IT division is essential to Knight Frank Australia’s business strategic growth.
Real estate consultancy firm, Knight Frank Australia has appointed a number of staff for its national IT team.
This includes, Darren Warner Head of IT – Australia, bringing with him 20 years’ experience in IT management roles and 11-plus years’ experience in commercial real estate.
Warner moves to Knight Frank from Inchcape, a multinational automotive distribution, retail and services company, where he worked for two years following a 10 year-plus stint at CBRE as Regional IT Director for Asia Pacific.
Knight Frank chief operating officer Aaron McGhee said the appointment was significant for Knight Frank, as the company continues to build its operational teams across the business.
“The strength of our IT division is essential to our business’s strategic growth, hence this was a key appointment made after an extensive recruitment search,” he said.
As the new head of IT, Warner will work alongside Knight Frank’s Head of Disruption Al Jansen, who is developing an industry leading IT platform to optimise Knight Frank’s operations going into the future and solve challenges for customers by implementing smarter solutions.
“Knight Frank is continuing to drive progress by investing in solutions for the future of work, rolling out a number of innovative solutions for both internal and customer-facing challenges spanning business automation, improved self-service, tenant and employee engagement, compliance and better return to work planning,” said McGhee.
During the first months of 2020 Knight Frank Australia has rolled out a number of innovative solutions for both internal and customer-facing challenges.
- Equiem Remote – as a single source of information, support and positive content to improve communications and engagement by connecting all team members.
- Empirical CRE – to provide a platform for both consumption and contribution of properly listing information across greater Sydney. This supports internal sales, leasing and advisory teams with richer data to drive insights and provide faster, better service to clients.
- plus – to introduce changes for the new normal to allow pre-booking of assets for safe return to work. All employees pre-book their desk and any other services they require before arriving at the office, allowing for active planning, complete auditable records and tested protocols in case of any future event.
Knight Frank Australia has also integrated innovation, process improvement and adoption of technology to streamline and improve the way the business and its people work, said McGhee.
“We critically question the way we work, observe how the market is changing and are hands-on testing, refining and adopting innovative solutions to drive change,” he said.
“Solving challenges for customers by implementing smarter solutions is woven into the fabric of our business, and this has never been more important than in current times as we navigate the difficulties of COVID-19.”
Jansen said there were huge opportunities in real estate with digital disruption, which had already started to have a transformative impact on the industry.
“We anticipate there will be big shifts in the market in the future and we intend to be one of the leaders of change,” he said.
“This involves rethinking the current ways of operating and devising innovative ways to make the most of the technology available to us.”
