‘We’re on the hook with you,’ tech advisory boss tells landlords

“We are property people who believe in tech, not tech people who see property as a soft market to take advantage of.” For Jack Kelly, the distinction is important – and is the selling point at Office Ready Tech, a technology advisory firm that he joined as director of business development and strategic initiatives in March and became chief executive of earlier this month.  The four-year-old company works with landlords, flexible workspace operators and occupiers, advising them on issues such as fibre connectivity, door access control systems, Wi-Fi, audiovisual equipment and energy-monitoring sensors. Kelly joined from GPE, where he had been head of flex customer experience as the company grew its flex portfolio. He joined GPE in 2021 from Landsec, where he helped to launch the Myo flex brand. His earlier roles showed him just how important technology is in attracting and keeping tenants. “My ability to deliver a strong customer experience was either being incredibly supported or massively undermined by the tech through the space,” he says. “If I’m saying someone can enter a space with their phone and then they can’t, then no matter how friendly the team are or what coffee we have, they think we’re crap.” He adds: “I’ve always felt there are three reasons that tech doesn’t work in property – poor deployment, a poor scope or poor integration. We’re set up to help. We will scope, we will deliver stuff we believe in and we will hang about to make sure it works. And we’re on the hook with you.” Ever-evolving John Vaughan knows that problem well. Vaughan is co-founder of Office Ready Tech and Kelly’s predecessor as chief executive. Back in 2006 he co-founded The Instant Group, a flexible offices platform.  His latest business was “born out of frustration”, Vaughan says. Back at Instant, the company’s managed office services involved technology, but the team “couldn’t really get the service levels that we wanted through the existing suppliers in those days”. “We were seeing increasing demand to get these spaces ready and equipped,” Vaughan says. “So when the IWG buyout [of Instant] came along, I had already made plans to move on, and this was one of the businesses that I wanted to establish, to help landlords and serviced office operators to figure out everything, right from the basics of putting in fibre lines.” Vaughan continues: “There wasn’t a holistic overview of tech. Where Instant had a holistic overview of the office for the managed office tenant – everything from set-up and cleaning to FM and tech – we needed to give comfort to these partners that [Office Ready Tech] would do everything. Connectivity, Wi-Fi, door access control, meeting room booking systems, sensors, desktop support, audiovisual equipment – they didn’t want to have to buy it piecemeal.” And Vaughan takes pride in the company being an independent, objective voice. “The unique bit was that we weren’t attached to any proprietary technology that we were desperate to flog,” he says. “Tech is always evolving. What might be the best door access control for you today is not the best door access control for you tomorrow. We are able to advise on the latest, newest, best, most integrated tech solutions.” Flex first Kelly takes the reins from Vaughan at a time of upheaval in the office market. “The new normal is rapid change,” Kelly says, and landlords “are all at very different stages of their evolution”. Serviced office operators have led the way, Vaughan adds. “They show landlords what to do. Whether it’s Uncommon, Huckletree, Work.Life, x+why, any of those guys – we do the whole tech stack for them. Landlords are slowly learning from these operators. Flexibility of lease term is their starting point, and then they realise, ‘I do have to upgrade my door access control systems. We keep losing swipe cards. And if we’re going to provide meetings rooms, there’s no point unless they have the very best AV equipment.’ “Big landlords realise now that in their estate they have these flex guys doing it really well and they’re always full, so they ask how they can bring their leased space up to that format? Part of it might be the managed services, the customer experience, but supporting that is always the technology.” Older names are now starting to change their ways. Office Ready Tech recently started working with the Howard de Walden Estate on its Marylebone portfolio. Companies like that are now learning from faster flex operators. “The strength of your Grosvenors, your Howard de Waldens, is they don’t have to be first movers,” Kelly says. “They’ve allowed the flex industry to go first. They’ve allowed even GPE to step in. But what they are now seeing is the office market almost being direct-to-consumer. And that is a huge leap from where it was. “You’re now seeing this huge focus on customer and brand, and both are time-intensive, labour-intensive and cost-intensive, and have to be a labour of love. Where we can support that is, if that’s where you want to focus your time, let us focus on the tech piece.” Image © Office Ready Tech