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The future of corporate real estate with data and analytics

March 30, 2016 / By

JLL recently commissioned Penn Schoen Berland (PSB) to conduct in-depth interviews with C-suite executives across the globe to understand their views on the role that data and analytics (D&A) plays in corporate real estate (CRE). All participants in this series of interviews held overall responsibility for CRE decision making – at either the global or regional level – within their organisations.​

The interviews yielded a range of thoughtful insights:

  • CRE has become more intertwined with other business functions, and CRE D&A has become a critical component of the overall corporate D&A strategy.
  • CRE analytics’ potential impact on the wider business is huge – this is especially true for businesses with more complex CRE requirements.
  • However, current D&A capabilities in CRE fall short of aspirations, particularly in areas like data governance, talent management and the implementation of key performance indicators (KPIs).
  • D&A represents a rare opportunity for CRE teams to increase their impact on the broader business organis

These insights are consistent with JLL’s own research findings, which make clear that there is a wide array of opportunities in CRE to drive operational efficiencies through D&A. The breadth of CRE activities and the data they generate creates tremendous potential for analytics-driven insights across many areas.

For instance, real-time monitoring of space utilisation can help companies improve productivity by optimising their real estate footprint and designing spaces that match work patterns. Companies can also apply D&A in their portfolio and location strategies, where CRE executives can use sophisticated analytics tools to facilitate informed decisions by relying on the analysis of multiple data sets when making decisions.

However, while most CRE executives are aware of the benefits that D&A can bring to their organisations, many continue to struggle to successfully implement a coherent data-centric strategy. Richard Brown, JLL’s Global Head of Business Intelligence and Analytics, touched on this in a recent interview by pointing out that while CRE generally lags behind other industries in terms of its adoption of D&A, the current focus on D&A nevertheless reflects a strong push from CRE leaders to get their organisations started on the D&A journey.

To build a successful D&A strategy, CRE executives must ensure the alignment of its people, technology, and processes. Talent is critical to the successful implementation of D&A in CRE, and companies must focus on developing a strong talent management strategy. Having people with the right analytics skills is one of the key attributes needed for organisations to become experts in D&A.

To keep up with advances in D&A, companies also need to ensure that they have the right technology in place. In particular, initiatives to adopt new technology in D&A can improve the levels of data governance in CRE teams and also set the foundation for more sophisticated D&A strategies, which can be implemented subsequently.

More information on how to create D&A strategies in CRE can be found here.

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