questions, but we'll get to them all. Um, I, I'll guess I'll start with Kiosk because it's just kind of an interesting one. Um. I do think it's polarizing because of that human element that people wanna offer, right? Uh, they don't wanna remove the, the human level of service that they feel their manager's at, at the front [00:36:00] desk.

And so there's always been a little bit of a push and pull. And again, we've been providing kiosks specifically for self storage for 20 to almost 23 years now. Um, so we've seen kind of the range of adoption over the years and the, the range of sentiment in the industry. And I think they've gained a lot of traction in the last four or five years.

Uh, but you still have those operators that worry it's gonna be a cold interaction. Um, and they've really, the technology has really evolved to mitigate a lot of those concerns. Uh, we have that live help, you know, video chat functionality. There are, um. Different ways that you can trigger that interaction, whether that's from a motion sensor that detects somebody in front of the kiosk and immediately connects them to a person or a video loop that lets them know that help is there if they want it. Um, so when I say polarizing, I think it's really just, it comes down to people believing or not believing that that transaction, that interaction, is gonna be just as good and just as high of a quality, um, customer service [00:37:00] experience as somebody standing behind their desk. Um, and when you talk about, uh, kind of the adoption of automation over the last few years and how yes, we, and I think everyone in the industry would admit this, we are slower to adopt technology than many other industries. Um, that catalyst, we all kind of know what that catalyst was back in 2020. Uh, the years we don't speak of. But, um, COVID was a huge, I. Huge catalyst for technology adoption in this industry because we had to, right? You couldn't have somebody at your property. You had to limit human interaction or person to person interaction.

Right? Because I, when I say kiosk, I don't think they limit human interaction. I think they enable it on demand, as Justin mentioned before. Um, but it was a huge catalyst. And you see those trends in our white paper, uh, they're starting to fall off because we typically compare five years of data. And I'm really excited for the next evolution when we can do 10 years of data.

Jared Gabaldon: Ooh.

Kimberly Robinson: it's coming soon, but you'll still see it. You'll see the drops in onsite visits. You'll see the drops in [00:38:00] auctions, but you will see surges in self-service rentals. You'll see sur surges in kiosk adoption. Um, and I think it was one of those things that we were kind of forced into. Uh, it's like Uber Eats and grocery delivery, right?

We started doing it during COVID because it was our only option, but we've continued to do it because it was convenient and it saves us time. So, um, just first, again, some of that perspective. When I started the white paper back in 2018, we were looking at 6,500 facilities on the open tech side. We always kind of split between open tech and storage treasures. This year we were looking at just over 12,000. So in five years we've just about doubled the number of operators that are using our solutions specifically. And I think, um, Justin's got some thoughts on industry overall, but that's been, for me, again, I think the biggest catalyst and, um, the biggest reason why our numbers have changed so much and adoption has continued to grow.

Justin Johnson: and, there's just so much growth in the industry in and of itself. So [00:39:00] 2022 to 2023, we saw construction, um, spend increase. 130%, 140% just overall in the industry. Even now all the way through 2024, new construction is still up 30% from 2020. Right. It, it, it, it is this really kind of encapsulating number when you think about it because it's like, wow, that's still year over year growth for the past five years. Um, a lot of these operators that are coming on, they're looking at automated solutions. The reason this question's a little bit tricky is because automation's kind of in the eye of the beholder, unmanned facilities can turn into hybrid managed facilities very quickly. There's always a lot of movement. There's always a lot of trial and error. Um, especially among the larger operators who may take a segment of their market and go, well, few states we want to try to centrally manage in everything from one location. [00:40:00] I. I think the, the cool statistics to look at, and I'm, I'm ripping this straight from ISS is 25% of operators have implemented some sort of automation into their business.

Whether that's automated chatbots that are helping people through a reservation flow or a move in flow. It's implementing kiosk, it's implementing, uh, smart locks. It's utilizing a third party call center to help take their calls during really peak or key times of the day, 10 to one o'clock maybe, when they're not gonna be there to take payments. So I think you have to kind of sit back and watch a little bit. And as much as I know you want me to tell you that X percent of this industry is fully automated and unmanned, it's too fluid, right? There's, there's, there's always movement. Someone's always trying something new. We, we have a lot of operators who are very quick on the uptake for new technology. It seems slow because they think about it for a little while and [00:41:00] they build an infrastructure around it and they wanna make sure they do it right, but when they're ready, they go all in. it's it's been really cool to see a lot of that evolution, um, over the past decade or so, as more and more operators who aren't just the REITs or the middle size, you know, 50 plus facility operators, you're having brand new people come into the industry and go, well, I have this other business I'm running, or I have another job that I do.

I wanna make sure that my tenants can get automatic text, text messages, they can rent online, they can get their gate codes, they can navigate the whole process without me, and if they need me, they'll bring somebody else in third party to do it. So it's, it's, it is data that's difficult to pin down, but we're starting to see more and more operators be vocal about the types of automation that they're putting into place,

Kimberly Robinson: Hmm.

Justin Johnson: which I think is really awesome.

Kimberly Robinson: Yeah, I keep hearing this thing, um, when I'm out talking to people in [00:42:00] the industry about. How they're using automation to let their staff work on their business, not just in their business. Right? So it's, it's that thing that enables your team to focus their time where it's gonna add the most value for your operation to grow your revenue, to ensure your, you know, fielding those lead calls. Um, so I, I, I, I love that phrase and it's one that's kind of stuck in my brain. Um, 'cause it's what we do here, right? We continue to invest in automation to let our people focus on adding value for operators, let them focus on those things, get that are gonna help us grow the business, not kind of those day to day, um, repetitive tasks that automation can enable and support.

And I think when we talk about automation, adoption, I don't think we're ever gonna get away from people being involved in your business. I don't think that that's what any of us here at OpenTech are advocating for, um, or anyone in the industry is advocating for. It's how do you use your people and maximize their time to the best of their ability.

Justin Johnson: We've, we've [00:43:00] wrapped it up in a phrase we call operational efficiency, we talk about that a lot in regards to smart locks. Do you want your facility managers, maybe they're managing 10 properties, maybe they're managing two properties. Does it matter? Do you want them going around putting over locks on doors or do you want them calling back leads?

Do you want them, like Kim said, working on the business as far as just pure growth? You know, where, where do you want your team focused and how can we help you put something in place to where your team can go focus on the important stuff and not necessarily the menial day to day?

Bray Allen: I think that's important too to realize what you guys did on the front end of making that automation, uh, less intimidating. More user-friendly, I think is one of the drivers in, in the shift, in the transition in the industry. Uh, you know, Kim, you referred to the, the years that we don't talk about, uh, that that's part of it as well.

Right? When, when, when all of that came about, uh, I think a lot of people were [00:44:00] intimidated by some of the things that were out there and not as user friendly. Uh, you know, and we see it, we've seen it in this industry and we see it in other industries. Uh, Justin, earlier you talked about an arms race. Uh, you know, we, we've seen it as I said, in this industry and others where, because you wanna be the first to get out there and put a product out, and if you don't do your due diligence on the front end to make sure that you're putting out a respectable product, uh, man, that ultimately hurts you in the, on the backside of things, right?

It causes some stigmatism about, uh, I don't, automation is not my friend. I lose this interaction or I lose that interaction. But having seen some of the service history and the records from you guys as to how you service the industry and, and your customers, uh, it makes that transition so much easier and so much more effective.

Uh, and, and I thought too, Justin, it just, you know, driver in my mind as you were talking about the industry and how it's still continuing to grow, I, I've been hearing, I've been in this for [00:45:00] 30 plus years and I've been hearing how it's. It's saturated, right? It's saturated, it's saturated. Uh, and if it ever actually gets to that point, I think that's, to Jared's point, you're gonna see a lot of these older facilities modernize or transitioning into automation.

And again, shameless plug here, that's the opportunity as well. SteelBlue and OpenTech have to work together, right? So we we're facilitating your product on our door and vice versa, right? Uh, we, we are confident in the, in the service that we provide as a solution. Uh, and so as these older facilities start to come online, right, we have the ability to, uh, you know, to, to replace doors, uh, and with old locks on them that now have the open tech, uh, capabilities on it.

So I think that's just another value add, again, to the industry as a whole. Uh, and so I'm excited to see what that transition looks like right as, as we start seeing, I mean, the, the industry as I said's been. [00:46:00] It's been insane, right? I've been hearing my entire career that it's saturated, that it's saturated, but yet it seems to be double digit growth year over year, over year, over year.

Uh, but I do think that there's some opportunities, additional opportunities that we haven't really seen the, the dividends for. Uh, and, and, you know, updating and modernizing some of these facilities, uh, that are 20, 30 years old plus, you know, um, that I think there's gonna be a huge uptick in that, not just in new construction, but I think you're gonna start seeing a lot more of your product.

Uh, and SteelBlue product. See that? Uh, on, on Shameless man, I'm telling you, uh, on, on updated facilities, right as they come in, because they're gonna have to compete, as Jared said. Those order facilities, you're gonna have to compete with those modernized facilities or those automated facilities. Uh, and when that happens, again, we just have a solution collectively as partners, we [00:47:00] have a solution to fulfill that need in the market.

Uh, effectively not, not rolling it out and being concerned. We, we, you know, we we

Justin Johnson: doing it. Right, right. That's one of our, that's one of

Bray Allen: the first time, right?

And

Justin Johnson: our big core values is doing it

Bray Allen: that's right. I'm not gonna get on an airplane that they're trying to figure out how to make it fly. You know? So I, I, I don't, I don't want to get into a, an, an industry with, with automation that somebody's still trying to figure out, right?

You guys have figured it out and you're just expanding on what that looks like. Uh, and so, yeah, that, that, I'm looking for that next, that next transition or trend in the market.

Justin Johnson: So I've, I've heard the anecdotes about it being oversaturated, and I think that, I think that that's an easy answer for people to, to say it, that it, it, it sounds just like a casual conversation, but I think one thing to keep in mind is there are almost as many storage facilities in the United States as there are fast food [00:48:00] restaurants.

Bray Allen: Oh, hey.

Justin Johnson: it's within two or 3000 per capita or something.

Jared Gabaldon: I've never heard that before. That's.

Justin Johnson: Star Starbucks, Wendy's, McDonald's, and like one other one. If you, if, if you match up some of the biggest performing, um, public fast food restaurants in the US self storage as far as the actual amount of self storage facilities out there, it's, they're, they're, they're neck and neck and to me, fast food's doing just fine. Right?

Bray Allen: we have zero Starbucks where I live, but we've got nine self storage facilities within two miles.

Justin Johnson: I bet they're doing just fine, but

Bray Allen: They're all full. That's, that's even the more insane part. Yeah.

Justin Johnson: The only way that we're going to be able to keep kind of penetrating the market, like you said, Bray, is just making sure that we have good partnerships and that the partnerships that, that we understand each other,

Bray Allen: Yes, sir.

Justin Johnson: SteelBlue and OpenT ech, understand what we're trying to

Bray Allen: Mm-hmm.

Justin Johnson: and we understand kind of what we need from each other as well.

And I think [00:49:00] that's really helpful.

Jared Gabaldon: So I wanna talk about the other side of the business as well, which is auctions. What happens when folks obviously don't pay their bill, you know, stuff goes to auction. Uh, so there's a whole TV series about this storage wars, right? So, you know, it's, I think it's interesting that you guys have this power of 10 framework.

You've actually been able to drive revenue for operators and I think, you know, at the end of the day, operators, they're business people. They need to squeeze out revenue any anyway they can. Talk to us a little about those findings a little bit about storage treasures and are you guys putting storage wars out of business?

Is that what's going on?

Kimberly Robinson: Oh, that's funny. Uh, yeah, no, and it's definitely, I think considered, you know, the dirty topic in self storage. Nobody likes to talk about auctions. Nobody's in the business of self storage to sell their tenants goods. But to your point, it's a business and operators need a means to. A, be able to get their unit back and b, be able to recoup as much of that lost rent as they can from those tenants that aren't paying. Um, it's [00:50:00] funny at Storage Wars was actually kind of the, how we started the evolution of our business storage stores spawn out of that originally. Um, so yeah, a lot of people know it as this fun flashy show, but it's something that happens every single day in this industry. Um, we hosted just over a million auctions last year, uh, and when I started doing this white paper, we were at about 200,000 a year.

So I think the case for adoption is pretty clear, um, right as we talk about operational efficiency and being able to do things. With less time investment from your team? Uh, the case for online auctions I is kind of undeniable, but I do think it's a technology that either because we don't like auctions or because it is so easy, we've taken for granted a little bit.

And that's why we've started pushing this framework that we call the Power of 10. Um, and that does come from our data, again, a million auctions a year. We have access to a lot of data to be able to see what are those tiny things that an operator can do to make sure that they're getting the [00:51:00] most money back that they can. Um, and some of that's tied to our platform, right? We have the biggest bidder base in the industry. We do a ton of marketing to make sure that your units get seen. Um, but there's some really small things that an operator can do to ensure they're, we're getting the most of that money back. And just to give you one example, um, last year for auctions that posted 10 pictures versus five, there was a 40% increase in average sale price. So think about that across your bottom line, right? If you're hosting, if you're, you are a little bit larger operator, if you're hosting hundreds of auction in a year, how much of a difference is 40% in terms of rent recovery gonna mean to you, to your bottom line? And it takes maybe five more minutes. Um, so when we talk about that power of 10, that's one of them.

Make sure that you're posting 10 photos. Um, another is ensuring that you're listing that unit for at least 10 days. Uh, they used to say that, um. Storage bidders like to smell a unit. Uh, you gotta give them time to dig in and smell the unit. Look [00:52:00] at the pictures. I know it's a terrible analogy, but those pictures are one of the ways they're smelling your unit.

Um, auction categories and descriptions is another. Make sure that you're listing all of the different things that are in a unit. A lot of these bidders are using this as their business, so they're looking for very specific things. They have saved searches set up. They're getting emails tied to those saved searches.

So if you're not taking the time to list out all of the different things that are in that unit, you're missing out on a huge pool of bidders that would, um, drive those prices higher for you. Um, so those are, those are the main, I would say, of the power of 10. And again, it's 10 for a reason. 10 photos, 10 days. Um. I would say 10 descriptions or categories if you can do it. Um, and if you are not responsible for your auctions, make sure that whoever is, is being held accountable to following this, these best practices. Um, do a lot of education every month, so, you know, someone does wanna learn more, they can hop onto one of those.

We have a few different auctioneers and lean law [00:53:00] experts who kind of walk through this data every month and what we're seeing. Um, and we try to be super transparent with that so people can continue to learn from it.

Jared Gabaldon: Another piece that I wanted to dig into as well, you know, so you guys, there was this finding about being able to collect money. People need to be able to pay at the end of the day, you know, and they can't come always during business hours. It's just everyone works.

At the end of the day, well, not everybody, but you know, generally folks work, they can't get in. They're busy. Um, and so therefore they need to be able to pay after hours, after business hours. And so I saw this interesting stat that was in there and it showed, there was like, I don't know exactly if this is a hundred percent right, but it's like roughly a third of people are paying after hours or some, somewhere around there.

I'm, I'm probably wrong, but,

Kimberly Robinson: No, you're pretty close

Justin Johnson: Yeah, 42%. Uh, well, 42% of people are visiting

Kimberly Robinson: visiting.

Justin Johnson: after hours.

Kimberly Robinson: 35% of people, though you were right, Jared, 35% of people are calling after hours to make their payment

Justin Johnson: Yeah.

Jared Gabaldon: and that's fascinating to think about that the [00:54:00] operators that are not integrating these solutions are leaving that much money on the table. Literally almost 40% of their business. On the table. Um, so maybe you guys just talk into a little bit of, the impact that that's had and how long have you, and you know, just forgive me for being ignorant on this, but for somebody that wants to pay after hours, is that something that they're going to the website and they're doing, they're going to the kiosk in doing, um, like how are they processing these payments? Without somebody there?

Kimberly Robinson: Mm-hmm. I think that specifically really comes down to the individual operator, right? What means have they made available for their tenants to make these payments after hours or to rent units after hours? Um, but yes, to your point, we continue to see a significant chunk of people utilizing those tools to complete those transactions.

So you already mentioned call center, right? 35% of those calls, and it's not an insignificant number, it's about almost 400,000. Call or payments may be the call center every year. So a third of those are [00:55:00] calling after hours. If you don't have someone answering the phone, whether that's your person or a super cheap call center service, that can be your after hour solution. Um. missing those calls, and then that translates into outbound calls and time that your team spends on the phone trying to collect that revenue. Um, same for move-ins, right? Um, 26% of kiosk move-ins last year were after hours. So when people are showing up at your facility, and I should clarify, we use Sunday through Saturday, eight to 5:00 PM as our, you know, subset of in-office time.

We know that's different for every operator, but just for the purpose of our analysis, that's kind of the parameters that we have set. So if you're not open on Sundays, it's gonna be more for you. If you're not open as long, it's gonna be more for you. It may be less depending on your open hours. Um. But if you don't have someone at the property or you don't have a means for them to rent, whether that's a website or a big phone number plastered on your facility, how are they interacting with your facility?

Are they interacting with your facility or are they driving up to your facility seeing [00:56:00] that no one's there, they don't have a way to rent and going to your competitor. Um, we talk in marketing a lot about how it's the first and last transaction that have the most impact on your tenants. Um, so I think the thing that I like to hammer in, they really don't remember anything in between.

They remember the first and the last. So if that first experience is hard, you've already lost them. And I know we talk a lot about reputation and word of mouth in this business being a big means for new business. It's one of the primary lead sources that I hear from operators over and over again. So just think if you've made that first experience super seamless for prospective tenants, whether that's, um, via the phone or via kiosk or your website, however it may be. You've not only captured that tenant, but you're potentially capturing additional business via this person. Um, I think it was 12% of new rentals, um, for kiosk happened after hours as well last year. So that's one in 10, right? Just boil it down that way. If you're missing out on one in 10 renters, to [00:57:00] Justin's point, you're losing $1,600 every time that happens.

Justin Johnson: And just to, to kind of loop back on something that Kim said, um, when you're looking at it as far as people who aren't able to pay existing tenants who want to make a payment, right. Uh, we have a lot of different solutions that can help people with that. That's great. But if you don't implement them, what are you supposed to do?

Because now what's happened is you have a tenant who's trying to pay, it's the first of the month and they're due. They can't, the, the office isn't open. Maybe they only have cash, maybe they don't, maybe the facility doesn't have any technology in place, um, or a call center or something. Now that next day that tenant is calling because they got a late fee, and that late fee's, $15, $20, $30, who knows where they're at in their late fee cycle? And it's an argument with the facility manager going, well, I tried to pay and you weren't open, and I wanna refund, or, I want a credit for this. So the, the facility operations are having to expend all this time and energy in an argument or just trying to help, um. To [00:58:00] deescalate a, a tenant situation, which ultimately is a complete loss of time and labor time, um, and revenue, right?

So the more that a facility operator can put in place to help capture, know, 42% of those visits, it's gonna help them reduce a lot of their time that's spent or their, their team's time that's spent and frustration. And then again, ultimately the tenant is the most important part of the whole equation. It's more, it's a frictionless experience for them to interact with the property because they know, okay, I, I was at work super late and maybe they could, maybe they didn't get a lunch break that day and

Jared Gabaldon: Yeah.

Justin Johnson: have time to call. They know they can go online or they know they can call and come into our call center.

They could use storage gene. We can put a payment link inside of our mobile app for the access control. They just click on it and pay, right? Implementing these types of things to help your tenants with their better experience at the facility also helps with labor and staff and just, uh, for everybody to have a better [00:59:00] time, essentially.

Kimberly Robinson: so we have one operator, and I don't remember where they're located, but they are located in a factory town. They have one central manager who oversees about eight facilities. He fields most of the phone calls, but they know that because of this factory schedule, people are working swing shifts, they're working seven to seven. The only time they're available to call is in those hours where he's not available. So he only uses us for that window. Um, so again, it's just, I think looking at your tenant base, looking at your property, and understanding where there might be gaps.

Jared Gabaldon: That's fascinating. That's just a testament to all the data that you guys are able to provide to the operators at the end of the day and the, comprehensive offering that you guys have here. So, know that I've kept you for, you know, quite some time. I wanted to talk about your Internet of Everything solution because I am a nerd on that. And, I've been into that since 2017. And I learned about the Internet of things, um, and because I was investing in a lot of crypto projects that were basically promising, um, [01:00:00] logistics solutions. With the Internet of Things and it's obviously, you know, grown since then. And, maybe Justin, if you could just really touch briefly on the, your IOE solution and just the impact that it has for operators.

'cause I think when they, a lot of folks, when they hear I oe they go, what the heck is that?

Justin Johnson: Yeah, I, ioe is a broad concept, right? It, it, it's that next evolution of IO ot. there's four pillars to ioe. Um, it's people process data and things. I can't believe I remembered all of that. And so it's what it takes from that, that original concept of iot, which is just this kind of multiverse technology talking to each other, is it introduces the human element to it. So I, OE encompasses people. Um, the data end of that pillar is actually the processes that are laid out by the business, by us, and how we set up all of these different, um, pieces of technology and services so that way [01:01:00] the person can interact with it properly. And I think that that gets reflected pretty well across our product line that is ioe because we have our, that, that's part of our access control system. smart locks, um, that's alarm unit alarms and water sensors and all these cool little cameras and things that we're doing, uh, or security monitoring services we're working with. It brings it all together under this one umbrella and it puts it in a centralized location that an operator can see and interact with. and it expands it into the IOE universe because it allows the tenants and the operators or the managers who are the people. Pillar of this to interact with all of our devices and all of our applications and all of our services all under one roof. That's the most general way that I can describe it.

Jared Gabaldon: Well, you know, thank you for musing me on that one. And so as we're just getting finished up, you know, what are you guys excited about for the second [01:02:00] half of 2025 and even into 2026? Um, I know you guys are always working on so many wonderful things, and then also just for folks that wanna get started with you guys, how can they work with you and where can they find you and connect with you online?

Kimberly Robinson: Um, I'm gonna steal Justin's, we've got some big, uh, smart lock rollouts happening

Justin Johnson: Yeah,

Kimberly Robinson: We've seen some pretty good adoption over there, so, um, I know he's actually about to leave to head over to that facility, uh, and get that one outfitted. I'm personally pretty excited to see that come to life.

We've been talking about it for a while now. as well as, uh, we're rolling out a new facility management solution here at the end of the year. Um, so we'll be sharing more about that soon. Anything to add on excitement, Justin?

Justin Johnson: so I, there's a lot of growth that's happening, uh, globally, right? I think we've, we've, we've gone from saying we're an international company to, we're a global company now we're, we're in Australia, we're in the uk, we're in Europe. So there's a lot of projects that are getting off of the ground right now, um, that are happening [01:03:00] on the other side of the world that I'm really excited about, that are launching. Um, and that's really new, new facilities and new operators who are coming into the self-storage space, uh, that are coming from other industries going, you know, that looks fun. I want to do that, and I want to do something really cool with it. Yeah. And so we get to have those conversations. I'm, I'm excited about, you know, kind of as the ink dries, um, from those interactions that we'll be able to start helping with their building process. Uh, as far as the IOE side goes, we do have a couple of very, uh, special products we're working on. We'll call 'em Product X and Product Y

Jared Gabaldon: Ooh. really talk much about them, but we really feel that they're gonna revolutionize the way that an operator can view the activity at their facility, uh, and kind of really elevate the, the security of their facility. And so there's, there's still a lot to come from that side. I'm really excited about it. And I think we may have to revisit towards the end of the year and see how far we've come. We'll do another show together.

Let's do.

Kimberly Robinson: For sure. super [01:04:00] easy to reach us though, right? We have six dedicated reps, so regardless of your region, while I say six, now that we're global, it's about eight, um, dedicated reps. So regardless of where you're at, we will have someone dedicated to be able to help you. So you can visit our website@opentechalliance.com.

You can give us a call at, uh, +1 800-481-7459. Um, if you are interested in the white paper, it's super easy to find. Just go on our website under the resources tab.

Jared Gabaldon: Wonderful. Wonderful. Well,, Kim and Justin, thank you for joining us today. We're really excited about, uh, the partnership and collaboration between our companies, and I'm really excited to see that flourish over time. And, uh, just congratulations to all the wonderful things you guys have been working on.

You guys have been kicking butt, so looking forward to more of that in the future.

Justin Johnson: Thank you. I'm, I'm glad we're here. I'm excited for what we're working on moving forward together with both of our organizations. I think it's gonna be really fun.

Kimberly Robinson: Agreed. Yeah. We so appreciate the, uh, opportunity to chat with you guys and I think just across the board, your entire team's been great to work with and I think we found a, a great partner in each other for sure.

Jared Gabaldon: No doubt. No doubt. [01:05:00] Thank you so much you guys.