WeWork Inc. launches its application after entering the stock exchange

Nine months after going public, the shared workplace operator in July officially launched a service called WeWork Workplace, which includes software tools that WeWork uses to power its dozens of locations. For the first time, WeWork now offers these tools to all tenants, regardless of WeWork membership.

WeWork executives say Workplace will help businesses lure workers back into offices by providing their employees with an app with which they can do things like book a conference room, post a company announcement or register for a yoga class.

From desired residences to major commercial transactions.

"Companies of all sizes recognize that people don't come every day," said Scott Morey, WeWork's president of technology and innovation. According to him, these fundamental changes in the workplace have created problems that require digital solutions.

But WeWork is not alone in seeking new business opportunities in the turmoil in the office and space industry caused by the pandemic. Competitors also offering a range of applications, data, telecommunications and other software include technology companies such as Cisco Systems Inc. and Honeywell International Inc., and startups such as VTS and HqO.

"The race is still early," Mr Mori said.

In the early stages of the pandemic, tech companies sought to help businesses cope with health, security, and telecommunications systems as employees moved to work from home almost overnight. For example, brewer Heineken NV used the HqO office app to maintain a safe level of employment and social distancing, said Stefan Ottenhoff, digital manager at Heineken in the Netherlands.

Recently, tech companies have been trying to help businesses and landlords cope with the slow resumption of traditional jobs. Most businesses adopted hybrid strategies combining office work and remote work that required management teams to rethink conference rooms, design, security, planning, nutrition, air quality, and other office needs.

Cisco is trying to exploit this demand through a palette of services, including its teleconferencing system, which cancels out background sounds, and a space management tool that tracks employees' use of conference rooms and other office space. Cisco has added all of these technologies to its New York offices, which it uses as a storefront to sell these services.

Honeywell, meanwhile, has tried to grab market share with software like People Counting, a tool that analyzes video from security cameras to keep a real-time log of how many people are entering and leaving the office.

Other tech companies are helping businesses and landlords convince employees to return to offices, something many don't want to do after more than two years of getting used to the remote lifestyle. Office applications and related data processing tools are designed to help overcome this resistance by making the workplace more fun, efficient, and secure.

The size of the office software business is difficult to estimate in part because it's so young, but participants estimate that it runs into the billions of dollars.

WeWork's deployment of its workplace software marks the final chapter in the company saga. WeWork shook the office space business in the years leading up to the pandemic, but a planned initial public offering in 2019 failed.

Since then, the new management team has cut costs by abandoning numerous leases. Last October, WeWork went public as a result of a merger with a special purpose acquisition company.

But the company's stock, which peaked at $13.18 in October, fell to less than $5 a share in part because the company continues to operate at a loss and is still on the hook for $2.4 billion in debt due in 2025, analysts say.

Will it be enough to risk office software to keep companies like WeWork afloat? Join the discussion below.

Some analysts don't expect WeWork's new workplace software to be of much help.

"It seems to be a distraction, more than anything else, from what is a bad business model," said David Trainer, chief executive of investment research firm New Constructs.

But Piper Sandler's senior real estate, investment and trust analyst Alexander Goldfarb predicted that increasing occupancy with new businesses like WeWork Workplace and shrinking cost margins would help WeWork on its way to achieving positive cash flow in 2024.

"WeWork is great equipment for companies looking for flexibility and small business, especially when you're trying to figure out what your office needs," Said Goldfarb.