Senior Living Operators Target Revenue, Automation With New Tech Investments

Senior living operators are refining their technology systems, and many are pivoting to revenue and automation tools to boost operations. 

For example, fewer than a quarter of Des Moines, Iowa-based senior living operator WesleyLife’s processes were electronic in 2019, according to Amber Wentz, the operator’s vice president of information solutions. Now, the organization is adding new software and other tech to bolster operations and improve care billing and transparency.

WesleyLife is not alone, according to the results of a recent Senior Housing News survey of 305 senior living professionals across active adult, independent living, assisted living, memory care and skilled nursing.

Based on their survey responses, senior living operators are looking to integrate tech partners further, leverage technology to fund revenue and sales growth and are considering the prospect of automating aspects of operations where possible.

Almost two-thirds of the senior living operators that responded to the survey, 64%, reported using customer relationship management (CRM) or a sales and marketing platform. Another 61% of the respondents said they use billing or accounting software and 57% said they use software to manage maintenance.

Making decisions on what to invest in is tough given that senior living operators are essentially “a mix of running a hospitality and hotel chain, a food franchise and a small health system, all in one,” according to Nick Lindberg, chief technology officer at HumanGood.

“When you try to integrate your HR, your procurement and your sales and finance into one big system, it’s really easy to think, ‘Oh, this is going to be great. We’re going to have everything under one roof,’” he said during a recent webinar going over the survey findings. “But you slowly realize that, especially in senior living and all the uniqueness that goes into how we operate one of these communities, even an ERP system is not going to do exactly what you want it to do, and you’re going to find yourself having to customize this or customize that.”

More than half of the respondents to the SHN survey, 53%, said their organization is using between two and three “core platforms” while 30% have four or more technology platforms in place to run their communities.

Reporting and analytics capabilities lead the way for the most important buying criteria (46%) followed by customization and scalability (44%) and integration with other systems at 43%, according to the report.

“There is a unique balance that you have to strike, finding software systems that work for that front end user, but also have that data integration ability,” Wentz said during the webinar.

Operators also plan to make changes to support customer relationship management (CRM) upgrades, with 40% signaling plans to upgrade CRM and marketing systems. Just under one-third, 32%, plan to upgrade their property management technology system (PMS) to better manage portfolios.

A total of 63% of respondents said they use technology enterprise systems for sales pipeline and lead generation efforts, according to the survey. Of those expected to make a change, 40% expect to make occupancy or resident retention gains by way of a digital transformation.

This puts sales and marketing front and center to an operator’s efforts to improve speed to lead and conversion rates, with more value placed on sales metrics compared to back-office functions for staff.

“We’re not far from a Star Trek episode, but there are a lot of baby steps to get there,” Lindberg said.

This story is based on research on EHR and care coordination technology conducted by Senior Housing News in May and June 2025. To request a copy of this research, please reach out to WTWH VP and Editorial Director Tim Mullaney.

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