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  • Sustainable buildings: A Magnet for investors and tenants as well

    Sustainable buildings: A Magnet for investors and tenants as well

    In the initial days, sustainability was only associated with having that ‘feeling good’ attitude for the future generation or helping society to reduce carbon emission. It felt like a moral responsibility to environmentally conscious people which later translated into duty and activism. 

    “Climate change is real, it is happening right now, it is the most urgent threat facing our entire species, and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating,”  remember these famous lines from the acceptance speech by none other than Leonardo DiCaprio? He delivered a sensational speech when he received his first-ever oscar for the movie Revenant.      

    It brings goosebumps to hear him out on sustainability and climate change. Of course, we all have been witnessing some of the unpresidential climate tragedies in recent times whether it’s a wildfire or sinking an entire Island due to rising sea levels. It will continue happening unless we limit the rising global temperature to 1.5 degrees celsius by 2030-40.

    For global businesses, it was their social responsibility to invest in environmental initiatives and practice sustainable supply chain targets. But in the last 1-2 decades, those businesses, local governments and non-profit organizations have successfully created an ecosystem where sustainability is closely associated with profitability. 

    Initiatives such as EP 100, RE 100 have made businesses pledge to reduce their resource consumption and go for renewable energy sources. For commercial buildings, there are numerous certification and standardization bodies such as LEED, IGBC, GBC US, that are providing guidelines for sustainable building management and also to design sustainable buildings. 

    From an operational point of view now sustainable buildings have more opportunity to attract investors, tenants. There are multiple studies that suggested sustainability has turned into profit centers.

    According to the sustainable building market study by Ramboll,  95% of respondents believe that sustainability is important for successful business operations. 

    Drivers for Sustainable building:

    Clearly, there are multiple drives that are responsible for bringing sustainability to the mainstream.  

    • Operational efficiency and savings
    • Reduced risk and capital cost
    • Increased market demand
    • Higher property value

    One of the most important drivers of sustainable buildings in a market economy is the financial benefits. Investments in energy management and resource efficiency solutions have resulted in reducing operating costs during a building’s operation. According to the same report, 50% of the respondents have actual experience of achieving operational savings up to 10%.

    In addition, sustainability throughout the total life cycle of the building can be now assessed with smart building technologies ensuring long-term visibility on environmental effects. The emergence of Building Information Modelling (BIM), digital twins and cloud technologies have shown new ways to improve operational efficiency.  

    Advantages For facility management teams:

    While sustainable buildings are valuable for a property owner they are also equally important for facility management teams.  

    • Sustainability initiatives can give them the opportunity to expand their energy management services and commit energy-saving targets with shared benefits.
    • It can open doors to strategic asset performance management services for better asset maintenance  
    • Advisory services for building standardization and green certifications.
    • As mentioned in one of our previous blogs on ‘Net-zero benefits for Facility management firms’ sustainability initiatives can help FM firms get into a strategic relationship with the client’s top executive team. 

    Once the team is confirmed on benefits and investment on sustainable initiatives there are numerous ways to make a facility sustainable – building designs, retrofit solutions, operational sustainability, renewable energy sourcing. 

    Since most of the FM contracts are responsible for managing existing building infrastructure we are going to list down initiatives that can help them to improve the operational sustainability of the building. 

    1. Create Assessment Framework: 

    Set clear and actionable SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely deliverable goals). Align them with the client’s yearly O&M contracts or digitalization initiatives.

    Identify KPIs the team would want to work on, accordingly come up with dynamic benchmarks on per capita resource consumption, energy intensity, etc.

    1. Technology stack:

    Understand what kind of asset data is being monitored, applications/tools that required to analyze raw data, and provide actionable insights on use cases such as energy management, predictive maintenance, Fault detection diagnostic (FDD) for improving operational efficiency. 

    1. Change management:

    This may sound cliche but it has been observed that teams with proactive leadership have aggressively achieved their sustainability goals. It is very important to understand stand why we have set up those goals and how to effectively communicate them with all the stakeholders.

    So, what are the key initiatives your Facility management team has taken for the year 2021? We would love to hear from you.

  • Defining Holistic asset performance management for Built environment

    Defining Holistic asset performance management for Built environment

    In the past couple of years, asset performance management specifically in the built environment has seen unprecedented traction. Every leading facility management leader is talking about it everywhere and not just that, even started by making strategic initiatives and moves. In this blog, throwing a spotlight on this different perspective of APM leading to multiple definitions of “Holistic” Asset performance strategy.   

    Trying to cover as many definitions or angles to call APM strategy a holistic one or it’s simply everything that comes under the much-hyped word “holistic”

    It all started with the mission to improve equipment or asset reliability. Unexpected downtime and sudden breakdown of the asset have cost dearly to FM teams not to mention the discomfort it has caused to tenants and end customers. Hence the movement started to improve the predictability of the asset operations. With IoT and smart communication technologies, it becomes easier to monitor every critical piece of equipment in the facility such as HVAC, elevators & lifts.          

    Then came the era of cloud computing and analytics making data processing even faster and cost-efficiency. Software as a service model changes the way facility management applications were sold and consumed in commercial real estate space. Mobile technologies came up as the icing on the cake. However, in this whole journey, there were a lot of technology trends, misconceptions, and biases that came in and affected the decision-making abilities of the facility manager, portfolio head, and property owners resulting in ad-hoc decisions of investigation in building technologies.  

    According to Andy Daecher, Deloitte’s report “asset performance management (APM) can do more than improve maintenance. By connecting systems across an enterprise, it can deliver insights to optimize operations, safety, and drive financial results”

    This really broadens up our understanding of Asset performance management and relates it with other functions of FM (useful while coming up with ROI calculations) Deloitte’s report also noticed that ‘many firms still see APM as simply an advanced maintenance management system, leading to many siloed APM programs, both in insights derived and benefits delivered’ 

    Aveva, a leading technology company shares a similar view on APM ‘True digital transformation requires upgrading APM from an asset-oriented approach to a system that holistically connects Engineering, Operations, and Performance. That’s APM 4.0’

    It also emphasis on the process, people and system while building an APM strategy which can be elaborated in the following steps. 

    • Establish APM framework including Process, People, Systems, Data and Culture
    • Review current state and set industry benchmarks to create goals
    • Create a customized plan that prioritizes business goals
    • Align plan to digital transformation business case (ROI) 
    • Align asset strategy by balancing cost, risk, and performance
    • Add task insights to an asset data model and continue to refine your plan

    Based on the discussions we have had with technology providers and CTOs form top FM firms we can say that an ideal APM strategy combines Information technology (IT) and operations technology (OT) to provide maintenance teams access to the data lake to create maintenance strategies, ways to move from planned preventive maintenance to a predictive one. While teams can advance in forecasting maintenance timing they can also look into life cycle assessment. 

    SAP’s intelligent asset performance management strategy does exactly the same. It believes in managing asset performance across asset life cycles to consistently monitor, review, and improve. SAP uses a six-step continuous process for asset strategy: Define, Identify, Analyze, Recommend, Implement and Verify. Which is an extensive mechanism to track every step from fault detection to corrective action.  

    In one of our Discussions with Derren Mccredaie, head of estates, Sodexo healthcare, mentioned that ‘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.’ 

    Of course, energy management and life cycle monitoring is something that has to be there to identify and reduce the losses.

    Once your team finalizes what they want to drive from a Holistic APM strategy, the next question comes up as to how to select the right vendor for the same? Well in one of our earlier articles we have described how to plan for APM trials that cover setting a hypothesis, selecting an ideal site, and choosing the right vendor/s for the trial.  

    We hope this article has given you a clear understanding of a holistic Asset performance maintenance strategy that you can use to improve operational efficiency at your facility. 

  • Mobile Engineering services: Crucial support system to keep FM teams leaner

    Mobile Engineering services: Crucial support system to keep FM teams leaner

    How much time does your core O&M team spend on analyzing data from your critical assets? Or Implementing new applications/ Practices? Or even planning for new energy benchmarking methodology? 

    In short out of all the time and resources that are there at their disposal, how much of it gets spent on transformational activities, that involve strategic decision-making and implementing new initiatives rather than simply transactional ones such as mundane monitoring and reactive maintenance tasks.

    If an O&M team consists of a number of technicians and operators then the repetitive tasks, as well as strategic ones, can be managed internally. Work can be assigned based on the skills, experience and capabilities of the engineer.  

    But in recent times, Most of the FM teams are striving for leaner structures to maintain the low operational cost model and lesser dependencies. They can not afford to expand their maintenance teams or allocate their quality resources to do fail-check monitoring of less critical assets. Even existing O&M teams are upskilling or reskilling their staff, rotating subject matter experts (SME) across their facility portfolio. In such situations, they would need to explore ways to outsource less critical parts of the maintenance so that the core team can focus on transformational activities and drive digitalization faster and in a cost-effective manner. 

    Well, such a concept of mobile engineering contracts are not new to the facility management fraternity but it is paving its way to mainstream maintenance practices. Integral, a UK-based FM service provider company has first started such services under the term ‘Mobile engineering’ in early 2012. After getting acquired by JLL global, it has expanded its network and started leveraging JLL’s in-house tech applications to strengthen its remote engineering services.

    Currently, Integral’s mobile engineering team provides on-demand mechanical, electrical maintenance services which are built on the parent company – JLL’s Corrigo CMMS platform and utilizing a smartphone app or desktop portal, On-demand services can be delivered by the mobile engineering workforce nationwide in the UK. 

    What makes On-demand services such a lucrative option?

    Such on-demand services let the client (A facility management firm) control their maintenance tasks and expenditure, with flexible access to quality engineers on a pay-as-you-go model. 

    1. Access to trained professionals: 

    FM teams wouldn’t need to invest in recruiting, training, or maintaining a diverse set of technically skilled professionals at every facility. They can easily access trained technicians or engineers on a limited contract basis when needed.   

    1. Lean teams:

    As there is no excessive staff on a permanent basis, an FM team can better utilize its core resources by segregating critical and non-critical maintenance activities and achieve operational targets with minimum expenditure on human resources. According to the US dept of energy a typical building maintenance team spend 30 – 40% of their resources on reactive maintenance practices. With on-demand services, they can access technicians when needed and let the core team focus on critical tasks. 

    While it is highly cost-efficient for a client to access such on-demand services for reactive or run to failure maintenance (RTF) it is equally beneficial to the service provider. 

    It has been observed that most of these on-demand services leverage their own or partner’s tech solution to gather operational insights while silently promoting their other products, ultimately creating opportunities for upselling.

    An on-demand mobile engineering partner can take away the boring and less creative part of the maintenance, giving an FM team the opportunity to truly invest in their in-house maintenance team which is specifically relevant for mid-large size FM teams. 

    How likely your FM team would go for such on-demand services in the future? Is your company using a real-time monitoring software? If you are already using mobile engineering services then share your experience with us. 

  • Takeaways from EY’s report on technology adoption and implementation in CRE space

    Takeaways from EY’s report on technology adoption and implementation in CRE space

    We have always been reinforcing a fact that an ad-hoc technology investment particularly on O&M wouldn’t solve the strategic problems. In fact, it will only create the next one. A long-term strategy that aligns O&M’s tech stack with the company’s broader digital transformation goals will have to set in place.

    Recently, EY came up with a survey report in collaboration with CRETech, the survey is about the leading decision-makers in Commercial real estate space including technology providers to facility management firms.

    Interestingly, the survey report focus on two critical aspects – Disconnect between the technology provider and a real estate owner and between an owner and a tenant, mind that this is how any CRE technology has to navigate to reach the end-users or facility occupants. Naturally, it has to go through multiple tests in between its ideation to final employment.   

    Automation to leveraging data

    Tech Implementation can be divided into small parts of the transformational journey, which can touch upon cultural, behavioral and capacity building aspects of the firm. Forward-thinking facility management firms have realized that they need to automate certain processes to eliminate manual errors and provide a seamless experience to tenants, hence there come smart visitor management, workspace management applications.

    According to the survey, 69% of respondents are ging high priority to Technology as a strategic agenda for the future, while 61% of them have already adopted one or more technology tools (although the adopted tools are in an early stage of their development)

    These facility management firms also need to leverage their internal and external data (asset to work orders, financial to sustainability-related) to make better investment and operating decisions. Explore new revenue streams to diversify their business. This is particularly true when other tech giants are already making moves in the smart building management industry.

    Reasons for the low adoption rate?

    Things have been working out well for property owners as well as facility management firms as there were no external or survival pressure to reduce operations cost or maintain sustainability standers as they are experiencing now. 

    The report also pointed out various reasons why the tech adoption is limited to management and system automation tools and marching slowly. Cost and ROI are still the main drivers for any system implementation. 

    Second, comes the required skillsets to work with such tools, both technical and change management. 53% of the survey respondents recognize that they do not have the required tech talent. 

    Applications need to find out ways to make Operations and maintenance staff feel secure and comfortable around them. 

    Three approaches to long term tech strategy

    The report also builds upon the survey responses to come up with strategies to increase the rate of successful tech implementation. I know you might recall one of our popular blog series on planning and implementing asset performance analytics trials which share similar strategic suggestions.  

    1. Develop a technology strategy:

    “We had lots of false starts before we finally got onto the right path of implementing technology the right way in our business,” said an Australian REIT.

    A facility management firm’s technology strategy must align its tech architecture with the digital transformation strategy. The ideal strategy should also focus on Improving integration, interoperability and interdependency among various business processes. And most importantly should provide flexibility for the faster rollout of new technology. It shouldn’t take a long time to decide on risk/benefits equations while testing new applications to optimize asset performance management.

    2. Build Tech Implementation strategy:

    According to the survey, 58% of respondents say new systems do not integrate easily with their existing tech architecture. Pointing out the need to change their IT or business process to implement new technology.

    It’s a known fact that the smart building management industry lacks fully integrated horizontal and vertically developed solutions that perform asset management to workflow automation to workspace management tasks on a single platform. It’s both a good and a bad thing as it provided endless customization choices to the end users it also increases integration complexities.  

    Well planned implementation strategy can help FM teams test out new tools periodically and set up high evaluation standards.

    3. Develop a sourcing plan:

    Building a required solution or buying from a tech vendor can be a difficult decision, for trial purposes this shouldn’t be a big concern but for scaling it to multiple sites then the decision should be based on certain factors. It could be a strategic or functional move to source it from 3rd part so accordingly cost and ROI should be evaluated.   We have elaborated this decision-making process in one of our earlier blogs Build vs buy – where to start? 

    The report also highlighted the change that now technology providers and real estate owners working together to create products that have the potential to be commercialized. There are multiple startup incubators run by FM firms such as CBRE India’s Proptech challenge, Aldar properties (UAE) scale-up program, or JLL’s IDEAs initiative. These programs evaluate and co-develop GTM ready software products/IP solutions.

    Besides these three strategies change and transformation management is also difficult areas many FM firms need to work upon. Attracting and Upskilling the existing talent pool should be a priority as firms are facing a scarcity of quality talent from mid to top-level management. 

    So which of these strategies are most relevant to your team? Let us know your experience with adopting aa new tech applications. 

  • Indoor Air Quality: The Key Factor on Maintenance Schedule list in the workplace post-pandemic

    Indoor Air Quality: The Key Factor on Maintenance Schedule list in the workplace post-pandemic

    Recently the US EPA  (environmental protection agency) has updated the IAQ standards across commercial buildings and offices and highlighted the 3 important strategies to reduce the risk of spreading coronavirus.

    1. Source control: That is to prevent pollutions to enter the office premise by strict inspection and monitoring of individuals, incoming air inlets, goods and material supply. This is by far one of the easiest and cost-effective methods to safeguard facilities.   
    2. Better Ventilation: Improving the ratio of fresh air/indoor air circulation in the facility. Also identifying and redesigning the AHU network for hot zones where colling and air circulation is not effective enough. 
    3. Installing air cleaners: This can improve the filtration of pollutants and stop them from further circulation. 

    Ensuring the safety of the tenant is definitely one of the essential tasks for facility management teams; however, that shouldn’t become an excuse to neglect the energy efficiency or create a diversion from the energy intensity reduction targets.   

    Improving ventilation or installing high-quality air filters can significantly increase energy consumption but it can be controlled and monitored with the help of the right building automation solutions. According to verdantix report Global Corporate Survey 2020, There are multiple air quality sensors, automation hardware and Air quality analytics application are getting launched in the market with that devising the right strategy to control and monitor the indoor air quality is getting important. 

    What to track? 

    According to WELL Building Standards, carbon dioxide (CO2) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are two primary indicators of good indoor air quality. Besides improving work productivity and hygiene it’s also important to keep a check on both the indicators to improve the energy efficiency of the building. Therefore air quality monitoring is gaining traction nowadays.

    How to track?

    Among the must-have list of sensors, most of the smart building infrastructure already follows Temperature, humidity, occupancy and ambient light sensors. They provide basic data on HVAC controlling and other operations and mostly integrated with the Building management system. 

    There are few guidelines on designing a PCB to mount these sensors for optimum performance. Such as designing a PCB in such a way that it can take the temperature profile of the room and not the board or mounting structure. An ambient light sensor on the ceiling height will experience a different level of light to a person at a desk, so it is important to measure and adjust the lux levels during setup.

    Tracking the CO2 and VOCs are a bit more difficult than the other type of sensors however three are two sensor technologies that are capable of picking up CO2. 1) Non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) technique. Which absorbs a particular wavelength of light and calculates the level of CO2 in it. 2) eCO2 sensor, This is a metal oxide (MOX) sensor and uses the principle that CO2 and VOCs exist together at a constant ratio inside typical buildings. It is an indirect measurement technique but is still valid for many applications.

    Crosslink with other parameters

    These sensor data can be clubbed with the occupancy and asset operations to control the CO2 levels and find out loopholes in the systems. The data collected by these smart detectors can then be used to adjust outside airflow in real-time for a more efficient operation. 

    There are other technologies that can be considered on a trial basis such as Ultraviolet C (UVC) lighting, which is used for the disinfection of surfaces and spaces or humidification control for maintaining indoor humidity levels.

    Having all the right sensors data is not sufficient but the complementary analytics solutions to correlate it with the building changes is also equally important. The facility management team should thrive to explore such building analytics software and make them as a part of their service delivery model.

    when IAQ is your priority, how are you strategizing to improvise it along with aligning to performance contracts?

  • Chatbot – The Digital Assistant: Is it a New or revised chapter for O&M teams in Facility management?

    Chatbot – The Digital Assistant: Is it a New or revised chapter for O&M teams in Facility management?

    What is the first point of contact you establish when you visit a new website? Specifically when you have little time to spend and get the job done – Contact form? Or the tiny pop-up that comes out as a chatbot? It’s obvious to go on chatbot as it’s a quick and convenient way to ask for any query related to the product or services. This is just one use case for a consumer-facing, that is used to improve the conversion rate.

    Chatbots are widely used across industries like fintech, healthcare, Edutech, and even law and they’re gaining importance as they are being used for multiple purposes. They are powered by advanced natural language processing (NLP) and artificial intelligence (AI) technology to simplify communication and provide what’s needed to the user. The Covid-19 pandemic has also turned a spotlight onto this technology, with many chatbots proving invaluable for handling a surge of consumer inquiries and concerns.

    For a facility management industry, the Chatbot revolution is coming via mobile applications and that is not just limited to tenants or consumers but also backend operators Operations and maintenance teams. Hence in this article, we are going to talk about progress chatbots are making to simplify O&M team’s work and helping them in asset performance management.

    Chatbot Over Mobile apps

    In our last article on mobile technologies for FM, we highlighted how far mobile applications have come to improve inter-team efficiency and reduce the dependability of dashboards. While mobile apps provide filtered and specific information to the operator chatbot can further narrow it down and deliver on-demand insights. 

    For example, if a technician wants to scan through a detailed maintenance history of a particular chiller he either open his mobile CMMS or asset maintenance application, selects the asset, and checks the historical data. Instead, he can just scan the QR code assigned to the chiller and ask a chatbot for the specific data. Of course that, the chatbot should be linked to the asset knowledge base so that it can fetch the raw data and provide it to the technician.   

    Well, there is a psychological angle too, chatbot feels more human than the apps so for the workforce who are resistant to change their working style too often a transition to chatbot seems easier than the mobile application. NLP-powered chatbots use the understanding of sentence structure, idioms to determine user intent and respond accordingly.

    Understanding Context and complex data      

    When chatbots are integrated with the knowledge base of asset performance management applications they can offer first-level support by providing basic analysis. Chatbots are best at dealing with structured yet limited information. For example, the user can ask for the time series or regression analysis of the selected parameter and then share the graph or report with his colleague or supervisor. 

    Auto mode for repetitive tasks 

    Out of multiple tasks, there are few tasks an operator has to do repetitively on a daily basis for example checking the threshold values, changing manual setpoints, etc which can a boring and irritating activity. A chatbot can monitor the repetitive requests and automate the loop to provide instant alerts on the setpoints. It can identify a user’s daily analysis pattern and make those insights available to him on time.         

    Communicate insights to team members

    Mobile applications are great for inter-team communication but they come with limited ‘editing’ features. Consider a scenario where a chief engineer finds out an anomalous behavior of the AHU and wants his field technician to do a physical check and look for the past maintenance data. Now he can either call his technician or text him on the app but he is not able to show him what he has seen unless he takes a screenshot of the graph, annotates his views and shares it with him. Personalized chatbot and register vendor, user based on his login key and then customize UX accordingly.  

    A chatbot can combine the features of a smart editor and the efficiency of the CMMS or asset management application without the need of installing separate applications on mobile. 

    Chatbots can be deployed over multiple options – in-app, designated URL or a chrome extension which can be assessed over mobile and desktop at the same time. Since chatbots are basically server-side apps with a simple user interface, they are easier and faster to deploy in comparison with mobile applications.

    What do you think, would your O&M team reap the benefits out of a chatbot? Are you planning to build one or interested to explore more?  Well, Xempla’s has a surprise feature update for you. Join us for the Product Wednesday on 24th Feb where we are going to demonstrate our new product feature related to the chatbot for facility management O&M teams. 

  • Advance Mobile technologies: Maintaining building operation in the new normal

    Advance Mobile technologies: Maintaining building operation in the new normal

    We saw the rise of mobile technologies along with the new age cloud-based CAFM and CMMS. It started with the work order management applications which later expanded to inter-team communication, inventory and asset management. But if we want to pinpoint the era when it really exploded for multiple usages and become the mainstream medium then it has to be in the lock down or the pandemic time.

    Mobile applications are intended to allow maintenance professionals to move seamlessly between their desktop to smartphones, tablets, to other mobile devices.

    In this article, we will talk about the ups and downs mobile technologies have gone through to become the most preferred choice among the facility management teams and the efforts of some of the leading Facility Management providers to make it accessible to their clients.  

    Challenges overcome by mobile technologies:

    Initially, moving from paper-based maintenance scheduling to spreadsheets was a challenge for most of the facility management teams. The kind of work they have been doing for ages will have to move on to an in-house desktop-based application which was a massive task for change management. 

    Although the decision had a lot of benefits, it has to be communicated well to the ground level teams, then mid to large size Facility Management firms, the shift was relatively easier as the age and skill sets of the workforce management were more relevant to accept the change than the unorganized and small scale Facility Management firms. 

    Those property management teams who started with the cloud based CMMS in the first place had a different set of challenges in front of them to move towards mobile-based applications. In fact, the challenge was two-folded: A) lack of adaptability B) Connectivity or Wi-Fi issues.

    Adaptability:

    Heather Wilkinson from Mapcon technologies, shared his view on the adoption of mobile technologies, “Operations engineers were resistant to change. If a plant has used a desktop version of CMMS software for years, many workers aren’t pleased about learning how to use it on a mobile device”  this was particularly true with the elderly staff. 

    In one of our earlier blog post “New leadership strategy by Facility Management O&M teams” we have talked about synergies between FM applications and operations staff ideal application should not intimidate the operator rather leverage his skills and highlight the progress, make him feel comfortable working with it, and maintain the transparencies.

    Connectivity:

    Although the assets are well connected in a facility through wired communication channels, slow connection or WI-FI dead zones are still the issues facilities in tier 2, tier 3 cities are facing. Since most of the asset locations are either underground floors or in remote facility locations they create dead zones where there can be little or no Internet connection. For a mobile app or CMMS portal, maintenance-related data may get delayed to display or an operator may find it harder to input/save the data. 

    But there is a solution too, a responsive native mobile app can store your data in case you lose the connectivity and provide real-time data as long as your connection works. This solves any connectivity and data storage-related issues. 

    QR code: taking labeling to the next level

    By now looking at primary challenges and finding appropriate solutions, Building a mobile app considering the persona of an operator and making him part of the solution is the prerequisite for successful deployment. Then came the features that add on to the existing application, QR codes and bar code technology for asset tagging came up with multiple use cases. A simple QR scan can show the operator the live status of the asset, can create the work order instantly and schedule the maintenance when required.

    Now as the operations staff is a lot more familiar with the mobile technologies technology vendor or FM teams can build on his comfort levels and introduce workflow management, workplace optimization application or sustainable building management solution the further help him stay connected with the critical asset all the time and focus on insights that matter to him.   


    Well if you are interested to explore how QR codes can maximize your O&M team’s efforts then you might want to join us for our Product Wednesday’s webinar which is going around Xempla’s new QR code related product feature. 

  • Commercial Property and Building owners Expecting High Performance-as-a-service from the FM teams

    Commercial Property and Building owners Expecting High Performance-as-a-service from the FM teams

    Do you remember, what was the first subscription-based software you purchased to manage operations at your facility? It might be a CAFM or CMMS application, and how was your experience with it? I bet it must be great! After all, there was a tectonic shift from traditional license-based desktop software to a subscription-based cloud application. 

    It gave you accessibility to manage assets from anywhere, reduced the burden of in-house IT teams, and also, there was low CAPEX-m involved. Well, That’s the revolution Software-as-a-service has brought to the facility management sector in CRE. Now there are multiple SaaS applications available, starting from space management, logistics to workflow.

    If we look at the healthcare, retail, or E-Commerce sector SaaS (anything-as-a-service) has already penetrated and explored various service delivery mechanisms, and more importantly, customers are driving the growth of such offerings.

    For example, retail clients who have used efficiency-as-a-service have paid for the performance, a financial service mechanism that allows customers to implement energy and water efficiency projects with no upfront capital expenditure. In fact, it has been used in many utility companies that are working closely with industrial consumers.         

    XaaS finding ways in CRE

    Then there are other offerings too such as space as a service (SaaS) and lighting as service (LaaS) which have sneaked into the commercial real estate sector and received a warm welcome.   

    It’s not a surprise that most of the facility management companies are running on paper-thin margins today. They are looking for ways to cut down their operating expenses and find ways to cross-sell or upsell their services to clients – property owners who have already faced the wrath of lockdown and subsequent low occupancy rates.  

    In this situation, neither the property owner nor facility management teams can afford to spend a handsome amount on revamping technology or digitalization drive even if it’s needed now but, there is a way out. 

    Performance-as-a-service

    In a typical facility management contract, there has to be the precise scope for facilities management services to be performed by the service provider along with the relevant Key Performance Indicators (or KPIs) which the service provider is required to achieve.

    As most of the contracts are either unit pricing or lump-sum contracts, winning facility management companies bid on the low prices and commit to delivering certain services. A major drawback in such contracts is the saving potential of the facility or assets often remain underutilized as there is no incentive on it. While performance-based contracts are more focused on creating value with limited resources. They are meant to monitor the operation of the facilities against set targets and identifying opportunities for improvement. If a service provider is able to save on energy or resource consumption then he can enjoy the shared profit.  

    Now imagine an offering where a service provider signs a contract for managing Operations and maintenance of the facility and utilize existing infrastructure and their own analytics solution to leverage existing data to deliver insights on energy management, maintenance, or asset life cycle?


    Please note that the FM team needs to showcase the tangible savings or predefined clarity on operations and as they gain the confidence of the client, they move on with a broader plan covering the remaining data infrastructure and investment from the client.

    This way facility management teams can get to work on their digital and technical capabilities while earning brownie points on savings. It would be a win-win situation for both parties.  

    Despite technology being the driver of the new service model, it’s a strategic decision and not a technical one property owners may not explicitly come with such a plan but the facility management companies need to take the first step. They need to identify the opportunity to collaborate with technical service providers and build on their digital application portfolio backing their hard services. 

    So as a facility management team, how soon would you introduce your performance as a service model? Can building analytics software provide a solution?