Client story

Fresh approach for a smart portfolio

Reduce costs, use space efficiently and data intelligently. These were the objectives of a global financial services provider upon critically reviewing their real estate management, and thus enabling them to continuously increase their performance.

Location

3,500 locations worldwide

Industry

Office and bank branches

Size

3 million m² worldwide

Spotlight

Cost reductions & flexible spaces

A breath of fresh air

How can I optimise my portfolio even further? The Head of Central Real Estate Management at a global financial services provider with its headquarters in Frankfurt/Germany asked this very question. His objective was to optimise the locations and spaces for offices and branches across the globe to both reduce costs and increase the efficient use of space. He also searched for innovative approaches to analyse and manage the portfolio better. Could an external team of experts help bring a breath of fresh air? For JLL, the result of this idea was a long-standing collaboration, not just for individual projects, but with a broad mandate.

One team with the client

“The right technology and proactive management are the most important levers for increasing the efficiency of a portfolio.”

Melanie Schüll, Team Leader Corporate Solutions, Germany

Very soon, around 150 people across the world began working with the customer’s team to continuously reduce real estate costs year on year and structure the portfolio more efficiently. This collaboration took place throughout the entire life cycle of the property, from ongoing strategic advice, renting and leasing, purchases and sales, to lease management and project development – always closely aligned with the requirements of users and corporate management.

From the very beginning, this collaboration was characterised by its spirit of partnership and clearly defined objectives which were regularly redefined and specified based on the overall corporate strategy. And regularly rethinking the approach resulted in the improvement of workflows and models, the establishment of digital processes and the intelligent linking of portfolio data, thus further reducing costs.

What impact do different lease agreement scenarios have on cash flow and the profit and loss calculations? Which tools can help document financial analyses so that they are  safeguarded during the next audit? And how can smart technology solutions increase portfolio performance and simultaneously boost employee satisfaction? Together with the customer, JLL’s team implemented different digital solutions and continued to improve them, thereby laying a new technological foundation for all real estate processes.

JLL’s RED market platform digitalised and accelerated the transaction and approval processes.

JLL’s Quick Lease Option Evaluator simplified the financial analysis of lease agreements and increased data transparency. Alternative locations and contract types could be compared easily, and real estate management, finance and audits could be presented to customers in a comprehensible manner.

To enable a network-based view of existing data from lease agreements, transactions and regular performance reports, a cross-platform business intelligence portal was implemented. Clearly designed dashboards helped to understand data better and improve the strategic use of analyses.

New approaches were therefore developed, not only with a view towards the entire portfolio, but also within the buildings themselves. Among other things,  Smart Building Strategies were discussed and implemented at strategic locations. Employees could control functions in the buildings via an app, and employee satisfaction increased.

Cost reduced, efficiency increase, data used intelligently

As a result of these new approaches, the performance of both the portfolio and the buildings increased: over a six-year period, approx. EUR 175 million was saved in over 5,000 completed transactions.

The technological solutions quickly proved themselves and were soon implemented in day-to-day business. Using the BI portal, the bank was not only able to compare financial and lease agreement data with market data, but could also develop proactive approaches to optimise its portfolio.

Combined data on employee development with information on current and future existing space helped view the different demand scenarios in a flexible manner. The Smart Building Programmes also increased user satisfaction while simultaneously reducing ancillary costs.

The integrated approach was successful: costs sank, space efficiency rose, and data could be used intelligently. The portfolio was therefore optimally positioned to meet the requirements of both the company and the users.