The dream of working in a bathrobe from home is rapidly becoming a reality for many Americans.

But trends such as telecommuting, remote officing and increasing reliance on web-based data have important implications for commercial real estate managers.

According to W.S. 'Bill' Garland, president of the Building Owners and Managers Association, building managers will need to reassess their needs to successfully cater to tenants.

"Managers of 'smart' buildings will need tremendous computer capabilities, and the emphasis will shift from managing physical space to managing data space," he stated. "High tech buildings often require capital-intensive infrastructure alterations, as tenants need greater power capabilities and MIS systems demand extensive space, wiring and ducting."

Such intelligent workplaces are essential for productivity in the information age, according to Vivian Loftness, head of the school of architecture at Carnegie Mellon University.

Loftness noted that the model intelligent workplace meets four criteria: flexibility of organization, technological adaptability, individual comfort and productivity, and environmental sustainability. And to a greater or lesser extent, all depend on implementation of greater computer and bandwidth capacity.

"Telecommuting from home and teleconferencing between multiple offices are obvious advantages of an intelligent workplace," Loftness noted. "But this means high speed bandwidth is a necessity."

But even if employees are working from the office, high-speed bandwidth is practically a necessity.

"The web is not only a great research tool in general," Loftness said. "But as CDs and web databases replace huge rooms of paper, fast access to the Internet is crucial for most companies."

One company offering such access is Kivex, one of several companies that provide Internet service exclusively for commercial office buildings.

Tom Gray, vice president for marketing at Kivex, says that his company saw a need for an inexpensive way to provide high-speed bandwidth to commercial buildings because close to 20% of tenants were leaving their buildings because of inadequate access to the Internet.

Starting two years ago, Kivex pioneered its "Internet Building" concept, where it would put a T-1 line, which is ten times as fast as an ISDN line and up to one hundred times as fast as a dial-up modem connection, into a building and invite all the tenants to share the connection to the Internet.

"The comparison between a T-1 line and regular dial-up access is like the difference between sucking soda from a fire hose instead of a straw," Gray said.

Gray stated that of the five hundred buildings that Kivex services, the renewal rate is 98%.

"Tenants get addicted to the benefits of high-speed Internet access, IP telephony (voice over the Internet), and teleconferencing, and they loathe to give it up."

Kelly Barbour, communications manager of the American Bakers Association, is one such tenant.

"When our building installed the T-1 connection I didn't think it was a very big deal. But now, I can't imagine giving up such quick access the Internet nor the ability to dial in to my computer from home."

Published: December 4, 1998

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