The coworking industry has continued to grow and take over the real estate market this year. One firm that has particularly experienced major growth in the past year is software company Yardi.
Justin Harley, regional director of Yardi’s coworking team, said that after joining the firm, they wanted to find the quickest way to enter the market from a software standpoint. Yardi acquired two companies— WUN Systems and Phoenix Broadband— the latter of which had already established a niche in the flexible workspace market by providing companies the ability to manage bandwidth and Internet across tenants moving through the space.
From the beginnings of the coworking industry, Harley has observed two changes: lease agreements and large serviced office groups.
As these large serviced office groups grew, they needed to make more profits by acquiring the assets.
“More corporates are coming into the space and there are a number of reasons for that, one of them is about talent acquisition and making sure they can retain talent,” said Harley. “If talent is a younger generation the need to retain them is so competitive, especially in places like Manchester or London.”
When it comes to technology in the industry, Harley said that the two biggest reasons people leave a workspace is due to noise and poor experience with the Internet. The Internet allows firms to understand how a space is being used and optimize it so that customers get the best experience possible.
