Real Estate Technology & Energy

Customer Relationship Management (“CRM”) solutions continue to be at the top of every company’s software shopping list. Whether you are a Fortune 500 company or a small three-person office, CRM solutions provide the modern ties that bind relationships. Who among us doesn’t use Outlook, Act or some other form of contact manager? For building owner/managers who are focused on maintaining and enhancing relationships with tenants, the answer isn’t CRM, its TRM (“Tenant Relationship Management”).

A TRM solution focuses on the specific needs of tenants by providing pertinent information to tenants about their building, its contractors, work requests, and notifications. A TRM solution, like an operating system, can be outfitted with software for visitor management, access control, architectural information and much more. Though an online work order management system alone is great for building operations, it fails to focus on what tenants really need. Whether by phone or online, the light bulb is going to get changed. The real question is how are tenants getting their fire drill notifications? How are they managing building access? Can they contact relevant service providers for building related work?

Having implemented several TRM solutions in both multi-tenanted and single tenanted commercial properties, the most noticeable difference with each installation is the improvement in tenants’ opinion of building management. Providing tenants with access to pertinent contacts and communication gives tenants a sense of empowerment. For the first time, tenants can access a building’s relevant knowledgebase without a phone call, without scrounging around for the notice slipped under the door, or calling the building office looking for the approved contractor for carpet cleaning.

Most recently, we replaced a very expensive work-order management system with a less expensive TRM solution. This work-order software company let the building have their work-order system for free for one year. They must have thought that once the building was hooked, a change would be difficult. They were wrong. Quickly, we discovered less than ten percent of the building’s tenants were using the work order system. We were even more surprised to find out that tenant’s attitude was, “I get charged enough for rent, I am not helping them run their building!” With the simple change to our TRM platform, the building usage jumped to eighty percent, the building is running smoothly and the tenants are happier.

The typical customer relationship management solution is applied to situations where a product or service is delivered from a business to a client on a one-to-one basis. While in some respects supplying space is a service, the interaction of janitorial services, contractors and building staff with tenants is not a one-to-one relationship. Each property is unique and building services are provided in a multi-dimensional fashion.

For example, requests for service might be made directly to building staff, but a third-party might handle the actual work. Or, a building might have an emergency response system for brown-outs, but the notifications are dispatched from a central location. Faxes and porters handing out letters just wont do anymore. A well-designed TRM allows for off site instant notifications to selected tenants and/or direct contact with selected vendors.

Remember, it is the everyday things that people appreciate. Leveraging technology to make relationships stronger and more valuable is the purpose of implementing a Customer Relationship solution. A TRM solution for building owner/managers is no different. Sharing information and communication on an easy to use platform sends a positive message fortifying existing relationships.

Before deciding on what online work-order system should be implemented, consider a TRM solution as a comprehensive communication system, one that not only allows building staff to administer work-orders, but also enhances the overall tenant experience.

We are quick to believe that new perimeter-weighted graphite/boron/titanium equipment harnessing the latest technologies will miraculously improve our games. Almost every golfer has stood on that first tee of the season wielding a new driver believing that this year’s technology is going to cure his/her slice. Year in and year out, we want to believe it’s the equipment not the player.

Consider the fact that your opponent might already have the “latest and greatest technology.” Getting the newest equipment every year neutralizes your opponent’s advantage. The fear that your opponent’s new tennis racquet might provide some unseen benefit weighs on each competitor’s mind. So, to improve our games, to get every advantage, we look to technology as our savior.

New York’s real estate market is far more competitive than the average tennis match or golf round. More and more buildings are utilizing the latest technologies to their advantage. Similar, to the “radical” conversion in the early nineties from wooden woods to metal woods, eventually all buildings will have online services in their bag. Two years ago less than 5% of commercial buildings used online services for building operations. In 2003, with the advent of energy management programs, lease administration software, work-order systems, online building directories and notification systems, the number of buildings using software for some pat of building operations has climbed to more than 15%.

When was the last time you played tennis against someone using a wooden or even an aluminum racquet? With the benefits of online services, building owners/managers can offer potential tenants better run facilities and more efficient services. The buildings not taking advantage of putting their building services online are stepping onto the court with less than the “best” opportunity to win over the next tenant.

In some areas of real estate, technology is critical. In a survey taken last year more than 75% of all real estate transactions involved the use of online services like CoStar. The ability to retrieve and analyze leasing data makes the use of CoStar very compelling. Ultimately, almost all brokerage firms interested in remaining competitive use online services for acquiring and retaining tenants. Like metal woods or graphite racquets, any real estate firm that desires to remain competitive will use an online service.

Expanding this metaphor further, no one stops at trying to gain the advantage of technology with one club. First it’s the woods, next it’s the perimeter-weighted irons, then it’s the putter and finally the search for the perfect golf ball begins. The reliance that many firms put on online services for leasing is truly only the beginning. Eventually, all building owners and managers will seek to get the “latest and greatest” advantage, or at least neutralize the opponent’s advantage by adopting programs and systems for lease administration, energy management and building operations.

There is a sensible order to technology adoption that focuses on impact. With metal in the club head and a graphite shaft, new metal woods dramatically improved driving distance. Lighter stronger graphite caused a dramatic difference in power and control in tennis racquets. Within ten years of these improvements being introduced, the widespread adoption is apparent. We are only two to three years into the dynamic shift from off-line building management to either server based or web-based building management. In a few more years there will be a similar widespread adoption of online services for building operation, and incoming tenants will expect these services. Right now, in this highly competitive market, can you afford to still be playing with a wooden racquet?

Almost all tenants use email and the Internet everyday. Some use it as a secondary communication system. The more advanced are establishing virtual private networks, storing information off-site in managed servers and/or conducting the bulk of their business through a secure ASP. The drive to technological improvement, in many instances, is sparked by a growing need to save (through realized efficiencies and accountability) and/or to improve customer experience. The real estate industry is no different. With installation of visitor access systems and building portals, owners and managers are utilizing technology to increase operating efficiencies and improve their tenants’ experience.

Why web-based access control systems? Over the course of the last few months, individual fears have begun giving way to a lasting mindfulness of a strengthened community and a shared experience. New technologies continue to be offered to protect us throughout the day. Sharing daily travels, we see new security cameras peering at us, we walk through turnstiles and/or get our magnetic cards read like a cereal box at the supermarket. Usually placed in the hands of guard services and monitoring companies, these solutions tend to focus on identification and surveillance. An expectation exists that these systems and the people operating them serve to protect the building and its tenants. However, which visitors and delivery trucks are allowed access to each building is ultimately the tenant’s responsibility.

Confusion and delay are often the norm as guards monitoring the lobby attempt to decipher which visitors actually have permission to enter a building. Rather than focusing on security cameras and looking for suspicious behavior, lobby personnel are busy directing traffic. Important visitors are forced to wait, lines form, and tempers flare. Since the Internet is a common thread running through almost every tenant, a web-based access system creates the opportunity to maintain order and efficiency as a team. Bringing together community and responsibility, web-based access systems and building portals foster a collective awareness. Tenants, empowered by technology, take part in their own safety and security.

With the introduction of the Internet, building portals and access systems thought first to be ancillary now provide the cornerstone of developing each building’s natural community and shared experience. Using a building portal as the collective nervous system of every building, individual tenants can together manage the livelihood of their community. The power of keycard systems, surveillance cameras and other scanning devices managed by one web-based platform, allow tenants to participate in the egress and ingress of employees, visitors, vendors and strangers. People arrive on time, instead of being herded towards an unknowing lobby desk waiting to find out whether they will be allowed entrance. A well-designed system must be user-friendly enough for all tenants and building employees. Training should be simple and inexpensive.

How does it translate off-line? Take a look at two different scenarios. Scenario #1; after a potential tenant just waited three minutes in the lobby trying to get a visitor pass and access to the appropriate floor, the leasing agent attempts to show the space. Meanwhile, the only thing on the potential tenant’s mind is what his legal bill will add up to when his $350 per hour attorney is forced to wait in the lobby. Scenario #2; the leasing agent prior to visiting the building logged into the building portal and created a visitor pass for the customer. When the customer arrived the pre-printed pass is given to him as he is directed to the appropriate elevator. He is greeted on the floor by the agent and shown the space. No lines, no hassles.

Clearly, the biggest issue facing building security is vendor access. Trucks carrying everything from office supplies to water are arriving at loading docks every day. What precautions, if any, can be taken to ensure that these visitor/strangers are not arriving with malicious intent? Many buildings use their security force to check delivery slips, the drivers and the contents of each truck. Even so, for some buildings the amount of traffic makes it virtually impossible to be completely thorough. Using a web-based portal and access system to track and record expected deliveries aids in securing each building. Taken a step further, if as a building community, tenants only used vendors that complied with the building’s access control system, traffic in the building would at least diminish to manageable.

Connectivity is commonplace, web-browsers are pervasive, and almost everybody has email. The real estate industry is poised to make sweeping changes in the way it deals with tenants and their concerns. For obvious reasons, those building owners who are spending money on new technologies are investing in solutions that augment existing security. Using the web will ultimately succeed in making these investments more than worthwhile. A comprehensive system combining access control, building information and vendor management in one easy-to-use centralized application provides the only truly universal solution that will meet the demand of the times.