This month, Common Areas launched a new configurable operations platform for commercial real estate companies. The idea of a configurable technology isn't new—but it is a new concept in the commercial real estate industry. In general, there is a limited field of technology options for the industry, but that is changing. Technology options are growing, but they are also becoming more configurable, and in this industry, which is nuanced and data-centric, tailoring technology is imperative.

“Staying competitive in today's business world takes the skill and will power to rapidly adapt to change while holding on to what makes the company unique,” Casey Rue, founder and CEO of Common Areas, tells GlobeSt.com. “Agility and flexibility are the keys to winning in the digital era. Common Areas' rapid development and deployment of configurable solutions keeps businesses nimble, at the forefront of the competitive edge, and able to quickly adapt to industry cycles—without having to conform to cookie cutter software system that strip away part of what makes them successful.”

Rue's new configurable operations platform is bringing the kind of technologies that benefitted other industries to commercial real estate. “Configurable solutions like Common Areas aren't entirely new to business in general, only to commercial real estate. They've been proven to be invaluable in other industries, and we believe they will be in the real estate industry as well,” he says. The platform, which was announced earlier, is a cloud-based program that allows users to personalize aspects of the system and automate business practices.

Common Areas is also focused on creating technologies that align with collaboration and productivity within an organization and with the organization's clients and third-party vendors. “We've set our focus on how this type of technology can be used in a collaborative environment, inside, outside and between companies while maintaining the ways that each business wants to operate,” says Rue. “In doing so, we're able to build a collaborative engine, one that is configured to integrate multiple functions. When executed, it creates a completeness of vision, a client's vision, on how to bring together people, properties and processes.”

Companies are already responding to the ease of the platform and the ability to create a personalized system, without hiring a tech team to create a proprietary in-house technology. Rue says that this is the first technology of its kind in this industry. The arrival of configurable technology will surely be a game changer for commercial real estate, and will bring the industry closer to the technology revolution.

Instant Insights /

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