CHICAGO—In the past few years, corporate real estate has assumed a greater importance. And JLL has just unveiled a new data and insights platform designed to offer a holistic view of a corporation's operations alongside the macroeconomic environment and allow real estate managers to present all of this information in an easily-digestible manner to C-suite executives.

Called RED, the new system has been under development for about three years, and a pilot program with three companies, one each in Europe, Asia and North America, has been operating for about eight months. RED is not designed for investors or developers. Instead, it's meant to provide those in corporate real estate a single solution to “drive overall portfolio performance,” John Forrest, JLL's chief executive officer of corporate solutions, Americas, tells GlobeSt.com. Historically, managers used many different service providers or their own workplace management systems.

“Real estate is a top three corporate expense,” Forrest says, and “has been significantly pushed up the corporate agenda.” But its growing importance is not just about dollars and cents. C-suite executives now recognize that the tremendous power of modern information technology means they can analyze how their office space is organized and show ways to increase both employee satisfaction and productivity. “That is very different from what was being asked of corporate real estate executives in the past.”