The User in Focus

What digital tools do really make sense for users in office buildings? And how do owners and managers respond to the expectations of their tenants? Read the article in the current issue of immobilienmanager magazine here:

The User in Focus

Special apps for office users are increasingly popular, but there’s plenty more going on in the background. The expert roundtable hosted by immobilienmanager produced some exciting insights.

By Christof Hardebusch So many things run on apps these days. And the possibilities seem almost limitless in office buildings, too – from allocating parking spaces and ordering food to recommending and reserving office space. But how much of this is really useful? immobilienmanager conducted a survey of its online users in the run-up to Expo Real and held a roundtable with a top group of experts at the trade fair to try and find some answers.

The results of the survey are clear: Respondents see great benefits especially in the possibility of booking conference rooms and office space, but also in integrated access systems using apps. Ask which digital technologies will gain in importance in the future, however, and the picture changes. The applications that provide direct support to users will slip into the background, while artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT) will take center stage.

At the roundtable, the results held few surprises for Dr. Jochen Keysberg, CEO of Apleona. “We are working on customer solutions together with three of our largest clients and with IBM as development partner. A very similar picture is emerging there.” Simple, integrated apps were key here, he continued. “At the moment, the user experience is more important than efficiency, as the solutions people are looking for primarily set out to strengthen the service for employees in the premises and thus the employer brand.”

Stefan Lutz agreed. He is General Manager Global Business for the Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH) region at IBM. “Solutions like the ones everybody knows from the consumer sector are in demand.” The US company and Apleona are working together in IBM’s Watson IoT Center in Munich both on these kinds of apps and on an industry platform in the IBM cloud that will integrate and amalgamate these applications securely and with enterprise-class quality.

This will not only provide office users with new, convenient services, but will in the long run also allow efficiency gains when handling premises, resources and technical facilities. So it is not just a question of the office users themselves. “We have to strike a balance between the triad of employees, shareholders, and customers”, stated Daniela Albrecht, Head of Real Estate at Osram.

“Relevant projects have to offer the expectation of an added value. We generally expect a return on investment within two to three years.” That could present itself especially in savings on resources, but also in increased employee satisfaction, she added.

Asset Manager Susanne Bonfig may have a different role to that of Corporate Real Estate Manager Albrecht, but had a similar view of things. The user app may well become standard in the future, but only as a “means to an end”, she said. “The apps supply data that enable tenants, but also suppliers and service providers and not least the asset management division itself to work more efficiently. We have to learn to understand real estate as a marketplace for a lot of target groups.” Susanne Bonfig is Head of Digital Asset Management at Commerz Real. But who will push the investments that are required, and who will drive developments? Christian Krauss, Head of User Experience at Art-Invest, had a clear answer to the second question: “The end users are the strongest drivers, simply because companies have to vigorously attract employees. End users should not be put under any strain here whatever.”

Professor Wolfgang Schäfers was convinced that landlords have to deliver, on the other hand. He holds the chair of real estate management at the International Real Estate Business School (IREBS) of the University of Regensburg. “Tenants will expect these kinds of services without wanting to pay more for them.”

That is also how Susanne Bonfig saw it: “Asset management has to invest to get things going.” And constant improvements were being made: “The trend is now developing enormous dynamism.” Small and medium-sized enterprises are acting with rather more restraint on the CREM side. “A lot of SMEs tend not to take this development especially seriously at the moment”, Hendrik Staiger reported to the roundtable. Staiger is the CEO of the CREM association Crenet and a member of the executive board of BEOS AG. “But something similar can also be observed in the real estate industry”, Staiger continued. “When something happens, then it’s frequently marketing-driven. No one really knows yet where the journey is leading.”

There are some who evidently do, though. The cooperation between Apleona and IBM additionally proves that service providers can also be the driving force. In general, the relationship between client and contractor in facility management will change, in the opinion of the roundtable participants. Susanne Bonfig argued in favor of contractually agreed incentives that use key performance indicators (KPIs), such as user satisfaction, to reward service providers for innovative action: “We have to set the right KPI and give up thinking in terms of technical specifications.”

Like digitalization in the sector itself, this concept is still “in its infancy”, however, as Daniela Albrecht pointed out. She nevertheless derived a forecast for the future of the real estate industry from her experience at Osram: “The lighting sector is already several steps ahead. We will also see standardizations in the technological field and in contract administration in the real estate industry.”

Tenders don’t pick up on potential

But to move in this direction requires partners instead of just contractors, she continued. “The tenders that have usually been issued in facility management up to now don’t pick up on the existing potential for innovation of the service providers. The next generation is already challenging us today and will easily overtake us there, too.”

With that, Albrecht broached the latent fear that is rife in some segments of the real estate sector: the fear of disruption. Wolfgang Schäfers saw every reason to harbor similar concerns: “A lot of technologies still seem very far off today, but we will experience a wave of digital innovations that will develop much more rapidly than is currently expected in the industry.”

Retailers, since Amazon came on the scene, and agents, since portals like Immoscout started setting the agenda in agency work, know how that feels. The real estate industry as a whole has so far believed itself to be relatively unaffected in this respect. That could quickly change, warned Hendrik Staiger: “We have to be very vigilant here that no one edges in between the user and the owner and, for example on the basis of their data and customer contacts of established companies, challenge parts of these companies’ business model.”

Christian Krauss’ company holds an equity interest in the coworking service provider Design Offices and therefore enjoys the advantage of experience: “As a landlord, too, we see that new digital services can and have to be offered by the owner. Investment companies, however, may not act as operators for tax reasons.” As the example of Art-Invest shows, this obstacle can be elegantly circumnavigated through an equity investment or by using a subsidiary.

By far the greatest “digital” experience was brought to the table naturally enough by Stefan Lutz of IBM. He urged the industry to pay attention: “The adaptation curve is always similar. One experience confirms that future users will have more need for digital tools and data-based processes than today’s users. That’s why no company should assume that they can rely in the long term on the added value that they are still generating at the moment.” IBM itself saw itself as a partner for real estate companies, he continued: “We want to provide support and are not interested in data-based business models. Your data belong to you.”

According to Jochen Keysberg, the fundamental factor for the success of digital strategies in not closed platforms, but open ecosystems: “The relevant data belong to a pool, from which each stakeholder takes what they require.” This would, however, also require a cultural change: “An open system of this kind can only work if it is based on partnership.”

The participant in the expert roundtable “The User in Focus – Digital Tools on the Test Bench” were:

Daniela Albrecht, Head of Real Estate, Osram

Susanne Bonfig, Head of Digital Asset Management, Commerz Real

Christian Krauss, Head of User Experience, Art-Invest Real Estate

Dr. Jochen Keysberg, CEO, Apleona

Stefan Lutz, General Manager Global Business of the Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (DACH) region, IBM

Professor Wolfgang Schäfers, Chair of Real Estate Management, IREBS (University of Regensburg)

Hendrik Staiger, CEO of Crenet and member of the executive board at BEOS AG