Two weeks ago, we witnessed one of the most amazing and thought-provoking gatherings of the CRE fraternity. Yes, I am talking about the RE:Connect event where we got the opportunity to conduct 9 Sessions ranging from sustainability, asset performance management to an ideal technology stack for the future of FM. 

It’s so refreshing to know when you come out of one of the most difficult (read opportune) years for the real estate sector and meet with people who share the same passion for technology and solutions. 

Thanks to James Dearsley and the team at Unissu for organizing such an event which was not only different in terms of overall conference experience but also the content we were able to discuss.

At Xempla we were fortunate enough to host our session in 3 different categories: Property and Facility Management in a Digital Age, Digital Twins, and Sustainability & Energy Efficiency. Thanks to our guest speakers from Serco, Engie, Sodexo, and Embassy group for sharing their thoughts and valuable insights with our listeners.  

When you have all that content to share it becomes difficult to digest all at once. So I just wanted to highlight some of the overarching thoughts and ideas we picked up from our guest speakers.

Get Clear on what you want to achieve from the transformation

Bart Holsters, GM Engie started the discussion by questioning people’s intent to go for technological innovations such as big data, AI, MI in that case. 

He also stressed the part that people should be very clear on what they want to achieve, whether it’s energy reduction, better asset management, or tenant management accordingly they should set the roadmap and select the right technology or applications that help them to thrive and achieve.

Digital company or people’s company

When most of the conventional companies are projecting themselves as tech or software companies to stay relevant Paul Bogan, CDO Serco suggested believing in your firm’s core values and identity

Contrary to popular beliefs, Paul highlighted the fact that they are people’s company and never want to move away from the cores. He also mentioned that they are great at partnerships and driving values for their clients by bringing the right people or the technology for the right job. 

While he agrees that Digital transformation is here, which means leveraging technology to draw value across the supply chain will become the key differentiator, he also believes that they are known for their core business capabilities which can be maintained without diverting resources on something that they can simply outsource or partner with great tech companies.

Find the missing link in data analytics

Chirag Boonlia, CTO, Embassy group shared his view on what’s missing in the current state of building analytics:

“The first and foremost part of the solution is that you must invest in data acquisition. You should have quality data at the required frequency. Then put the context around it and convert it into information, convert that information into a knowledge base, and feed it to your design and building activities and then use that as wisdom for making the roadmap. This entire journey is not followed clearly”  

Similarly, for the technology vendor or partner ecosystem, they should be able to put their skin in the game. If they are confident about the saving then make it on paper. That accountability and responsibility are missing. 

Searching for an ideal Technology stack

According to Paul, finalizing the ideal tech stack is not an easy job as the optimization of the stack depends on too many things.

But from an idealistic point of view, the architecture of the Tech stack should be comprised of the following aspects.

• It should be an enterprise solution that can understand, manage and configure asset information
• End to end mobile capabilities to minimize errors in capturing asset conditions.
• Life cycle modeling has to be there
• Inbuilt or plugin option for thor party asset performance management applications, sensors and IoT applications.
• Should be available in both clouds and on-premise applications. 

Holistic asset performance management:

There are multiple definitions and view on APM strategy but according to Derren Mccredain, head of estates, Sodexo healthcare, there are three critical aspects of APM that should be there in the applications. 

Asset reliability is the key here, as well as higher functionality of the asset and low vulnerability of the systems. when these three aspects meet with resiliency then you get a great holistic asset performance management strategy.

He continued by saying that, In general, I don’t think we have embraced the technology as disrupters or innovators would do. In my experience, we still rely on the manual process rather than going digital. In most cases, the service delivery model is inefficient that emphasizes manual work delivery. 

It’s important to demonstrate the values/use cases of APM and pursue those who are higher on the ladder. 

Wish I could cover more on the insights our speakers shared with us, but you need not worry about it, for the full coverage of the discussions you can check out our dedicated blog section for the facility management fraternity, FM Times