A new real estate business landscape has emerged. In Why Invest in Smart Building Software Now - we explored why the time is now to take action and develop a data driven strategy to transform operations and keep pace with the disruptive forces challenging the norms of CRE.
Real estate companies have been historically sheltered from technology driven disruption - but are now facing new challenges due to a variety of trends - such as a younger, tech savvy clients, as well as the digitalization of every industry from insurance to mining and even law. The previous one size fits all mentality of commercial office space is unable to satisfy the dynamic needs of today’s workforce.
In part 1, we discussed tech initiatives driving these changes, but what are the specific strategies of the technologies being implemented? Are they worth the hype?
Let’s discuss tenant experience and the physical office space. Dynamic and flexible workplaces are the present and future - we see this through the emergence of open concept offices, interconnected meeting spaces, remote work, and other co-working spaces. With many options available to tenants (and their employees) - it is becoming more important than ever to provide a space that enhances creativity, collaboration, and ultimately comfort.
Massive companies have already taken note of this - with the emergence of tech and aesthetic focused built environments such as Googleplex, Microsoft Campus, and the Apple Park. The physical office spaces can be the difference between attracting and retaining top talent or falling behind. Small and medium companies cannot build their own work environment - so they look to commercial real estate properties to accommodate their needs.
Outdated properties will have to be rented at discount relative to the market’s newer, advanced work spaces. People have voted with their dollars that they want smart buildings - where they are able to control their environment temperature, lighting, mapping, and stay connected with their work space.
For property managers and owners - these tech focused built environments can make their lives easier too - through cost savings, reduced delay in workflows, and real time monitoring of their property. There are many tech initiatives to choose from. The promise of IoT and big data has created hundreds of individual point solutions for energy efficiency, security surveillance, automation, and more.
The premise certainly sounds attractive - but many of these solutions fail to address the ultimate desired outcomes - raise asset value through enhancing tenant experience, and cost savings. For now - there isn’t a 1:1 relationship of the promise vs what is technically feasible today. Many solutions end up as expensive “gimmicks” at worst or functional but incomplete at best; these systems can not effectively speak to one another or provide actionable insight. There needs to be a solution that connects the relevant systems and data to provide both owners/operators and tenants exactly what they are looking for - not a generic “one size fits all” solution.
The key is data - the underlying unified data foundation enables a holistic solution that is flexible enough to grow as your priorities change.
A new era of digital transformation of for real estate has arrived that combines the best elements of IoT with the end results that property managers and tenants actually want. Operations Performance Management (OPM) software has been successfully used in manufacturing, aerospace engineering, and more - to connect data points and bring real time insight to users.
Now - ThoughtWire is bringing it to commercial real estate with our Smart Building Suite of applications. PrecisionHub for owners and operators allows full control and monitoring of your property, which realizes real cost savings through energy efficiency, improved operational workflows, and predicting/preventing costly equipment failures - such as an HVAC sub-system. Your building becomes safer than ever with real time way finding, and ability to remotely control the property in case of emergencies - such as lock downs and fires.
Your tenants will be delighted with the @Work app - which provides them one touch control of their workspace through our mobile app. They can communicate better than ever with property management, stay connected with building events, and manage comfort settings on their own.
An isolated point solution that does one of the aforementioned features, or a generic solution that does not allow actionable insight simply doesn’t provide the return or desired experience to be considered a smart building.
It's time to enable operations performance management technology to do more with your data.
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