What does IT-Label actually assess?

The digital infrastructure of commercial real estate is becoming increasingly important. Organizations rely on cloud applications, video conferencing, digital telephony and an ever growing number of connected devices. Without a stable connection, work in many buildings simply comes to a halt. Yet that infrastructure remains invisible to most of those involved.

As soon as the conversation about that infrastructure begins, it also quickly turns technical. Fiber, bandwidth, latency, redundancy, CAT cabling, 4G and 5G, telecom rooms, access points and network architecture: for an IT specialist these are familiar terms. For a tenant, broker, asset manager or property owner, they do not always mean enough.

This is precisely where IT-Label wants to make a difference. Not by adding another stack of technology, but by translating the existing technology into something everyone can use during a real estate search.

Technical assessment, understandable translation

An IT-Label audit must be substantive and technically sound. Without thorough research, a label is worthless. For office buildings, a broad set of components is therefore examined, together determining the digital profile of a building.

• fiber and the available internet providers;
• available capacity and bandwidth;
• redundancy and reliability of connections;
• mobile coverage, including 4G and 5G;
• telecom and server rooms;
• existing data cabling and infrastructure;
• wifi facilities where these are part of the building concept;
• options for backup connections;
• scalability and future readiness;
• digital facilities offered by the landlord or building management;
• the demarcation between what the building provides and what a tenant arranges independently.

This checklist forms the technical basis. But IT-Label does not want to stop there. A list of components present does not yet reveal what those components make possible together. You can read more about this process on the page how the IT-label works.

The most important question is ultimately not: what technology is present in the building? The most important question is: what does that technology mean for the daily digital use of this building?

From bandwidth to data consumption

To answer that question, the concept of data consumption is indispensable. Organizations increasingly use cloud applications, video conferencing, AI applications, real-time collaboration, digital telephony, security systems, IoT devices and other connected devices. This changes not only how much data an organization uses, but also how dependent it becomes on a stable digital infrastructure.

An internet connection of a certain speed says little on paper as long as it is unclear how many users, devices and applications depend on it at the same time. Two buildings with the same connection can, in practice, offer a completely different user experience.

The question is not how many megabits come in, but whether fifty people can work simultaneously without interruption, without anyone noticing.

A familiar comparison helps. A tenant searching for office space asks how many square meters are needed for fifty employees. But perhaps we should also ask: how much digital capacity do those fifty employees need to work well here?

After all, a traditional administrative office has a very different digital usage profile than a software company, an AI company, a call center, a design studio or an organization that continuously processes large data files. This creates an important starting point: digital quality is not only about what is present, but above all about what a building can digitally facilitate. This aligns with the shift described in the article on the step from square meters to data capacity.

No judgment of good or bad

IT-Label does not simply want to establish that a building has "good" or "bad" IT. Such a judgment would not do justice to the reality of the market. A building does not need to offer the same digital infrastructure to every organization.

The needs of a small professional services firm can be entirely different from those of a technology company with hundreds of employees. What is more than sufficient for one may fall short for the other. The goal is therefore transparency about the digital delivery level, not a value judgment.

That insight revolves around a number of concrete questions:

• What does the landlord or building provide?
• What does the tenant need to arrange independently?
• What capacity is available?
• What limitations exist?
• For what type of digital use does the building form a good basis?

With this, IT-Label should become just as understandable as other information used during a real estate search. A tenant does not need to be an electrical engineering specialist to make use of an energy label. In the same way, a tenant should not need to be a network engineer to understand what a building has to offer digitally. What the labels themselves mean, from IT1+ PREMIUM to IT5 SHELL, we explain per category.

IT-Label alongside existing standards

IT-Label does not stand alone. Within the real estate market there are relevant developments, such as SmartScore. For office buildings, that looks more broadly at smart building technology: integrated systems, automation, building management, digital functionalities and user experience.

IT-Label does not aim to replace such existing standards. On the contrary, certifications and technical norms can provide valuable information about specific components of a building. The role of IT-Label lies precisely in the translation toward the digital delivery level and actual use.

The distinction can be summarized as follows. Technical norms describe how something has been technically executed. Smart building certifications describe how smart a building functions. IT-Label wants to make understandable what a user gets digitally and what they can do with it. How these relationships work exactly, we elaborate further in our overview of building standards such as ISO, NEN, WELL and BREEAM.

This positioning is further developed together with the independent knowledge collective. IT-Label is explicitly open to connecting with existing standards and expertise from the market.

From technical audit to understandable label

The ambition is for an extensive technical audit to ultimately result in something that is easy to understand. Behind the label there may be a complex technical assessment. At the front end, however, a tenant should quickly get answers to practical questions.

• Can my organization function well digitally here?
• What connections and capacity are available?
• Is there sufficient redundancy?
• How is mobile accessibility?
• What digital facilities do I get from the building?
• What do I still need to invest in or arrange myself?
• Can the infrastructure grow along as my data consumption increases?
• Is this location suitable for my digital usage profile?

Why that translation matters

This translation is precisely what should become the strength of IT-Label. For a tenant, it does not matter how a redundant connection is technically constructed, but it does matter whether the business keeps running if a line fails. Anyone wanting to understand what that involves will find an explanation in our article on why one connection is sometimes not enough. It is about translation, not simplification of the technology itself.

The next real estate question

The real estate sector is used to asking organizations: how many square meters do you need? Due to cloud, AI, IoT and ever increasing digitalization, a second question is now emerging alongside it: how much digital capacity do you need? And subsequently: can the building facilitate that?

That is ultimately what IT-Label wants to provide insight into. Not by teaching real estate professionals and tenants more technical terms, but by translating technology into something everyone understands: use, capacity, reliability, data consumption and future readiness.

IT-Label does not want to make technology more complicated. We want to make digital real estate quality understandable. Because ultimately it is not about how much technology is present in a building. It is about what you can do with it. If you want to know what this means for your property, start at IT-label for property owners or get in touch via our contact page. Let's make visible together what is still invisible today.