CONDUCTING GLOBAL BUSINESS ON A WEAK FOUNDATION?

Your company will fail. Your office space will be a major contributing factor.

More commercial buildings are becoming technologically obsolete because their owners and property management companies do not realize that the three most important words in real estate have become “Location, Location, Connectivity”.

Today, commercial buildings need to have adequate access to high-speed broadband connectivity from multiple network carriers. They need to be built on a solid Platform for Commerce.

Is YOUR building sitting on a weak Platform for Commerce??

Platform for Commerce? Infrastructure that includes intelligent infrastructure like broadband connectivity and power from multiple sources.

CORPORATE TENANT NEEDS HAVE CHANGED

Over the years, corporations have become more dependent on communications-based information systems to support their core business. If any network application supports the core business, it is considered a mission critical application and should be fully redundant. This means that a network application should have access to more than one network carrier and preferably be connected to it via two separate sources. That means network infrastructure connecting to two different central offices.

Think about how many office buildings even have two separate routes to two separate central offices in any downtown district. The incumbent phone companies have always sold building owners and new building developers on the idea that you only need to have one large multiple trunk connection to one central office. That may have been a good design spec in the horse-and-buggy days when the phone companies started, but in today’s mobile Internet age, a single connection does not offer sustainability, nor does it support the idea of having mission critical capability for applications supporting the core business.

Today, one out of three corporate applications are considered mission critical to the enterprise. In the near future, that number will be increasing to one out of two corporate applications being mission critical. How many corporations really have supporting networks that can be considered as mission critical (fully redundant)?

How many commercial buildings can support corporations that need mission critical network services? How many downtown or suburban buildings have two separate connections to two separate central offices? One, out of 1000? Two, out of 1000?

There is a huge lack of updated infrastructure and most real estate executives don’t even know it is a problem. They will when they see tenants going to buildings that provide these intelligent amenities and when they get rejected by corporate site selection committees for not having the right mix of amenities to support a Fortune 500 corporate facility.

In my upcoming book, Location, Location, Connectivity, I discuss the issues that need to be addressed in commercial real estate supporting 21st century businesses. In my research, I have found that having intelligent amenities like redundant broadband networks can cut competition by over 90%.

You can’t learn any of this in any graduate real estate curriculum. Why? They are still teaching courses based in the 1950s at best, and the 1850s at worst.

Can your building compete in today’s market? Chances are, it can’t.

NEXT-GENERATION BUSINESS AND INDUSTRIAL PARKS

This same issue, about having intelligent infrastructure that can support mission critical applications, applies to business parks and industrial parks. Do you have multiple carriers supplying broadband connectivity to the park? Connectivity in the multiple gigabit speeds – not megabit speeds.

What about redundant and diverse power supplies? Does your building have redundant power sources (two separate power grids servicing you)? You need to be in an Intelligent Business Campus (IBC) or Intelligent Industrial Park (IIP).

This is what is needed for today’s as well as tomorrow’s industrial parks and business campuses. This is what is needed to be globally competitive.

Does your building fall flat against the competition??

Time to wake up. Time to get competitive. Time to get redundant power sources into your buildings along with redundant high-speed broadband connectivity. WiFi, DAS networks and Smartphones are also creating different mobile business dynamics.

Time to learn about the Platform for Commerce and Intelligent Amenities. The book will be out in early 2014.

CARLINI-ISM : 20th century real estate solutions do not address 21st century global business needs.

One response to “CONDUCTING GLOBAL BUSINESS ON A WEAK FOUNDATION?”

Jeff Hipchen | October 14, 2013 at 6:08 am | Reply

You hit it dead on. Don’t forget the importance of Mobility in todays world and the importance of making sure your building supports cellular and Public Safety Services. Today more than 80% of all calls are either initiated or received on a mobile phone!