Yao Morin, JLL's new first chief technology officer, has got her hands full as JLL undergoes "technology transformation," as she tells GlobeSt.com. That includes more than a thousand software engineers, data engineers, data scientists, and analysts in JLL Technology. It sounds like a lot of people, and is, but still chalks up only a percent or so of the company's full global size of 100,000 employees across 84 countries.

"Our strategy is a healthy balance of build, buy, and partner," Morin says, referring to a traditional breakout for technical organizations. That includes building what requires core expertise and then buy or partners to bring in other capabilities. There's also a lot of consolidation that needs to happen.

"JLL has been using technology for a very long time and it's a 230-year-old company," Morin explains. "As time goes by, you accumulate a lot of software and technology pieces. We have been striving to consolidate a lot of the technology we're using."