Digitalisation of property management – how technology is reshaping the industry

The commercial real estate sector is currently undergoing a digital revolution that is fundamentally changing how office buildings are managed. At Globalworth Poland, for the past three years we’ve been building our own technological solutions that optimise our internal processes while allowing us to better understand and serve our tenants’ needs.

From paper to smart systems
When we began digitising our processes, the biggest challenge was the lack of transparency and automation – we had to manually check compliance, track each stage and coordinate approvals, which slowed the whole process down. Today, each of the more than 1,000 documents processed every month in our organisation is handled completely digitally. We have created a solution that automates the entire process – from carrying out tenders and generating documents from templates, to an approval system and archiving fully integrated with our SAP system.

The result? The average document-approval time has fallen by more than two-thirds, and the system automatically monitors budget usage, flagging potential overruns as early as the approval stage. This is a time saver; it also eliminates human error and provides full transparency for financial processes.

One platform, all of the data
Managing a portfolio of 20 office and mixed-use complexes requires efficient access to a huge amount of information. That’s why we developed a platform that integrates data about our buildings. We have integrated all the key information that supports strategic management decisions: lease parameters, leasing data, service contracts, and even space visualisations.

The latest addition is a pilot module that automatically collects and analyses the turnover of our retail tenants. The system automatically sends out forms to tenants, gathers the data, imports it into our other systems and generates automatic visualisations and alerts. After this is implemented, property managers who previously spent many hours a month gathering and processing turnover data will receive ready-made reports without having to get further involved.

Smart buildings in real time
Another project we are delivering is real-time space utilisation monitoring. This technology helps to optimise tenant comfort. A particular benefit of this solution is that we have managed to implement it in buildings that were constructed before ESG and sustainability became a common consideration – and using the existing infrastructure. This means we avoid costly installation of additional cameras or sensors, fully protect user privacy and at the same time show how legacy buildings can successfully gain functionalities that meet the latest market standards.

The data we acquire and process this way is revolutionising how we manage buildings. We can now individually adapt our HVAC system schedules to the actual working hours of our tenants. If one tenant works from 8:00 to 16:00, while another works from 10:00 to 18:00, the system can automatically adjust the air conditioning and ventilation to their needs. This translates to energy savings – and a better-quality working environment.

We’re currently running a pilot project in four buildings, with plans to extend it to our entire portfolio. These insights help us better understand the ‘life’ of each building and we can plan service and marketing activities based on real patterns of use.

Artificial Intelligence as the next step
We are already implementing solutions based on artificial intelligence. Our team, which recently received a certificate in creating AI agents, is working on automating the analysis of external documents. AI will assist us with the initial screening of tender offers, analysing contracts based on external templates, and also with translating documents and correcting file structures.

We also plan to introduce advanced document-search based on vector and graph databases. This is another step towards the full automation of administrative processes that do not directly affect the quality of tenant service, but do take up our teams’ valuable time.

Our digitalisation philosophy
Our goal is not to replace people with machines, but to free up our teams’ time from repetitive tasks and create space for creativity and genuine care for our properties. Technology should be an integral part of everyday life – not complicating processes, but simplifying them.

Thanks to automation, our property managers have more time for hands-on property management and more data to understand how they operate. This translates into better service quality and the ability to proactively respond to tenants’ needs.

The future is already here
Digitalisation in property management is not the future, but the present. Companies that do not keep up with this transformation risk losing their competitive edge. At Globalworth we are convinced that investing in technology is an investment in better tenant service and more efficient management.

Our digitalisation journey is only just beginning. The coming months will bring new AI implementations, further process automation and an even deeper understanding of our tenants’ needs. The commercial real estate sector stands on the brink of a great change. We intend to be its leaders.