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TECH TALK: Know what you know, and what you do not

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Antony Slumbers
Antony Slumbers
Antony Slumbers

I am often asked by people in the industry, “what proptech should I buy or invest in?”, to which I reply, “that is the wrong question”.

What you should be asking is “What do I need to know, to know what proptech I should buy or invest in?”

So, what do you need to know?

1) Who is your customer?

If you want to create new value and differentiate yourself, you need to think differently about who your customer is. For example, in a workplace world where the percentage of people working flexibly is growing each year, and space as a service (no lease, purchased by the hour, day, week or month) is the new normal, who is an office owner’s customer? It is no longer the chief executive or chief financial officer of some corporate entity. The customer is now the individual, and you have to engage, inspire, interact with and sell to each and every one of these individuals. That is, for most people in property, a new game and requires different tools and a new mind-set.

If you are a retail property owner the same applies. It might be your retailer tenant that pays the rent, but really your customer is each and every person that walks into your shopping centre or store. Retail property owners must own the relationship with visitors to their space.

Without data, space is just a commodity. Alibaba have not bought a chain of Chinese shopping centres because they want to get into the property business.

2) How does your customer want to interact with you?

When you can book an Uber in 30 seconds, make bank payments from your phone, order anything online and have it delivered tomorrow, why on earth is any form of transaction in the property world so utterly painful? Why is it so slow, why isn’t the information you need available immediately, why can’t you access documents in a readable format on your phone, and why do you have to wait for office hours to get anything done?

3) What part of your job could be done by a robot?

McKinsey Consultants say 49% of all tasks performed at work could be replaced by technologies that exist today. You might not like the answer but do you know enough about the technologies that are available today to dispute this? And in your case, is the actual figure higher or lower than 49%?

If your job is under threat from robots, what can you do about it? What technology can you utilise, or co-opt, to fight off this threat? How could you turn this severe bug into a feature? And by embracing robots, enable them to augment your skills and make you dramatically more productive than before. Being brutal, when you and your colleagues are up against robots, it is not robots, but your colleagues, that you need to outrun.

4) What data do you have access to?

Think of the four Vs of data: volume, variety, velocity and veracity? The digital world is built on data: knowing what you have, what else you need and where you could get it from is essential.

5) How well do you understand your market and your competitors?

Have you considered that like Alibaba above, your competitors might no longer be from within the property business? You might be being smart and follow former ice hockey star, Wayne Gretzky who famously said “I don’t skate to where the puck is, I skate to where it is going”, but what if the game is no longer ice hockey? Remember Kodak wasn’t put out of business by a better filmmaker.

All of the above is what you need to know before you ask about what proptech to use or invest in. You need to understand clearly what the pain point is that needs relieving, what gains you are trying to achieve, and what the job is that needs doing. You should not touch any technology until you understand what the value proposition is.

The days of IT are over. Every business is a technology business. The differentiator going forward is knowing what technologies you can use to complement your human ingenuity, skills and creativity in the service of a robust, solid and scalable business. Knowing the right questions to ask is a good place to start.

Antony Slumbers, Estates Today founder.

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