What’s the next big thing in Self Storage?

Self Storage has matured into one of the world’s largest multi-billion dollar businesses. From humble beginnings using handwritten receipts to more automated paper solutions like Kalamazoo (who remembers that system?), aspects of technology automation have helped Self Storage scale into a huge business globally.

The essential tool has been FMS. Facility Management Software has developed over time into a robust tool for dealing with the daily grind of move-ins and move-outs, providing insight into operations, payments and gate access.

Access controls integrated with FMS software deliver primary security, and combined with door alarms, they have been an essential tool for industry operators for over 25 years. 

As the industry grew, picking an FMS brand became a challenge for owners, given that they all do the basics of dealing with customers. Self Storage has become much more complicated than a simple move into a row of sheds, and a simple choice of a simple FMS may not deliver when automation is considered.

Some Self Storage operators have been prepared to use cutting-edge solutions to improve their businesses from online move-ins, Apps and real-time dashboards. In contrast, others continue to keep their businesses as they are using the tools they have but could be missing out on time-saving automation.  

Our industry is characterised by clear milestones, such as transitioning from the Yellow Pages to the Internet, two-story facilities, electric gates, CCTV, online bookings and more. 

In 2025, automation will significantly control growth in Self Storage globally. Combined with new locational challenges, changes to the workforce, customer perceptions, and regulations, even more operators will consider automation to help solve operational issues that continue to escalate. 

 

Unmanned Sites

 

The days of having a Storage facility run by staff on-site may end, and for some, the writing is on the wall. Many operators find staff challenges at the top of the pile of issues.  

The growth of unmanned sites is at an all-time high, but unmanned sites without automation cannot work effectively, and the customer experience can be compromised. 

Automation tools aid owners who want to own and run an unmanned site. There are many challenges, and having a website, online move-ins, and controlled access with CCTV might be automated; they are only part of the process.     

 

What are we talking about?

 

Self Storage technology is incredible, if not daunting, especially for a new operator. Larger groups have staff to bring operational and investment elements together, with API access to software, and they employ business analysts to deliver business insights. 

The overarching process of Automation is much more than installing some FMS software, so let’s look at the four key pillars of automation.

 

The Tenant Journey

 

As the industry assesses the personnel requirements for onsite operations and considers whether an unmanned site can work, especially after COVID, operators have turned to online solutions to automate the space selection process with RapidStor; the industry standard for online move-ins. Increasingly, operators want an app for mobile phones to administrate the move-in and payment process. While some individual access control companies provide their access control app, StorApp was developed to give operators a white-label app with facility branding to empower customers to self-serve their journey with the site, from access to payments, notifications, site maps and more. 

 

Operations

 

The foundation of Self Storage operations is facility management software (FMS). While plenty of brands are available, one product that stands out as the software of choice is Sitelink. With more than 17,000 users and available in more than 10 languages, Sitelink is the software most top operators use globally. The key feature is the industry’s most detailed API, (application user interface) to integrate the software with security systems, accounting systems, and leading tenant tools like RapidStor and StorApp.

Robust, time-tested, secure, and fully featured FMS software is the anchoring element of the new automation strategy operators should adopt in 2025. 

 

Reporting

 

How do owners and operators make good decisions about their group or site? While FMS software packages have a drop-down menu called ‘Reports,’ individual reports may not tell the entire story, may not be in real-time, and are more than likely based on monthly data. 

Self Storage has matured into a significant asset class, including public ownership via investment offerings and REITS. 

In a modern Storage environment, there are now more “stakeholders,” including customers, suppliers, staff, owners, and investors, both individual and corporate.

With sophisticated Dashboards for Self Storage pioneered and developed by R6 Digital, Facilities can use several real-time Dashboards that pull data from the FMS to suit the ownership, from staff to investors. 

Real-time dashboards collate information into useful packets, making decisions faster and ultimately delivering enhanced profitability.

Automating the insights to optimise your business reduces costs. 

 

Finance

 

Have you ever heard of transposition errors? When humans transpose information from one system to another, costly mistakes can occur. No one is perfect!

Automating aspects of the finance process for Self Storage can start with API access to bring transactions into accounting software. Recent additions include bank reconciliation, direct debits, and increased finance integration, doubling back to real-time dashboards. 

Finance automation can save considerable time reconciling income from Self Storage. 

 

Summary

 

Self Storage is experiencing significant change. Most customers are price sensitive, and deals offered, combined with locational constraints, all add to the mix of Self Storage growth if you get it right. 

The Self Storage market is dynamic, with customers’ needs evolving, especially as urban intensification is rolled out. Customer mobility is increasing, providing Storage owners with new challenges – all in real-time. Automation brings this insight to stakeholders fast.    

With more diverse reasons for moving and younger people storing more often, technology empowering customers to self serve is driving facility automation, and R6 Digital brings the best Automation tools together at R6Automate  

While various vendors offer process elements, no one provides a complete solution and likely never will. While an “all in one” offering seems easy, it isn’t. 

R6 Automate combines these disparate elements into core, understandable pillars and operators can pick and choose what they need to enhance their business, regardless of size or complexity.       

R6 Automate’s role is to bring the core elements of automation into an understandable process. Ask us today how R6 Automate can help your Self-Storage business.