The Need for Digitally Enabled Amenities and Flexibility in Today’s Office Landscape

Digital infrastructure is too important for companies today to be handled in piecemeal fashion. As technology infuses itself into every aspect of office life, a pre-deployed integrated digital infrastructure has shifted from a prized but rare amenity to a requirement for any office building owner seeking to attract tenants of any size. 

In today’s especially competitive and precarious office environment, with the increasing demand for greater flexibility, hybrid working and work-from-anywhere office landlords face some of their greatest challenges in decades. It’s imperative, then, for every office landlord to digitally enable their portfolio to be agile and responsive to changing market dynamics and to remain competitive, for the simple reason that if they don’t, their best office tenants could migrate elsewhere.

The advantages of this digital-first approach to portfolio-wide workspace transformation are plentiful for landlords, starting with how it helps them maximize revenue and profitability, leading to improved asset valuation and yield by strengthening retention rates and justifying higher rents. 

“Every landlord’s goal is long-term retention,” said Chris James, Senior Vice President of Business Development for essensys, the world’s leading provider of software and technology to the fast-evolving office space sector. “A high-level benefit for landlords that deploys digital infrastructure is longer-term retention rates. Landlords have to be agile and continue evolving their space and service propositions to provide better office experiences that drive value for their tenants today and as their requirements change.”

James knows this topic well. essensys has been enabling landlords and flexible space providers to manage and scale digitally enabled, multi-tenanted office environments for over 16 years. In addition to the obvious financial benefits, essensys’ platform provides the highest-level of enterprise-grade security, certified to the strictest international standards.

The ability to offer portfolio-wide enterprise-grade security with a platform of the kind essensys has built helps landlords future-proof their properties by preparing them to meet evolving tenant requirements, which have shifted and grown in the wake of the pandemic. Having the fastest and most secure technology doesn’t have to come at great expense for tenants.

“Security, firewalls, and all the hardware required for secure enterprise-grade networks are expensive and difficult to set up and manage,” James said. “With a platform like ours, landlords can provision a secure network for their tenants in a matter of minutes without heavily investing in on-site hardware and technical resources. They can pass this savings on to their tenants, who may not have the expertise or resources to build the technology themselves. This makes a landlord’s offering more attractive to tenants overall. In fact, research shows that more than half of tenants are willing to pay as much as a 20 percent premium for tech-enabled spaces.”

For landlords seeking to offer these types of premium turnkey spaces, James noted that essensys’ platform provides an intelligent digital backbone that empowers office landlords to respond to evolving tenant expectations — whether that be security, smart access and room bookings, or the overall seamless experience.

“The largest landlords and flex office operators in the world trust us to provide a simple, secure and scalable platform,” James said. “While tenant engagement apps are a good end point, any third-party amenities and services should be supported by a holistic and integrated technology strategy. It unlocks a better in-building experience for the tenant and their employees. No one will stay in a building solely because it has an engagement app, but people will stay in a building where they can have a seamless and consistent experience across workspaces.”

James emphasized that as part of a full-on digital renovation, office landlords should be looking at technology as a part of their wider real estate strategies. 

“In order to effectively transform spaces, landlords need to connect digital and physical interactions so they’re no longer fitting working practices to bricks and mortar, but rather creating an environment suited to how their tenants want to use the space and services,” James said. 

Landlords also have to be prepared to provide comprehensive analytics to their tenants. 

“Tenants need data and insights to ensure they’re utilizing space in the most efficient way possible,” James said. “Tenants want different data points about their network so they can understand how it’s operating and how their employees are using it. All these insights can help them run a more efficient operation and save real estate costs, which have typically been large line items on the balance sheet.”

With competition to attract and retain tenants intensifying, James sees the establishment of a digital-first office building as essential for any landlord seeking to compete in today’s ever-tightening office environment.

“Digital-first workspace transformation initiatives can accelerate the speed to occupancy and bring significant savings and value to new tenants while driving amazing long-term retention rates,” James said. “It’s not technology that’s changing how landlords and tenants lease and consume space, it’s having the right technology and applying it strategically.”