Investa’s innovation drive to transform commercial property landscape
L to R: Shen Chiu, Joanna Marsh and Nathan Lyon of Investa
23 August 2019
Office market specialist,
Investa,
is set to assume the mantle of Australia’s most innovative commercial
property company on the back of a refreshed business strategy, a
dedication to
data mining and the successful launch of several
market-leading initiatives – with more to come.
Long recognised for its leadership in
sustainability and operational
performance, Investa has been quietly
building its broader innovation
capability through targeted internal investment, strategic partnerships
and an organisation-wide mandate to create value by doing things
differently.
This renewed focus is transforming
building performance and the tenant
experience across Investa’s $12 billion portfolio – unlocking value
across multiple financial and non-financial measures.
As one of the commercial property sector’s most innovative businesses,
Investa is now sharing the fruits of its labour and process for
embedding a culture of innovation at all levels of the organisation.
Investa’s General Manager, Innovation & Strategic Projects, Joanna
Marsh, said innovation had been elevated as a key strategic priority in
the past two years, despite occupancy rates never being better.
“While this might appear counter-intuitive – with seemingly less
incentive to innovate – now is the time. It takes years to build up a
culture and capability for innovation, even in a company like Investa,
where innovation has been a regular by-product of what we do,” said
Marsh.
Data is set to be one of the most disruptive influences on the
commercial property market, according to Marsh, citing a recent internal
project to map and analyse 60 data sources, that is projected to reduce
the time spent on preparing reports by 7% for the Real Estate Services
team and up to 20% for the company as a whole by the end of the project,
which can be re-directed to more strategic work by the teams.
“We believe that access to data in
all its forms will be a genuine game changer and major driver of new
building
technology and innovation across the office market,” she said.
Another data-driven innovation project focused on streamlining and
automating more than ten facilities management systems, identified a
range of process and system-related opportunities to improve efficiency,
including reducing average work order processing times by up to 75% and
reducing software costs by up to 30%, through amalgamation and process
optimisations.
Marsh said the ability to derive value-adding insights across the
Investa portfolio also extended to its tenant base of more than 100,000
occupants. A recent deep-dive tenant research project identified a range
of new ideas that would transform the way Investa provides service and
space to its tenants, including ‘Fast Start Fit Out’ services that are
being piloted in Sydney and a new, accelerated, online leasing process
to be launched later in 2019.
Marsh said central to Investa’s recent success has been its ability to
build a deeply ingrained, ideas-driven culture supported by strong
leadership. To date, 70% of the organisation has participated in its
internal Innovation Accelerator program, which generated 100 new ideas
and five new initiatives over a two month period.
To further embed an already empowered innovation culture, Investa
recently launched its own Innovation Institute and Corporate Innovation
Certificate, which more than 25% of staff have opted into.
Investa’s Head of Building
Technology, Nathan Lyon, said the next frontier for the business was
to build on its strong foundations to push the boundaries of digital
technology to dramatically improve buildings and in turn, people
performance.
“We are continually looking at ways to harness both portfolio-wide and
single-building office data to unearth opportunity for our tenants and
stakeholders. Being able to draw on rich, cross-building analytics is
allowing us to see what others can’t in the market, to transform our
assets.”
Investa is already well-known in the industry for its property ‘firsts’
including Australia’s first commercial property green bonds and green
loan , Australia’s first approved Science Based Net Zero by 2040
emissions target and the first WELL Core and Shell Pre-Certification at
the Gold level by the International WELL Building Institute, for its
Barrack Place development in Sydney.
Lyon said the focus is on leveraging innovations such as Digital Twins –
which replicate the thousands of physical components of a building in
digital form – to support more sophisticated building management, better
customer service and ultimately a better occupant experience.
Investa delivered Australia’s first commercial office digital twin to be
used in the operational management of a building at its 567 Collins
Street, Melbourne asset. Here the technology maps more than 57,000
building items in the asset register and takes feeds from 14,000 live
data points.
Investa’s Sixty Martin Place development, which will complete in
September, leverages the firm’s structured approach to innovation,
whilst harnessing a range of state-of-the-art building technologies. The
Premium grade building incorporates smart access controlled doors, speed
stiles, license plate recognition and lifts to make entering and exiting
the building seamless. The provision of an integrated digital visitor
management system and a room and locker booking system with the building
security system, means visitors and tenants can access and book space
quickly and easily via their own smart device.
Shen Chiu, Development Director at Investa who is leading the Sixty
Martin Place team said: “Our innovation drive allows us to leverage
transformative insights, smart thinking and cutting-edge building
technology to deliver targeted commercial solutions that benefit
stakeholders and shareholders.
It isn’t about innovation for innovation’s sake, rather we maintain a
strict focus on developing and implementing the ideas that are tailored
to our owner and tenant needs. Innovation must have purpose and unlock
quantifiable value."
Lyon added: “What our approach means to the market are better returns,
lower costs and more sustainable outcomes, and for our building
occupants, a better workplace experience that evolves as our work styles
change.”
[1] For Investa Office Fund (now delisted) and Investa Commercial
Property Fund
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Source: Investa - www.investa.com.au
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