Expansive Chose ButterflyMX to Provide Secure and Convenient Access to Tenants and Visitors

Chicago’s bustling Loop neighborhood has no shortage of office buildings, but when Expansive founder Bill Bennett was seeking office space back in 2007, he didn’t like the options. Realizing other entrepreneurs were also dissatisfied with the available choices, Bennett launched Expansive (formerly known as Novel Coworking). Six years later, Expansive opened its first coworking space, offering budget-friendly, amenity-rich office spaces to help small businesses thrive. Now with nearly 40 office buildings throughout the country, Expansive has a myriad of tenants who rely on the company to help grow their businesses. Expansive turned to ButterflyMX to ensure convenient and secure property access for the people working in and visiting their coworking spaces.

Tenants, visitors, and delivery people need varying levels of access to the property at all hours of the day. But the traditional way of managing property access — using keys, key cards, and fobs — is too inconvenient and insecure for an Expansive space. “We have lots of different types of businesses at our coworking spaces, all with employees, customers, and vendors who need access to the properties,” explains Tiffany Tanakit, Portfolio Manager at Expansive. “Granting visitor access and managing tenant fobs was inconvenient and took up too much time from our on-site staff. We needed a solution that allowed our tenants to open and manage doors from their smartphones while also empowering our staff to grant or revoke access from their computers.”

The outcome

Expansive now has ButterflyMX installed at over 20 locations across the US, with plans to add more. Their tenants love the mobile app, which lets them grant access to visitors and deliveries even when they’re not in the office. The video calling feature also empowers them to see who they’re letting onto the property before opening the door. What’s more, Expansive’s property staff can add and remove tenant access from an online dashboard as well as review time- and date-stamped photos of everyone who enters the property.

Most importantly, Expansive benefits from a tech-forward amenity that increases tenant satisfaction while improving security and attracting new prospective tenants. “We are already planning to rollout ButterflyMX to other properties,” describes Tiffany Tanakit, Portfolio Manager at Expansive, “Between the improved tenant experience, increased security, and meaningful time-savings, ButterflyMX is really a no-brainer for us.”