Upwardly mobile

The four panel discussions and four presentations held on February 4th at the Hotel Intercontinental in Warsaw took place in front of a full house – as they say, the new always generates interest. Besides, the discussion concerned issues that have significant implications, such as how the way each of us works could change in the near future. This was the topic of the first presentation by Karolina Strokosz (Regus). She argued convincingly that mobile work systems would lower companies’ demand for office space and thus reduce costs considerably. “Maintaining one desk in Western Europe costs an average of EUR 19,000 per year, but over 55 pct of desks are empty most of the time,” said Karolina Strokosz. She also pointed to the results of surveys, according to which as many as 66 pct of us would agree to the lowering of our salaries in exchange for more flexible working hours and, as a result, would no longer need to get stuck in traffic jams on the way to the office. So what is the problem if there are so many advantages and the majority of us support the changes? During the discussion panel that followed, however, opinions were more divided. “Yahoo eventually made the decision that everyone should return to their offices. The home working system is not efficient,” said Zuzanna Mikołajczyk, a brand director at Mikomax Smart Office, which supplies office furniture to tenants. “Twitter does not invest in property leases or purchases; it has developed its network based on a mobile workforce. Thus it can implement the opening of a new branch in another country within two weeks,” retorted Karolina Strokosz. Besides, what the employees themselves want is also important. “Today the possibilities of flexible and mobile work are among the conditions most frequently requested by candidates during interviews. They treat flexibility as a benefit,” remarked Dariusz Kubacki from Hewlett-Packard Application Services Global Delivery Center.
There were also those present who felt that revolution is not going to take place overnight. “By 2020 the area of an average office will have decreased by 20 pct., as only some of us will be working under a mobile system,” was the more moderate view offered by Joanna Nicińska (Echo Investment).
The second panel started with a presentation by Łukasz Szacherski (Supremis). “We are the only partner of SAP in Poland to have a system for facility managers. As IT specialists we learn from you what facility management is about and we adjust our approach to your needs as closely as possible,” declared Łukasz Szacherski addressing facility managers. The SAP Business One platform integrates the main areas that make up property and facility management, such as lease contract management, contractual rate indexation, service repair order handling, invoicing, settling of accounts and reporting. “We do not impose any fixed systems for property management on managers but in contracts we often include a clause which states that IT systems need to be used that minimise the risk of human error,” revealed Seweryna Afanasjew, the director of the real estate portfolio of BZ WBK TFI about her company’s strategy in the panel discussion following the presentation. However, the problem lies with the multitude of IT systems, many of which are often incompatible. “It is often the case that the ‘system’ used to combine various IT systems turns out to be an ordinary Excel spreadsheet,” admitted Bożena Jurek (Cushman & Wakefield), thus confirming that there is still much scope for development in terms of IT systems that support the work of facility managers. This topic engaged the audience to such an extent that questions to the speakers exceeded the time set for the discussion, resulting in a delayed coffee break.
After the break it was time for Marcin Wawrzyński (Cisco Systems) and Dominika Witecka (Hexa Telecom) to take the floor. The subject for their presentations was WiFi-based sales support systems (or the Connected Mobile Experience, CMX for short), which allow shoppers to receive messages on their mobile phones as they stroll through malls informing them about promotions or providing other information that could improve their shopping experience. Interestingly, the service does not require a phone user to install any special applications – the only condition is that they are connected to the WiFi network in the mall. The shopping centre’s task is to make it as easy for them to connect as possible. “If you turn off WiFi on your phone, it is not a problem because future technologies will turn it back on for you,” was how Marcin Wawrzyński outlined the direction the changes will take. The integration of the system with Facebook offers some even more compelling possibilities. If a customer connects to the fanpage of a shopping centre, it makes it possible to acquire the information provided in their profile. And that enables shopping centre managers to create extensive analyses of consumer behaviour. “Today we can even check how many married women have entered a particular shop and how old they are,” said Marcin Wawrzyński. The other panellists agreed with the usefulness of this method of analysis. “The footfall figure on its own would be very interesting perhaps for a railway station, but in a shopping centre it is also very important to find out how long customers stay there, for example. Which routes they take and who they actually are, is also significant information,” argued Andrzej Jarosz (Mayland Real Estate). The speakers also identified a few of the systems’ drawbacks: it monitors only those users with the WiFi turned on – around 30 pct of the mall’s customers. What about the rest of the shoppers? CMX is an interesting tool at this stage. concluded the panellists, but still has to be complemented by other research methods, such as a camera-based system to calculate the footfall or traditional surveys.
Sławomir Ziętarski and Edwin Zasada (BrainJuice Group) introduced the audience to the principles of building e-marketing strategies on the internet. “These communication channels are not for everyone. Luxury goods will not sell through social media,” said Edwin Zasada. Alicja Kościesza (Orco Poland) agreed. “At the moment social media are not providing us with any additional opportunities for selling the Złota skyscraper project in Warsaw,” said the developer’s representative. However, in social media it is important for the investor to take the initiative in an online discussion from the very beginning, because if it escalates without their participation, the argument can easily turn against them. “It is important to listen to what people say. If you can listen, you can even convince a hater – an outspoken critic in discussions on online forums – of the worth of your project,” claimed Edward Ruszyc (Brightness). Finally the discussion moved to the topic of Polish investors’ information policies. “A lot of developers in Poland prefer to keep the information about their new projects secret until they have received all the permits and the construction work is launched. This is a completely different approach compared to, for instance, the UK, where developers go public with their plans from the very beginning,” stated Radosław Górecki (Colliers International). The discussion was far from over, but then lunch intervened.