News on 26 September 2000
Business park developer Arlington Securities threw down
the gauntlet yesterday to other property companies with e-commerce plans,
by announcing both the creation of a new business division and the roll-out
of a Customer Portal.
ArlingtonOnline has been set up as a stand alone business unit, in association
with e-business consultants Centauri,
to work on research, design, delivery, content management and continuous
support of Arlington's online offerings.
"This is primarily adding value to our core product," said Arlington's
Financial Director Jeff Pulsford, "but we always had a revenue stream
in mind. We've avoided major costs such as buying a company with internet
expertise and our business parks give us a potential market without large-scale
marketing." Development has cost around £1m and Pulsford expects
to see returns within two years although they may come "much earlier."
Arlington's internet strategy began with an innovative public
web site launched earlier this year. The new Customer
Portal complements two other initiatives, the Arlington Intranet and
a new Projects Extranet.
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'Arlington's
Oxford Business Park'
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The Portal will deliver both business and 'consumer' services
to individuals based on Arlington's business parks. It is currently being
piloted with 12 occupiers but Amanda Moore, CEO of Centauri, told i-FM
that all Arlington occupiers would be online by the end of next month
a potential audience of 36,000 users in 400 organisations across 18 business
parks. Arlington's European ventures, including a joint venture in Paris
with Disney, offer a huge market for online services.
In an online world where people can easily flip to another portal at the
click of a mouse, branding and critical mass are vital. According to Moore
the problem with portals such as Yahoo is that they are not focused enough
for the cash-rich, time-poor occupiers who are Arlington's target market.
The idea of 'concierge' services available from the corporate desktop
comes from the States and the early adopters in Britain are likely to
be the employees of hi-tech US-based companies.
Moore says that the property industry in Europe is in "disarray"
over its use of the internet while in the US the real estate industry
is using its bricks and mortar presence to move into a range of services,
including IT and telecoms, creating the 'virtual business park'.
Arlington says the Customer Portal will complement its Business Services
Division, supported by Customer Support Management teams at each business
park. The Portal integrates Business and Consumer use: a single user name
and password provides access to both streams of services and enables the
user to switch easily from one to the other.
The
development team has experienced few problems with corporate IT departments
and in case says Moore, increasingly e-commerce initiatives are no longer
the sole preserve of IT with marketing and other departments taking the
lead.
Business services will include purchasing, delivered through a joint venture
with Buying Team
as well as a Service Desk to extend the capabilities of Arlington's existing
help-desk operation. Early next year Arlington anticipates integration
of the Service Desk with its preferred suppliers.
Other business-related services will include a local and/or global business
directory and online information and resources to help manage buildings
and facilities.
Arlington is seeking the tacit agreement of organisations before doing
any direct marketing and only nominated individuals will be able to use
the business services on the portal, which could be integrated with a
company's own intranet.
Centauri's Amanda Moore accepts that it is likely to be the smaller to
medium sized organisations that will take up the purchasing option, larger
companies are likely to have concluded their own procurement deals, delivered
via their own intranets. However she also stressed that development continues,
with plans for two to three years ahead, including the delivery of services
such as document management, payroll and human resources management through
jv partners on an Application Service Provider (ASP) model.
Consumer Services will be branded under the title "Just for You"
and Arlington has 50 or 60 consumer brands lined up, including products
such as books, CDs, gifts and mobile phones. More location specific services
will be rolled out and Arlington is in discussions with the major supermarket
groups about online grocery buying.
Arlington expects a revenue stream from commission on sales of between
5% and 15% plus income from ASP partners as well as savings from reduced
marketing and print costs. Using the web portal it will be possible to
roll out new products internationally, very quickly and cheaply.
Mr. Patrick Deigman, CEO of Arlington Securities Plc, says that Arlington,
as a developer, has always responded to the market: "Now we find
ourselves substantially ahead of the market and, as a provider of services
to our own customers in particular and to the property community in general,
we can truly be called a property services provider in every sense."
www.arlington.co.uk
www.arlingtononline.co.uk
