WeWork Wants To Be a Tech Company Again, Sort Of

WeWork is trying to strengthen its technology credentials with a new software product it hopes to sell to employers. From a report: The co-working company will partner with the real estate software maker Yardi Systems to develop WeWork Workplace, a tool that will let companies manage their employees and their office space the same way WeWork does. The software, which can be used for tasks such as booking conference rooms, coordinating flexible desk usage with hybrid workers and analyzing which spaces are used the most, is set to debut this summer, the company plans to announce Wednesday.

Yardi's existing tools help landlords and asset managers oversee their property operations and finances. WeWork's core business is renting out desks and offices, but the company has also worked to expand beyond that in recent years -- though not as far afield as the bewildering choices of its co-founder and former chief executive officer, Adam Neumann, who oversaw WeWork's expansion into an elementary school and residential co-living.

Vaporware

[GrokvL]

Hopes to sell? Market analysis for the need and demand would result in more confident wording. Good luck to them, but I've seen too many products and features written without clear customer needs.

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[UnknowingFool]

The idea was not the problem with WeWork; the hype was the issue. My company before the pandemic was running out of office space and we were debating internally about how to acquire more space either by renting or buying. WeWork might have been a good temporary solution; then the pandemic happened and we did not need more space anymore.

umm, outlook anyone?

[Whateverthisis]

How would this compete with Office, specifically Outlook? Because I can book conference rooms in our company because they have a calendar. And you can extract calendar bookings into an excel spreadsheet to get any metrics you need above just looking around the office and seeing butts in seats.

I believe WeWork has this system and needs it given they're renting desks and offices to multiple companies, but I can't see why a business would want this for internal management when you get this for free with

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[jellomizer]

Let me guess you also run your whole Company off of MS Access reports, where a single PC Crash at the wrong time, can clear out hours or years of work(Depending on your backup).

Outlook works Ok for office scheduling, where if there is a messup say double booking a room, or inviting someone outside your department isn't a big deal, just embarrassing. However to say have two competing companies being able to see each others schedules is kinda a big No-no.

Also it will need to be tied with inventory, to make s

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[Whateverthisis]

I don't think you understand what I said. WeWork has that issue because they have different companies managing the same resources. But the post is about WeWork selling their software to companies to manage their offices. One company doesn't need this to manage their office.

And as to "embarrassment of double booking", that's solved with personnel, training, culture, and expectations, which is cheaper than buying an office management software. Also, Outlook has simple notifications and ways of telling

They never were a tech company

[bradley13]

If scaling your business requires directly proportional expenditures in capital, you are not a tech company. Anyone who thought they were was a sucker.