That’s quite some challenge for people who must manage these relationships but a critical solution to get right as corporates and businesses of all sizes struggle to entice workers back to the workplace.
Reducing friction is the most visible objective with technology expected to deliver.
“Tenants don’t really care that buildings [connected to their work] are owned by two different landlords; they want their staff to be able to use the same card to access all buildings,” says Josh Nicholson, senior technology consultant for JLL.
In the tenant’s mind, the expectation is that “this is our building”.
“The last thing you want is someone from a big bank or financial institution based in Sydney walking into their Melbourne office and having to sign in as a guest and get a temporary pass.”
Creating a “seamless journey” for visitors and reducing friction is key.
One solution is implementing workplace access with digital wallets such as through Apple or Google. Use of these is up by 44 per cent from 10 per cent in 2020, Nicholson says.
Likewise, landlords need to offer common spaces such as cafes as extensions of the tenant’s network to allow staff to be able to meet downstairs for coffee or to work on a project.
But now owners and building services managers want to capture information that previously wasn’t measured, such as who visitors are and when they leave the building.
Data can be used for unintended purposes
According to Liam Murray founder and chief executive of Build-Apps balancing the relationship between tenant and landlord is difficult, especially when it comes to the use of tenants’ data and privacy.
Data about tenant and visitor movements might be used in unexpected ways. Tenants, for instance might access data on indoor comfort and other amenities to challenge lease terms if performance doesn’t match what’s promised.
“We are seeing more and more leases tied to temperature,” Murray says. “So they might have a NABERS rating – the building must achieve 5 stars – but they also say the space must be maintained at [a set temperature] plus or minus 1.5 (degrees).”
“I’ve seen it first-hand, two years of not being comfortable, whether it’s temperatures, lighting, power inconsistencies – people will break leases and leave the space, [especially] in Melbourne and Sydney.”
In Brisbane it’s a different story as there’s very little vacancy to offer alternatives.
Privacy and access to data
But who manages the data and how is important when there’s so much information at stake.
In general, says Murray, tenants have the same problems as landlords. They need to manage asset improvements, strive for ESG, renew leases, deal with complaints; manage fitouts and supplementary systems.
It’s even more complex with industrial and retail property because these can include significant equipment to maintain.
What’s important is the transparency with the process rather than “data dumping”.
If conditions are not idea a landlord can use the data to build better relationships and say, “look we’re monitoring these things, and when we see this is wrong, we’re going to step in”.
Customers who want data sovereignty can be at odds with vendors who tend to want to control and keep data.
That’s a problem when landlords want to move to a different managing agent but the former wants to retain control of the data.
There are ethical issues too around privacy says Murray who sits on the board of the Sustainable Digitalisation Project, which focuses on finding ethical solutions to these problems.
“Once you start automatically recognising people’s faces and opening gates for them, it gets into a very difficult position.”
The EU now mandates that if AI uses people’s faces to train a model, the person must be notified the next time they enter the building, he says.
The right to opt out
Nicholson says it’s also important not to ostracise people who don’t want to use technology.
“We may still have departments or companies that still rely on physical credentials or physical means of entry. We don’t want to stop that.”
For instance, in retirement homes, there’s no great love of cameras and other devices to monitor behaviour. “
Instead, “human centred design” in tech that might also be known as concealed tech, is a preferred option to collect information such as how often people use certain facilities, or to allow a resident to play a favourite movie simply by pressing a button.
The best tech, Liam Murray says, is the tech that “people don’t know is there.”
Tech can also be used to enhance human experience, such as preferencing a desk with a favourite work neighbour.
“What comes through in each conversation is that the technology problem is rarely a technology problem.
“The hardware works, the platforms are cheaper, there are integrated systems that improve operational efficiency, AI agents can really read leases and pull specific clauses in minutes.
“The hard part though is everything around it, who owns the data, who’s accountable when an automated system doesn’t work as intended, who makes the decision on which tech to install and what legal and user concerns need to be understood. “The buildings that get this right won’t be the ones with the most tech, they’ll be the ones where the tech does the heavy lifting behind the scenes and you (the user) barely notice it’s there.”