IWG worked together with corporate real-estate giant Colliers International to transform global workspace strategy for one of their key clients

IWG’s win-win collaborations and long-view relationship with leading global corporate real-estate firm Colliers International (Colliers) has yielded positive results for one of their clients, which has found myriad solutions in flexible-office space (flexspace).

Colliers is an international commercial real-estate organisation, operating on behalf of some of the world’s leading corporations to create global office solutions for them. “We’re the fourth-largest in terms of people, and the third-largest in revenue,” says Tom Sleigh, Head of Flexible Workspace Consulting and Corporate Solutions in EMEA for Colliers. “We’ve got an amazing network and we’ve got this incredible on-the-ground presence – you name pretty much any city and we have a human presence on the ground.”

One of Colliers’ biggest clients, a mobile tech brand with a complex, diverse portfolio, requires bespoke office space solutions around the world. “We at Colliers run our client’s real-estate strategy, portfolio and transactions across their global estate – around 800 locations, with 100,000 employees around the world,” says Sleigh. “And they’ve gone through a massive transformation over the past decade with their business.”

Over the past 12 months, Colliers has been working with IWG to innovate the client’s global real-estate portfolio using strategies including IWG’s Enterprise Plan, and sourcing international flexspace locations where the brand could distribute smaller teams of employees around IWG’s global office-space locations.

And the positive process Colliers has experienced with IWG has set a precedent for the company’s future plans of incorporating flexspace into corporate real-estate portfolios. “For us, having someone like IWG, where we have used this particular client as a way of improving our local team’s understanding about flexspace and what’s possible, has been really beneficial,” says Sleigh. “In a way, it’s educated a lot of our traditional brokers about what is feasible now and has resulted in them having more confidence about referring other business [to flexspace].”

There are a number of reasons why flexspace has proved to be a compelling choice for Colliers and their client. These include the efficiency that comes with entrusting the office set-up maintenance to a third party, and the option to easily upscale or downsize the amount of space being used in line with staff changes (something flexspace offers as a given, unlike conventional office space).

“From an operational view, it’s easier – sometimes the amount of admin that goes into running smaller sites is disproportionate,” says Sleigh. “Also, for all big companies, headcount fluctuations are incredibly difficult to predict so part of outsourcing some of their portfolio enables them to be more agile when it comes to their teams growing quickly or reducing. Avoiding taking long-term commitments was seen as quite a good strategy.”

Sleigh adds: “There’s also an element of capital cost savings as well. Traditionally, when you move offices, it’s very expensive at the front end because you have to fit out a space to be ready for people to work in – you have to buy furniture, build meeting rooms and so on. Whereas going to an outsourced solution means the client pays as they go, they use what they need when they need and they don’t have to get involved in actually setting up. It’s a much smoother cash flow. And, if you don’t know if you’re going to be at a site in 10 years’ time, why commit that much capital at the front end?”

Perhaps the major plus point for IWG from Colliers’ perspective is its global network of 3,500 flexspace locations offering consistently high standards. Not only does IWG’s reach fall in line with Colliers’ footprint, it offers a unique proposition for multinational clients. “When you’re dealing with big corporates, they’ve got to deliver a certain quality of space to their employees to meet company policy,” says Sleigh. “So to have one supplier who can cover a majority of their markets is really compelling – you don’t have to go into the local market and check 200 different operators. We know that IWG is going to deliver that standard. Knowing there is going to be a consistency of delivery across their 3,500 locations. No one else can match that network – it’s unparalleled.”

Finally, the pace of interaction and information exchange between IWG agents and Colliers brokers has worked well when serving global workspace needs. “Our client is reacting to client demand, with a lot of projects coming out of their business,” says Sleigh. “Having an agreed format of contract means we can accelerate the transaction process dramatically. Because contracts are agreed by both parties in advance, we’re don’t have to get into complex lead negotiations on every site – so that massively improves the transaction speed. Likewise, with billing and invoicing, there are processes all set up for that.

“Our clients need a partner they can trust to deliver office space that’s going to meet their corporate guidelines – be that in Iraq, South Africa or London. By having a partner like IWG, there’s confidence that they know they’re going to deliver that. And, with the sheer quantum of work we have at Colliers, it means we’ve got a really valuable partner there,” concludes Sleigh.

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