The NXT Office: the future of corporate real estate projects?

Real estate services company JLL UK launched the NXT Office this year – a futuristic presentation space in the heart of its London headquarters, incorporating a number of ground-breaking technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality, and rich data, into something that turns planning office relocation projects into something completely digital. Decisions that would previously take weeks now take about an hour.

JLL wanted a solution to drive the property market of the future, that used AI, machine learning and Big Data to create a system with the capacity to share information, encourage creative thinking and increase decision making for big real estate projects. The NXT Office is intended to accelerate the office shortlisting process, giving decision-makers an exact picture of the market landscape across one immersive viewing platform.

“The NXT Office technology was created to support clients in managing their location strategies and offers a digital journey that makes use of the latest technologies combined with exclusive data sets,” says Richard Howling, chief operating officer at JLL. “Our key objective is to assist companies to make informed property choices through a quicker and simplified selection process.”

Integrated software and hardware

JLL took several different technologies, such as Oblong’s Mezzanine technology and GoCreate by Engage Works, and combined it all into a bespoke app that connects and integrates the different engines. AVEX was brought on board to help with the integration process.

The Mezzanine element creates the visualisations – an immersive environment for teams to do their most important work. Using a dynamic multi-screen workspace helps with that immersion, allowing office projects to be fully realised in the planning stages.

NXT Office users can also interact with the data, physically manipulating information and images across nine interconnected screens, using intuitive motion sensors.

Neil Prime, head of Central London offices at JLL, said: “Our NXT Office studio will completely transform the process of selecting new office space for clients. The time involved in moving from long-list to short-list will be cut dramatically as occupiers will have detailed access to available properties, of which they will be able to enjoy a guided virtual tour supported by pioneering technology.”

Implementation

JLL worked closely with Oblong and Tetris during the specification and planning phase of the NXT office project. Several JLL employees received training on Mezzanine prior to the installation so they could prepare content and workflows ready for launch.

How it works:

By accessing the entirety of the office market via a single interface, the NXT Office user can view all the available property across nine inter-connected screens, take full control of research and define the selection of property with unmatched autonomy. The system connects in real time to multiple intelligent databases. Users can put their research into perspective with market conditions, the quality of the environment, neighbourhood dynamics and accessibility criteria.

The user can move freely within selected buildings, on an ultra-realistic virtual tour. This allows the stakeholders to go into an office move project with a full understanding of the quality of the property and how the finished project will look, so that they make faster decisions with greater confidence of the final outcome, and an understanding that goes beyond office design and into the areas around the building.

“The NXT platform has enjoyed immense success in Paris and is continuing to evolve across other parts of our business,” says Richard Howling. “London continues to be one of the most dynamic and evolving property markets and NXT Office will enable us to showcase it to businesses in a whole new way.”

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