Let’s take a look at the challenges you might face on the journey to a full portfolio rollout of Spaceflow, and practical solutions and strategies to prepare for, mitigate, or even avoid them completely.
Adopting Spaceflow for a single property offers immediate benefits, but the true power unfolds when scaling it up across an entire portfolio. The journey from single-building rollout to portfolio-wide launch with the Spaceflow platform doesn’t require huge leaps.
It can happen in a few steps—but what happens when your organization isn’t prepared to make that kind of move? How do you know if your internal stakeholders are prepared to scale up? Do you know what challenges you may face along the way or how to circumvent them even before they happen?
Fortunately, we have the answers from extensive experience in large-scale implementation for residential, commercial, and mixed-use portfolios, whether it’s from one building to ten or from one to a hundred.
Let’s take a look at the challenges you might face on the journey to a full SaaS rollout, and practical solutions and strategies to prepare for, mitigate, or even avoid them completely.
Scaling up the Spaceflow platform requires buy-in or input from several different teams because of how many areas it contributes to. Operations, community management, marketing, facility management, IT, ESG, social impact—these are just some of the departments that could be involved, depending on your company structure and portfolio.
Internal departments of a real estate operator or asset management company frequently work independently in silos with inadequate communication or collaboration.
This can lead to:
What we have seen work is establishing a single cross-functional implementation team with a single project owner. Each relevant department should be represented in that team.
Gathering those different perspectives before any rollout will help prevent unforeseen issues while also making sure the solution built from Spaceflow’s modules meets each department’s diverse needs.
This method also streamlines internal communications. Instead of passing information around in an endless game of Telephone, each representative is responsible for communicating between their department and the implementation team, or between their department and the Spaceflow customer success team.
Fewer layers, faster decision-making, and better outcomes.
With project ownership centralized to one accountable person in the cross-functional team, the rollout can be done consistently, adhering to a clear vision and strategy. It’s important to maintain the same quality of implementation in every building in the portfolio. That includes upholding the brand identity as well as a uniform tenant experience.
And one final tip here: the project owner should use a project management tool to keep track of tasks, progress, deadlines, and milestones.
The better-managed the scale-up process is, the easier it will be to repeat it for any new properties added to the portfolio in the future.
When it comes to introducing new technology that will affect the way people work, strategize, or make decisions, resistance to those changes from internal stakeholders can cause roadblocks that slow or completely stop implementation.
Secure buy-in from senior management long before the full-scale rollout kicks off by making sure they’re fully aware of the value Spaceflow brings. The value-add communicated to each member of leadership should fit their roles, so they can clearly and consistently communicate the reasons why linked to the company’s overall goals.
Example: A Head of Operations will want to hear how the platform streamlines operations and minimizes operational expenses. A CEO will want to know how Spaceflow opens up new revenue streams and maximizes value for investors. A Head of Sustainability will want to know how Spaceflow contributes to social value, reduces energy consumption, and shows results in data dashboards.
Creating top-down buy-in early means executives are leading by example, ultimately reducing or completely circumventing resistance to change as people become familiar with the why and the how.
The previous solution can help here as well. With better cross-departmental communication set up, the members of the implementation team can secure buy-in from their departments by functioning as champions for the project, helping to ensure everyone sees the value add.
This one can often be subtle, but builds up problems down the line leading to misalignment, wasted time and effort, and even dissatisfaction with the Spaceflow platform.
Prevent misaligned expectations by clearly defining internally what success really looks like, how the platform’s capabilities fit into existing operations, and the specific issues in the portfolio that Spaceflow should address.
In some cases, not having this defined before even choosing a tenant experience platform means the company ends up with a poorly-matched solution with too many features enabled or not enough. Without a clear scope defined by real needs, the overall project could become bloated, leading to delays and budget overruns.
Spaceflow is fully modular, so coming into the discussion with a clear understanding of your portfolio needs and company goals means you get the best solution tailored for your specific use case.
“An Alignment phase is crucial during our sales process during which we make sure we understand the clients’ needs, the client understands the product capabilities, and we advise them what modules to choose to achieve their envisioned goals. We also plan out a roadmap to deliver key integrations if required for the full roll up. Our seasoned Customer Success Managers help our clients to plan out the whole project. We always aim to make the process easy and transparent for our clients throughout the entire journey - from selecting the right partner to implementing the solution," says Jan Jilek, Spaceflow CCO.
Example: If your buildings don’t have the hardware installed for mobile access management and there are no plans to add it, then your Spaceflow solution won’t include the Mobile Access module.
One solution to help clearly define needs and align internally is to start with SMART goals. Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound objectives for the Spaceflow rollout. This starting point will guide you through the next step to solving this challenge: user stories.
With those smart goals in mind, put yourself into your users’ shoes and think about how different users will be interacting with Spaceflow to achieve those objectives you chose. If one objective is “Reduce time spent on maintenance work orders on the operational side by 20% in the first three months,” then you think about how the property manager should use Spaceflow to achieve that, and what features they will need.
Example: "The property manager will need to view the tickets in one place with access to data to see resolution time, number of tickets submitted, and other relevant data. They will check on the status of open tickets, arranged by priority, and manage work orders or address any comments left by the maintenance team. To save them more time, several tickets have been resolved already thanks to AI-powered automation."
A centralized Admin Console + comprehensive data dashboard + streamlined communication among maintenance teams + intelligent automation + clear prioritization = Spaceflow’s Ticketing module
Your team should also be on the same page about their expectations for the product: integrations, feature requests, overall performance. The Spaceflow team assists here, making sure you’re well-informed with thorough onboarding and product training, clear alignment, ongoing support and education, and even the latest product updates.
The next challenge is configuring the Spaceflow platform to meet the unique needs of the diverse properties in your full portfolio.
A coworking space will have different requirements from a coliving property, which will overlap with but not totally match the needs of student accommodation. How does that work with Spaceflow, especially with regards to the pricing?
Every Spaceflow plan includes our core operating system, while each add-on module can be enabled or disabled to fit all types and sizes of properties: multi-tenant office buildings, mixed-use properties, BTR, co-living, student housing, and everything in between.
Those modules can be customized for each building’s unique needs, so instead of one blanket solution for the whole portfolio—a cost inefficient option—you know you’re getting tailored solutions for every use case.
In the end, this one is only a challenge if you aren’t aligned internally on what your properties need in order to be successful. Spaceflow is designed for this exact situation: meeting the diverse needs of portfolios of all shapes and sizes.
Although it’s on the technical side of things, this challenge can end up negatively impacting several areas of the rollout and success in the future. As more and more SaaS products join the market to change the way real estate is marketed, managed, sold, and operated, you may end up with a jumbled tech stack of new solutions and legacy systems with data scattered in multiple locations.
Example: A tenant’s leasing details may be in one place like a property management system, their maintenance requests somewhere else, and their response to satisfaction surveys could be in yet another location. There is no holistic view of the tenant or the tenant lifecycle.
This leads to poor data quality, inconsistent formats, duplication, delayed information, limited analytics, and even higher operational costs.
The key to solving this one is a combination of internal work and integration work.
Internally, conduct a thorough data audit and inventory to understand what data is kept where. What format is it all in, what quality is it, and what—if any—sharing is happening between systems? Mapping all this out will help to clean up or migrate as needed to a centralized place.
Next, integrations. This can be a longer process if needed, as not every system will need to be integrated right away. Prioritize those that will result in the most business value or solve the biggest pain points.
In our experience at Spaceflow, the high priority integrations include property management systems, access control systems, and ticketing management systems. That’s why we committed to an open API, to make it easier and faster to integrate Spaceflow with all kinds of systems in your tech stack and create a unified experience.
Spaceflow is made to be the intermediary letting different software applications exchange data and communicate with each other while functioning as your go-to central point of reference. In Spaceflow’s Admin Console, you can view tenant leasing, survey responses, ticketing data, engagement rates, and much more.
Solving this challenge with internal audits and by leveraging Spaceflow’s integration capabilities results in:
We’ve covered some of the biggest challenges to scaling up with Spaceflow for your entire portfolio: those created by internal miscommunication, misalignment, and mismanagement of data. These solutions are also applicable to scaling up with other SaaS products in your tech stack. Solving these early—even as early as before choosing your SaaS solution—will lead to a seamless portfolio-wide launch now and successful outcomes later.
Did you find this article helpful? Do you have any questions for our experts? Let us know via hello@spaceflow.io
Join our mailing list
.jpg)
.jpg)