NCREIF is the leading provider of investment performance indices and transparent data for US commercial properties.

NCREIF is a non-profit association that serves the institutional real estate investment community as a non-partisan collector, validator, aggregator, converter, and disseminator of commercial real estate performance and benchmarking information.

NCREIF members include investment managers, investors, consultants, appraisers, academics, researchers, and other professionals in the real estate investment management industry. The NCREIF website is the primary channel for providing its valuable data to its members.

The NCREIF website user experience made it difficult for members to leverage their digital resources. NCREIF sought to overhaul its digital experience with a focus in two primary areas: providing better access to their core Product, Education, and Analytics reporting tools, as well as establishing a streamlined process for keeping their website regularly updated with fresh content.

Central to accomplishing both of these goals was rebuilding the site using an easy-to-edit content management system and integrating the site with NCREIF’s custom association management system.

Adage began the NCREIF overhaul by creating a bold new design featuring striking full-screen visuals, coupled with intuitive navigation developed using user experience research. The design is fully responsive, allowing the website to be navigated with ease on any device. Thanks to NCREIF’s foundation in Episerver and new efficiency-focused code from the Adage back-end team, the query tool also now runs faster than ever before, useful when running large batches of reports.

Intuitive CMS – The new site was implemented using the Episerver content management system, which allows users to build pages using a WYSIWYG-style on-page editing experience. The Episerver CMS also provides user management and workflow tools that make it possible for anyone one the NCREIF staff to update website copy, or add a new blog or news item.

AMS integration – The Episerver site was integrated with NCREIF’s association management system to allow NCREIF to utilize AMS content within the CMS. The connection provides personalized member experiences based on user profiles and allows the CMS to leverage a single source of authentication from the AMS. Additionally, NCREIF can use Episerver’s integrated rules-based personalization tool to segment its site visitors into groups.

Reporting tools – Adage also worked to improve the user experience of NCREIF’s reporting tools, the most important benefit of membership for many users. This included creating an interactive infographic-style map display tool, as well as rebuilding the NCREIF’s quarterly data query tool. The new query tool not only follows the site brand, but also offers new features—easy-to-apply filters, preset templates, and customizable saved queries—along with an Advanced Mode that allows users to code their own queries right from their browser.