Britain’s commercial real estate stock is going through a metamorphosis.
Whether tenant space or leased space; retail, administrative or manufacturing: ‘change’ is the buzzword.
Re-purposing, re-designing and even outright replacing are all reinvigorating spaces which would otherwise fail to deliver on multiple fronts for landlords, property managers and tenants.
It’s because the post-pandemic world of work has changed forever.
It’s because we now place different demands on that space.
And it’s because that space must either respond or risk dying a slow, value-sapping death. It’s a challenging time but, by nature, I’m a raving optimist.
Landlords and real estate managers want their buildings and spaces lit up. They need productive and profitable tenants. They want long-term revenue streams.
They want to be able to create environments that maximise their space and ensure that they don’t have empty floors, costing them money. Brilliantly, technology is, as is so often the case, stepping up to help.
It’s why I formed Flexible Group earlier this year.
They say timing is everything, and it feels like UK Plc (and I enthusiastically include all of the country’s small and medium-sized businesses in that term) is ready to embrace that change.
I’ve spent 20 years in the technology space, helping businesses of every type and size leverage the power of everything from the simple landline to mobile telephony and now super-clever cloud-based communication technology.
Today, any successful reimagination of the commercial real estate business model depends so much on that tech.
Serviced offices, tech hubs, collaboration spaces – these are the modern workplaces that will reboot our economy and save many of our amazing buildings, not to mention the myriad businesses that provide them, support them and operate within them.
That’s what fires me up: the opportunity to deliver technology in support of a sector which, by surfing the wave of change rather than resisting it, can re-energise and transform.
In today’s uber-modern, always-on world, that tech can be a tricky beast to tame.
As an experienced provider of internet connectivity, managed wi-fi, cabling, telephony, switching, security, IT hardware, mobile devices, access control, CCTV, even commercial energy – Flexible Group is a kind of one-stop-shop for those for who need a guiding hand to hold.
But, for me – despite the ‘virtual’, ‘hybrid’, ‘automated’ and ‘whatever-other-descriptors-you-can think-of’ nature of today’s digital environment – it’s my passion to provide a collaborative, consultative and personal experience which I think delivers extra value.
It’s about understanding a customer and their needs.
It’s about responding quickly with the right strategy and solutions.
And it’s about valuing relationships that produce mutually-beneficial outcomes.
Technology need not simply be the back-end facilitator…it can be the solid foundation on which a bright new future begins to actually take shape.
· Paul Gibbs is Managing Director of Flexible Group – technology, made easy. He blogs regularly on how businesses can leverage the power of technology to succeed and grow.
· To learn more about how Flexible Group can help your business, visit www.flexiblegroup.co.uk
created Sunday 5th of June 2022
